Barr Instructs BOP to Move Non-Violent Inmates to Home Confinement to Avoid Contracting COVID-19

Attorney General William Barr says nonviolent inmates who are at risk of contracting the coronavirus should be moved out of prison facilities. They must be allowed to serve out their sentences in home confinement.

“Many inmates will be safer in BOP (Bureau of Prisons) facilities where the population is controlled and there is ready access to doctors and medical care,” Barr wrote in a two-page memo to the BOP. “But for some eligible inmates, home confinement might be more effective in protecting their health.”

ABC News reported that in a press conference at the Justice Department, which was conducted via teleconference, “Barr said that of the 146,000 inmates currently serving time in federal prison facilities, one third are believed to have pre-existing medical conditions and roughly 10,000 are over the age of 60 years old.”

“You want to make sure that our institutions don't become petri dishes and it spreads rapidly through a particular institution,” Barr said. “But we have the protocols that are designed to stop it and we are using all the tools we have to protect the inmates.”

Barr instructed the bureau to prioritize home confinement for prisoners in low- and minimum-security facilities as they are not a safety threat to the community. Inmates who have committed violent crimes or sexual offenses are not eligible for home confinement, said Fox News.

Fox News reported that the BOP medical doctor was told to assess an inmate’s risk factor in contracting COVID-19. This includes their exposures at the prison facility, their health history, and age. Those who are granted home confinement must be quarantined for 14 days before they are discharged from the prison.

“We cannot take any risk of transferring inmates to home confinement that will contribute to the spread of COVID-19,” Barr wrote.