According to anonymous officials familiar with the internal affairs of the White House, President Biden is considering clemency for home confinement prisoners. Officials say the president is considering clemency for those with nonviolent drug offenses who have less than four years left on their sentence. Unfortunately, President Biden doesn’t seem to be considering clemency for inmates with more than four years remaining on their sentence or for those who committed other types of crimes.
Other types of inmates could also receive clemency. There could potentially be “compassionate releases” for those who are sick or elderly. Then they could spend their last bit of life with their family instead of in prison. Additionally, Congress looks to enact a law allowing some inmates to stay in home confinement following the pandemic emergency. Qualifying inmates would be those who committed nonviolent crimes and have obeyed the stay at home rules since March 2020.
However, experts suspect the pandemic will remain a global emergency until 2022 at the earliest.
History
When the Covid-19 pandemic first broke out, the Bureau of Prisons received authority from Congress to send more prisoners home under home confinement rules. This was to help reduce the spread of the virus in confined spaces like a prison as well as reduce the cost of inmates to taxpayers. There are currently around 2,000 inmates in home confinement who don’t meet the potential new requirements to stay in home confinement.
The Biden administration found a former Trump Administration ordinance in compliance with the law. After the pandemic ends, inmates must return to prison no matter what. However, several congress members and even President Biden are reconsidering this law. No official statement has been made yet unfortunately. This leaves several inmates waiting in limbo for a verdict. Are inmates returning to prison or staying in home confinement? Senators wrote the president a letter urging him to let home confinement prisoners remain in home confinement.
Next Steps
To move forward with home confinement prisoner clemency, the Justice Department needs to soon request clemency petitions for qualifying inmates. Once finished, the pardon office will review the requests and decide from there. During his campaign run, Biden said, “No. 1, I think we should decriminalize marijuana, period. And I think everyone — anyone who has a record should be let out of jail, their records expunged, be completely zeroed out.”
However, since making this statement, Biden hasn’t acted upon his word. It’s unclear if he will in the near future.
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