WASHINGTON — She never thought her husband’s punishment for selling drugs would be a death sentence. But as the new coronavirus rips through the U.S. prison system and into the facility where he is serving eight years, she fears it could be.
The 24-year-old inmate suffers from severe asthma at the medium-security South Carolina prison. He has tried and failed to get released to home confinement, while his wife on the outside watches high-profile inmates go free.
“He is at a way higher risk and it’s not fair,” said the woman, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared her husband would suffer retaliation. “I don’t want to lose my husband for something he did years ago, to an illness he can’t help.”
The Bureau of Prisons has given contradictory and confusing guidance how it is deciding who is released to home confinement in an effort to combat the virus, changing requirements, setting up inmates for release and backing off and refusing to explain how it decides who gets out and when.
And it’s unclear who is getting released, aside from high-profile inmates like Michael Cohen and Michael Avenatti. More than 1,500 inmates have have been placed on home confinement so far, but prisons officials will not give out any demographic information.
Advocates fear the same inequalities at play in the criminal justice system are also a factor now. Most white-collar defendants get lighter sentences in less-secure facilities, making them better eligible for release in the pandemic.
More than 1,100 inmates out of about 153,000 incarcerated in federal prisons nationwide have tested positive for COVID-19, though it’s not clear how many total inmates have been tested. As of Monday, 28 inmates had died.
Attorney General William Barr ordered the increased use of home confinement and the expedited release of eligible inmates by the Bureau of Prisons, with priority for those at low- or medium-security prisons — starting with virus hot spots.
The Bureau of Prisons now says the agency will prioritize the release of those who have served half of their sentence or inmates who have 18 months or less left and who served at least 25% of their time.
Kevin Ring, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a prison reform group advocating for release that is helping find pro bono lawyers, said starting with low-level offenders made sense, and high-profile inmates are grabbing headlines because of their notoriety. But others, like Rufus Rochell, a 68-year-old incarcerated for three decades on drug crimes, also have been released.
One entire facility — a low-security prison camp that often houses white-collar criminals in New York — is being essentially shut down. Officials moved all inmates into quarantine for release. That included Cohen.
In the confusion, some federal judges have been stepping in.
Haena Park was ordered freed after serving about half of a three-year sentence for cheating 40 people out of $23 million. The Bureau of Prisons approved home confinement but said it needed another week.
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams said she feared that leaving Park locked up could “convert a three-year prison sentence into a death sentence.”