BIPARTISAN BILL INTRODUCED BY SENATORS GRASSLEY AND DURBIN WOULD HELP PROTECT ELDERLY/TERMINALLY ILL PRISONERS FROM COVID THREAT
Justice Action Network Calls on Legislators of Both Parties to Support COVID-19 Safer Detention Act
Legislation Would Expand, Clarify Eligibility for Home Detention and Compassionate Release for People Who Do Not Pose Risk to Public Safety
(Washington, DC) – Today, Holly Harris, President and Executive Director of Justice Action Network, the country’s largest organization dedicated to advancing bipartisan criminal justice reform at the federal and state levels, released the following statement in support of bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) that would expand and clarify the Elderly Home Detention Pilot Program and compassionate release:
“As COVID-19 runs rampant through federal facilities, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has done everything in its power to block the transfer or release of elderly and terminally ill prisoners who pose no threat to public safety, and the results have been deadly.
We are grateful to our stalwarts, Senators Grassley and Durbin, for their continued work across the aisle to do what the BOP refuses to do—protect sick and elderly incarcerated people from COVID-19.
As they did with the landmark First Step Act, Sens. Grassley and Durbin are once again showing that there is bipartisan support for commonsense, compassionate criminal justice reform.
We encourage lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to follow their lead and support this critically-needed legislation. If Congress does not act now, thousands more people may fall victim to this deadly disease, risking the lives of other prisoners, correctional officers and entire surrounding communities.
The COVID-19 Safer Detention Act:
Clarifies that the percentage of time served required for the Elderly Home Detention Pilot Program should be calculated based on a person’s sentence, including reductions for good time credits;
Expands the eligibility criteria for the Elderly Home Detention Pilot Program to include nonviolent offenders who have served at least 50 percent of their term of imprisonment;
Clarifies that elderly nonviolent D.C. Code offenders in BOP custody are eligible for the Elderly Home Detention Pilot Program and that federal prisoners sentenced before November 1, 1987 are eligible for compassionate release.
Subjects elderly home detention eligibility decisions to judicial review (based on the First Step Act’s compassionate release provision); and
Provides that, during the period of the pandemic, COVID-19 vulnerability is a basis for compassionate release and shortening the period prisoners must wait for judicial review for elderly home detention and compassionate release from 30 to 10 days.
This legislation has earned broad, bipartisan support, with endorsements from Aleph, Americans for Tax Reform and Digital Liberty, Drug Policy Alliance, Due Process Institute, FAMM, Federal Public and Community Defenders, FreedomWorks, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), Right on Crime, Sentencing Project, Taking Action for Good, Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), and Tzedek Association.
A section-by-section of the legislation is available here.
Bill text is available here.