The Oregonian: Compassionate coronavirus release on hold as Oregon judge seeks medical information on federal inmate
The American Federal of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, which represents federal prison employees, said the bureau is transferring some untested inmates from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. , where inmates are currently being quarantined after one tested positive for the virus, to three federal prisons in central Pennsylvania.
“The transferring of inmates from a high-risk area, who have not yet been tested for the coronavirus, to a lower risk area has created a state of panic amongst staff and could potentially result in a medical crisis within the facilities, the health care system, and the central PA community,’’ said Andrew Kline, president of AFGE Local 148 in Lewisburg, in a prepared statement.
Also Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups wrote a letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to commute the federal prison sentences of those who are elderly or have chronic health conditions that make them exceptionally vulnerable to coronavirus. Among the other groups that signed the letter were Justice Action Network, The Sentencing Project and Justice Roundtable.