Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced a resolution last week that would send roughly 3,000 people back to federal prison after they had been placed under home confinement for the past three years. The Bureau of Prisons had sent them home to finish their sentences under home confinement due to the spread of COVID-19 behind bars. The resolution, S.J. Res. 47, would overturn a Justice Department rule that allowed these people to remain under home confinement after the government’s COVID-19 emergency declaration expired. If the resolution is passed by the Senate, it will go to the House.
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, had the following comment:
“This resolution is based on hyped-up fear, not the facts. Less than one percent of the more than 12,000 people who were transferred from prison to house arrest during the pandemic committed a new crime that put them back behind bars. That is an overwhelming success, one that we should learn from, not destroy.
“No senator should vote for this resolution. It would unnecessarily incarcerate thousands of people, tearing thousands of families apart, without any benefit to public safety.”
