Published on: Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Today, Sentencing Resource Counsel (SRC) for the Federal Public Community Defenders issued a new fact sheet titled The COVID-19 Crisis in Federal Detention (12/1/2020). Here are some highlights:
- In the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the disease is infecting incarcerated individuals at a rate at least 4.77 times the general population.
- Public health experts agree that interventions such as widespread testing, PPE, hygiene and cleanliness, and responsible release of high-risk patients could help stop the disease from spreading.
- Allowing the disease to rage unchecked in prisons is a far greater threat to public safety than lowering prison populations.
- There have now been 157 reported deaths of individuals incarcerated in BOP, a devastating loss.
- At least 25 individuals died in BOP custody after filing--and in some cases, even after being granted--requests for release.
- The United States is not fulfilling its duty to maintain safe, secure, and humane detention facilities. Courts across the country have recognized that BOP undertreats or ignores COVID-related symptoms, despite CDC findings that COVID-19 can "result in prolonged illness even among persons with milder . . . illness."
- BOP and AG Barr have barely used the tools Congress gave them to safely lower prison populations.
- "Nobody should be forced to risk deadly exposure to COVID-19 while awaiting trial," but across the country, conditions of pretrial confinement are harsh, restrictive, and sometimes deadly.
- USMS's failures are consistent with a history of indifference to prison conditions and resistance to oversight.
The Training Division regulaly updates information on COVID-19 on fd.org. This page contains important resources concerning the COVID-19, including: (1) Courts Orders and procedures; (2) motions and pleadings; (3) links to other resources.