U.S. prisons' virus-related release policies prompt confusion
Federal prison officials appear confused about how to implement directives to step up early releases of inmates to combat the coronavirus epidemic, according to family members of convicts.
One particular source of uncertainty and even danger, the families say, are policies about whether inmates being considered for release must be held in quarantine for 14 days before being sent home—a safeguard aimed at making sure infection isn’t transmitted into the community.
In some instances, inmates being quarantined on that basis are housed near prisoners being isolated because they’re suspected of having the virus, family members said.
Wives of inmates at a medium-security federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland told POLITICO the facility is using its special housing unit or “SHU” to hold both categories of prisoners.
“They’re quarantining these healthy inmates with sick inmates that are already down there,” said Angela Sanks, whose husband, Collie, was due out in 2022 and was taken to the SHU for potential release several days ago
“It’s crazy how they’re doing this,” she said. “It’s like they’re just waiting to get this….They’re at risk of being forgotten about. They didn’t get a death sentence.”
Another spouse, Jeannie Canini, said her husband Ruben was hoping for an early release when he was sent to the Cumberland SHU last week over an alleged disciplinary violation. She later found out suspected COVID-19 cases are kept in that unit.
“I’m pretty sure that is not the correct protocol for quarantine,” she said. “I’m not just thinking about him, but all of them....Where is the common sense? Where is the humanity? Do not put anyone who is sick anywhere near any healthy individuals. It’s just common sense.”
The Cumberland prison’s SHU has a design capacity of 144 inmates, according to an oversight report issued in 2017. The prison had 1,027 inmates, according to a recent tally, about 58% over its intended capacity.
So far, only one confirmed Covid-19 infection has been reported among Cumberland inmates, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
The spouse of an inmate at one of the hardest-hit federal prisons, in Elkton, Ohio, described a puzzling transfer of prisoners into pre-release quarantine and then out again.
Tammy Hartman said her husband Pete, who’s due out of prison in August of next year, was one of 56 inmates whose names were called on Saturday to report for quarantine so they could be sent on home confinement.
“They were all told: you’re going home,” she said. But on Wednesday, 54 of the men were sent back to their cells. “They told them, sorry, you’re not going anywhere, because they’d approved only two of them to leave.”
“I actually thought he was coming home,” Hartman said of her 59-year-old husband who — like other prisoners mentioned in this story — is serving time on drug charges. “I canceled all his subscriptions to magazines because I thought he’d be home in 14 days… I’m trying to hold it together.”
So far, 283 inmate infections and eight deaths have been reported in federal prisons nationwide. The Elkton prison has 10 confirmed infections and three inmate deaths from the virus, according to official statistics. Guards' union officials and inmate advocates say the numbers of infections are actually higher.
The prison was one of three Attorney General Bill Barr specifically prioritized for releases last week, citing the severity of the outbreak there.
A Bureau of Prisons spokesman did not address specifics about steps to segregate symptomatic or exposed prisoners from those set for release, but said facilities are following standards set by the Centers for Disease Control.
“All of the BOP's institutions have been directed to designate available space for isolation and quarantine for inmates who have been exposed to or have symptoms of COVID-19. The BOP follows all CDC guidelines with regard to isolation and quarantining,” spokesman Justin Long said.
Despite the Trump administration’s usual tough-on-crime stance, Attorney General William Barr has issued a series of directives in recent weeks encouraging releases to home confinement as a means of reducing crowding at federal prisons and protecting inmates most at-risk for serious illness or death from the virus.
The first memo Barr issued on the subject two weeks ago stated that all prisoners being considered for release had to be placed in a “mandatory 14-day quarantine before” being sent to home confinement.
A new memo from Barr last week relaxed that rule, giving prison officials permission to release inmates before the 14-day period is up “in appropriate cases subject to your case-by-case discretion.” That directive called for such inmates to observe a similar quarantine in their residence.
Last week’s memo also used a power granted Barr in the last stimulus bill to release a broader swath of prisoners by declaring “emergency conditions” related to the virus. That order may also have slowed releases from less-impacted prisons by prioritizing the ones with the most serious outbreaks.
As of Thursday, the Bureau of Prisons has moved 789 inmates to home confinement since Barr first publicly called to increase those moves on March 26, according to statistics from the agency. That number has risen by more than 200 this week, the figures show.
Some prisoners are also being sent home under a separate “compassionate release” authority typically used for cases of severe or terminal illness. There have been 180 such releases in the past year and a half or so, but the BOP could not immediately say how many have taken place since the coronavirus pandemic broke out.
Federal prosecutors are also being inundated with lawsuits, habeas corpus petitions and re-sentencing requests aimed at freeing prisoners based on dangers caused by the virus. Prosecutors are vigorously fighting efforts to free prisoners en masse, but are sometimes acquiescing in releases when motions are brought to individual judges who handled the relevant criminal case.
One prisoner serving time on a gun charge, but due for release later this month, Hassan Chunn, was part of a group habeas corpus petition filed March 27 by federal defenders in Brooklyn aimed at freeing at-risk prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center there.
Prosecutors initially opposed the legal effort and said inmates needed to pursue all available options for release first through the prison system. Government lawyers also said the Bureau of Prisons was struggling with a deluge of such requests.
After lawyers for the prisoners shifted to the individual judges who handled the cases and asked for “compassionate release,” prosecutors showed more flexibility, withdrawing their insistence that Chunn wait for the BOP to decide.
They said they were dropping that stance because “the BOP will not be able to issue a final decision prior to the expiration of Chunn’s sentence, and given the extremely unique circumstances of this particular case – which include Chunn’s medical conditions and history and the fact that he has only 10 days left on his sentence.”
Prosecutors never actually agreed to Chunn’s release, but simply said they were no longer objecting and left the issue up to the court.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Cogan ordered Chunn’s immediate release on Wednesday. He specifically said Chunn “need not spend 14 days in quarantine at MDC [but] shall not leave his home for any reason other than medical emergency.”
The reported numbers of infected federal prisoners could be lagging the reality due to very limited testing. No overall number of tests has been reported but a judge in New York has ordered officials there to report twice a week on tests of inmates at the federal detention centers in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
As of Thursday, the Manhattan federal jail recorded six inmates tested — including five positive tests — out of about 700, with 12 staff infected. The Brooklyn facility said 11 prisoners were tested, with three found infected, out of about 1700, with nine staff testing positive.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Tammy Hartman's name.
