STATEMENT FROM JUSTICE ACTION NETWORK’S HOLLY HARRIS ON BOP OVERSIGHT HEARING
“In today’s Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, the powerhouse bipartisan duo of Sens. Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley round-kicked the DOJ for failing to ensure the thousands of people moved safely to home confinement during the pandemic can continue to serve out their sentences at home. As both these leaders indicated, forcing these individuals back to prison would be cruel to their families and incredibly expensive to taxpayers. With this bipartisan agreement, it is confounding that President Biden and AG Garland have yet to rescind the ‘legal memo’ that would send all these people back to prison or use their executive and administrative authority to keep these men and women at home. Leaving thousands of people in constant fear of returning to prison is unconscionable, especially when so many have turned their lives around, found jobs, and reconnected with their families. Both President Biden and AG Garland have the authority to prevent this tragedy and it’s long past time for one of them to act.
“As always, we are grateful to Sens. Durbin and Grassley, as well as their colleagues, who put partisanship aside and work in the best interests of the American people. We need more like them.”
THE BACKGROUND…
Last March, the Bureau of Prisons deemed thousands of men and women safe to re-enter public society, and many of them have now returned home to their families, found employment, and pursued continuing education. They were not told they would have to return to prison. Of the more than 23,000 people transferred to home confinement since March 2020, just three have committed a new crime. Yet, unless the Biden administration acts quickly, as many as 7,399 of them will be torn from their communities and sent back to prison after a lawyer at the Office of Legal Counsel issued a memo requiring the Bureau of Prisons to recall them to prison once the COVID-19 emergency declaration is lifted.
WHILE YOU WERE LOOKING THE OTHER WAY…
Justice Action Network sent a letter to Chairman Richard Durbin and Senator Charles Grassley ahead of tomorrow’s Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, drawing attention to this critical issue and the spread of COVID-19 in prisons.
A bipartisan group of more than two dozen members of Congress wrote to President Biden, urging him to reverse this memo or use his executive authority to prevent the reincarceration of thousands of people safely finishing their sentences on home confinement.
Justice Action Network, along with FAMM, the ACLU, Prison Fellowship, the Brennan Center, and dozens of criminal justice organizations, sent President Biden and Attorney General Garland a letter urging them to take immediate action to rescind this devastating guidance.
THE IMPACT ON FAMILIES…
These men and women have reconnected with their families, found employment and education, contributed to our nation’s recovery, and begun planning for their futures. Unless the Biden administration acts, these families will be broken up again, already-overcrowded prisons and jails will become increasingly overwhelmed, and thousands of people will be forced back into prison.
Amanda Saucier: “It would be an absolute nightmare for my four children if their mother was sent back to prison. I only have 12 months left until my halfway house eligibility and to snatch me from their lives needlessly once again would be a very sad end to this story.”
More on the terrible limbo facing families HERE.
THE IMPACT ON CORRECTIONAL STAFF AND FACILITIES…
Federal prisons, already hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, are not ready to accommodate thousands of new admissions. A union official representing correctional employees called the move logistically “impossible.”
Joe Rojas, Southeast Regional Vice President at Council of Prison Locals: “We don’t have the staff. We are already in chaos as it is as an agency.”