June 23, 2020–In a time of national crisis, Due Process Institute is grateful for the work of Senators Durbin and Grassley for introducing the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act, which will address some of the many issues facing older and sick populations in prison during this deadly virus.
The bill does a number of important things: it expands the eligibility for the existing home detention program to include nonviolent offenders who have served half their sentence as well as older nonviolent people incarcerated in federal prisons for offenses committed in Washington, D.C. The bill ensures that federal “old law prisoners” (those sentenced before 11/1/87 when federal parole still existed) are eligible to benefit from compassionate release reforms passed in the First Step Act. It includes a “fix” to the issue of how to calculate “good time credit” in order to qualify for relief passed under the First Step Act. It also ensures judicial review for home detention eligibility decisions. The bill would explicitly establish that COVID-19 vulnerability during a pandemic serves as a basis for compassionate release and it lessens the waiting period for such release decisions from 30 to 10 days.
Our bipartisan team has been working hard on securing these reforms—some since passage of the First Step Act and others since the pandemic hit our shores. Does it address every over-incarceration issue? No. Does it help everyone who needs help? No. But we endorse this legislation and express gratitude to these Senators for working together to try to ease some of the suffering that is occurring behind the walls.
Since the onset of the deadly virus in March of this year, only 500 federal inmates have been granted compassionate release from incarceration based on their age or health vulnerability to Covid-19. The vast majority of those were released by courts who did so over the objections of DOJ and BOP. The reforms in this bill, if passed, will ensure that many more people suffering will have a chance to be released. #BipartisanWorks