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U.S. NEWS Thursday 19 March 2020
Get out of jail? Inmates fearful of virus argue for release

Associated Press poses its own challenge.
NEW YORK (AP) — Corona- Courts around the coun-
virus has become a "get out try are shutting down, with
of jail" card for hundreds of only a skeletal staff work-
low-level inmates across ing. The chief federal judge
the country, and even in Brooklyn on Monday
hard-timers are seeking postponed indefinitely all
their freedom with the ar- criminal and civil jury tri-
gument that it's not a mat- als, encouraging judges to
ter of if but when the dead- conduct court business via
ly illness sweeps through telephone or video con-
tightly packed populations ferencing when possible,
behind bars. and to delay in-person pro-
Among those pleading for ceedings.
compassionate release or Prosecutors said in court
home detention are the filings that the Federal Bu-
former head of the Cali reau of Prisons has been
drug cartel, President Don- planning for the outbreak
ald Trump's former personal since January, including
attorney Michael Cohen, by establishing a task force
Ponzi schemer Bernard with experts at the Centers
Madoff and dozens of in- for Disease Control and
mates at New York City's Prevention. The BOP last
Rikers Island, part of a jail week suspended visitation
system that lost an employ- for all federal inmates, facil-
ee to the virus this week. ity transfers, staff travel and
"He is in poor health. He is training for 30 days. Newly
81 years old," David Oscar This combination of 2019 and 2002 file photos shows Michael Cohen, left, President Donald Trump's arriving inmates are being
former personal attorney, outside his apartment building in New York and drug kingpin Gilberto
Markus, the attorney for Rodriguez Orejuela leaving the Combita maximum security prison in Tunja, Colombia before ex- screened for COVID-19,
cocaine kingpin Gilberto tradition to the United States in 2004. and even asymptomatic
Rodriguez-Orejuela, wrote Associated Press inmates deemed to be at
in emergency court pa- risk are being quarantined.
pers this week seeking his billion Ponzi scheme, had been tested for coronavi- In Los Angeles, the na- Immigration and Customs
release after serving about just asked last month to be rus. tion's largest jail system has Enforcement announced
half of a 30-year drug-traf- released early in light of his It's not just attorneys for trimmed its population by that they would take similar
ficking sentence. "When terminal kidney disease. the wealthy and powerful more than 600 since Feb. steps.
(not if) COVID-19 hits his Now his attorney is calling seeking release. 28, allowing many inmates Public health officials stress
prison, he will not have on all at-risk federal prison- In New York, public defend- with fewer than 30 days left that older people and
much of a chance." ers to be released for their ers asked judges to release on their sentences to be those with existing health
While widespread out- own safety because of the older and at-risk inmates released early. In Cleve- problems are most at risk
breaks of coronavirus be- coronavirus. from the city's beleaguered land, judges held a special from coronavirus but that
hind bars have yet to hap- "The federal prison system federal jails, saying pretrial session over the weekend the vast majority of people
pen, the frenzy of legal ac- has consistently shown an confinement "creates the to settle cases with guilty will only suffer mild or mod-
tivity underscores a crude inability to respond to ma- ideal environment for the pleas and release more erate symptoms, such as fe-
reality that's only beginning jor crises," Madoff attorney transmission of contagious than 200 low-level, non- ver and cough, with recov-
to sink in: America's nearly Brandon Sample told The disease." The motions cite a violent inmates. And in Mi- ery in a matter of weeks.
7,000 jails, prisons and cor- Associated Press. "My con- provision of the Bail Reform ami, the top state attorney But such assurances are
rection facilities are an ide- cerns are even more ampli- Act allowing for the tem- has urged the release of small solace for inmates.
al breeding ground for the fied for prisoners at federal porary release of pretrial all non-violent felons and The Twitter account of Mi-
virus, as dangerous as nurs- medical centers and those inmates under "compelling" those being held on misde- chael Cohen, Trump's for-
ing homes and cruise ships who are aged." circumstances. meanors. mer attorney who is serving
but far less sanitary. As of Wednesday, two fed- "I truly believe the jails are "No judge wants to have a a three-year sentence for
Stepped-up cleanings eral Bureau of Prisons staff ticking time bombs," said dead prisoner on his con- crimes including tax eva-
and a temporary halt to members have tested posi- David Patton, executive science," said Bill Barzee, a sion and campaign finance
visitations at many lock- tive for coronavirus, a per- director of the Federal Miami defense attorney. violations, shared over the
ups across the country in son familiar with the mat- Defenders of New York. New York City's Board of weekend an online peti-
the midst of the crisis can't ter told the AP. One of the "They're overcrowded and Correction this week called tion seeking the transfer of
make up for the fact that staffers works in a correc- unsanitary in the best of for the immediate release non-violent federal prison-
ventilation behind bars is tional facility in Berlin, New times. They don't provide of all high-risk inmates after ers to home confinement.
often poor, inmates sleep Hampshire, and the other appropriate medical care an an investigator assigned Addressed specifically to
in close quarters and share works in an office in Grand in the best of times, and to the jail system died over Trump, it argues the move
a small number of bath- Prairie, Texas, but there these certainly are not the the weekend of the coro- would "give the prison facil-
rooms. were still no confirmed best of times." navirus. The 56-year-old ities additional (and much
"Simply put, it's impossible cases among any of the Some authorities around man was said to have a needed) medical triage
to do social distancing," 175,000 inmates in the BOP the nation appear to agree. pre-existing health condi- and logistic space for those
said David S. Weinstein, a system, the person said. The Police departments are in- tion and only limited con- who will become infected."
former federal prosecutor person, who wasn't autho- carcerating fewer people, tact with inmates. The city's "Without your intervention,
in Miami. rized to discuss the matter prosecutors are letting non- jail system has about 8,000 scores of non-violent of-
The 81-year-old Madoff, publicly and spoke to the violent offenders out early inmates, most at notorious fenders are at risk of death,"
who is serving a 150-year AP on condition of ano- and judges are postponing Rikers Island. it reads, "and these people
sentence for bilking thou- nymity, would not say how or finding alternatives to jail However, accommodat- were not given a death
sands of investors in a $17.5 many inmates, if any, have sentences. ing the surge of requests sentence."q