Reuters: U.S. Justice Department says inmates sent home due to COVID-19 will not be returned to prison
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday announced it would not force federal inmates who were sent home due to the coronavirus pandemic to return to prison once the emergency is lifted.
The decision represents a major reversal for the department's Office of Legal Counsel, which previously had issued an opinion that said the Bureau of Prisons had no legal authority to keep inmates at home once the pandemic emergency had subsided.
It also marks a victory for criminal justice advocacy groups who have fiercely lobbied the department and the White House to take steps to ensure that law-abiding, low-level inmates would not be forced back into prison.
…
Dozens of advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Justice Action Network and FAMM - a group that opposes mandatory minimum sentences - have urged the Justice Department to overturn that opinion.
They have also pressed the White House to use its clemency powers to commute the sentences of those who were sent home.