Each day, over 1,500 prisoners are relieved that they are serving their prison term on home confinement rather than being in one of 122 Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities. They represent the last of those prisoners on home confinement who were allowed to be part of CARES Act transfer, a program started as COVID-19 struck the U.S. and ripped through the prison system. The program allowed mostly minimum security prisoners, with no history of violence, to serve their remaining prison sentence on home confinement. For many, that meant serving years of their sentence at home rather than prison. Today, the Biden administration announced that those remaining prisoners who have served at least a year on home confinement under CARES Act will have their sentence commuted. It is one of the largest commutations announced in a single day by any U.S. President.
The CARES Act for prisoners represented one of the most successful programs in the BOP. There were nearly36,000 prisoners that were transferred to home confinement during the program that started in April 2020 and only stopped with the pandemic was declared over by President Joe Biden in April 2023. Of those, 99% of them completed their sentence without incident and only a handful committed another crime that landed them back in prison. There are few programs in the federal government that have a 99% success rate and something the BOP should be commended for by identifying those candidates for CARES Act who would successful. in completing their prison terms at home. Now, the remaining prisoners under that program will soon regain their freedom.
Had the BOP put prisoners on CARES Act that led to a great percentage of them committing crimes or violating the terms of home confinement, there would be absolutely no discussion of commutation. The commutation will set people free but it was their adherence to the rules that set up the possibility of Biden’s actions today. While the BOP has many challenges, their handling of the CARES Act is one of the most influential actions that could lead to even more criminal reform having proved that incarceration does not have to include sitting in a prison cell for the entire term.
Home confinement, something used by the BOP for decades, allowed most all prisoners to serve the last 10% of the imposed sentence (up to 6 months) on home confinement. For many people, it was a way to transition back to society by bonding with their friends and family, getting a new job and embracing the responsibilities of being a law-abiding citizen. However, being on home confinement is no cakewalk.
Those on home confinement under CARES Act wake up each morning to a phone tethered to an electronic watch that was given to them by the BOP, a relatively recent technology that replaced the ankle bracelet. They are prompted by the phone daily to provide a facial recognition in the morning, a voice recognition at noon requiring the same statement ‘Never forget that tomorrow is a new day,’ and end the day with a finger print pushed against the phone’s screen. There are also weekly visits to the halfway house to check in and drug tested.
There is a strict curfew that the person must be at home or at a location they were approved to visit, like a job site. Once the work day is over, they head straight home with calls into the halfway house where they are monitored to let them know they are on the move and they call again once they are home. A few passes to go out of the home are allowed each week for grocery shopping, doctor’s appointment or to attend religious services. There are routine drug/alcohol tests and calls during the middle of the night to a house landline to assure the person was indeed at home. As one person, will call him Brian, I know on CARES Act told me, “At first I was just happy to be home, then I was scared because I knew there were so many things that are legal for most all people could land me back in prison such as missing a phone call to check in. Now, it is just a routine in my life and I’m not even sure what the feeling will be when I am free.”
When men and women like this are free, there will still be monitoring. Most all of those on CARES Act also have a term of supervised release, a program overseen by U.S. Probation. Terms are usually 2-5 years of supervision which require filling out financial information, getting approval for a job, approval for the place they will live, sporadic drug testing, travel restrictions and adherence to conditions the judge put in place regarding supervision, such as payment of restitution. The commutation gets them out of prison but does not get them out of the terms under which they were sent to prison. Brian said, “Home confinement over prison was a gift. When the commutation comes through I will do what I have been doing and that is obeying the rules. I don’t see that as a negative.”
The White House announcement stated:
“As the President has said, the United States is a nation of second chances. The President recognizes how the clemency power can advance equal justice under law and remedy harms caused by practices of the past.
The nearly 1,500 individuals who received commutations today have been serving their sentences at home for at leastone year under the COVID-era CARES Act. These Americans have been reunited with their families and shown their commitment to rehabilitation by securing employment and advancing their education ... These individuals are parents, veterans, health care professionals, teachers, advocates, and engaged members of their communities. Many of them have used their experiences in the criminal justice system to inspire and encourage others.”
With Donald Trump taking office in January 2025, he too will make news with his own pardons and commutations. There are 1,500 people who were prosecuted for their participation in January 6, 2021 riot on the U.S. Capitol and Trump has promised action on his first day in office. It is unusual that both men who are seen as polarizing figures, have somehow come to agreement that more people in prison is not the answer to our criminal justice problems. Perhaps Congress and a new administration will bring forward new laws that both uphold the rule of law while giving people that second chance our country is often known for.
A coalition of organizations and advocates, including the Tzedek Association, have been pushing the Biden Administration to go big on commutations for a number of categories, including Trial Penalty, nonviolent elderly individuals, marijuana cases and more. One of those categories also included this category of those who were still on home-confinement under the CARES Act. Tzedek wrote letters, had meetings with the Administration and Pardon Attorney and prayed hard this day would come. Tzedek issued a statement saying, “We are extremely grateful to President Biden for hearing our voices and granting today's 1,499 commutations. We are so happy for all these individuals and their families for this second chance in life. These are all citizens who are almost zero risk to society, who have jobs, are going to school and have been reunited with their families and communities. They've proven themselves and deserve this act of compassion by the President. We are hopeful this is just the beginning of many more deserving commutations that President Biden will grant before he leaves office.”
I was able to speak with one person who will be the beneficiary of clemency. Nevin Shapiro who was sentenced to 20 years in prison and has been on home confinement under CARES Act for over 3 years said, “I am so grateful to President Biden for granting the clemency that my family and I have been praying for. Th advocacy groups who have worked tirelessly to encourage the president to do this, including Tzedek, have been an instrumental part of my long journey to redemption.”
These commutations, as large as they are, will mean more openings in halfway houses where the BOP has stated it is near capacity. Between Trump and Biden, thousands of spaces will now open at halfway houses allowing the movement of people from prison to community settings like halfway houses.
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