There’s no reason to send these 3,000 people in home confinement back to federal prison

The federal government got a lot wrong in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. But one of the things it got right was moving low-risk, non-violent prisoners to home confinement under the authority of the CARES Act.

Unfortunately, some in Congress now want to return nearly 3,000 of these people to prison, even though they have caused no problems since their release. This is neither fiscally responsible nor smart public safety policy.

Prisons are ideal places for communicable diseases to spread. Indeed, 44,000 federal inmates — nearly a quarter of the federal prison population — contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic. Not only did the virus threaten the safe operation of American correctional institutions, but it posed a serious threat to surrounding communities.

Numerous studies have shown that cities where prisons are located became hotspots themselves, as officers and staff became vectors for transmission far beyond the gates. One analysis found that prisons and jails were linked to an additional 566,804 COVID-19 cases throughout the U.S. Struggling with rampant COVID-19 infections, prison lock-downs, sick corrections officers, and insufficient staff, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had to do something.

The solution was embedded in the CARES Act. Among other things, the legislation authorized the attorney general to move some inmates from BOP facilities to home confinement, to mitigate the spread of the virus. Then-Attorney General William Barr, who was certainly not soft on crime, issued very exacting guidance as to who was eligible. The focus was those prisoners who were a low risk for re-offending, had a history of compliance with prison rules, and were not incarcerated for violent or serious crimes.

Using these parameters, the BOP successfully placed 13,204 inmates in home confinement. Nearly 3,000 are still being monitored to this day, while the remainder have completed their sentences and been released.

Barr’s implementation of the CARES Act worked well. The spread of the virus in BOP facilities slowed. People on home confinement were less likely to be infected, and taxpayers saved $862,617 per day, as the cost of monitoring someone on home confinement is less than half that of keeping him in a prison cell.

Critics claimed the CARES Act would allow people on home confinement to reoffend, creating more victims. But just like the demonstrably false demagoguery surrounding the First Step Act, the people sent to home confinement had shockingly low incidents of re-offending.

Of the people moved to home confinement, 521 were returned to custody. This equates to a 4 percent recidivism rate, less than one-tenth of the BOP average. But looking at the numbers more closely, the CARES Act recidivism rate is much more impressive than that. Of the 521 returned to prison, 296 were sent back for positive drug or alcohol tests, 90 for leaving their homes, and 113 for technical violations. That means that only 22 people were re-incarcerated for committing new crimes.

If this number holds, it would equate to a 0.002 percent recidivism rate.

We now know that the CARES Act’s home confinement provision slowed the virus, saved millions of taxpayer dollars, and maintained public safety. By all measures, it has been a success.

Unfortunately, some in Congress are now pushing to return the people still on home confinement back to prison, even though adding 3,000 new inmates to a woefully understaffed BOP  is a recipe for instability. They point to the Biden Justice Department’s reversal of an opinion by DOJ bureaucrats in the waning days of the Trump Administration, that CARES Act home confinees would have to return to prison after the pandemic ended. This policy change, they say, is evidence of politics being played at the Justice Department.

We can argue about whether the Biden Department of Justice has unduly politicized federal investigations, plea bargains, and prosecutorial decisions. Of course, Congress has a duty to investigate the Justice Department in these matters.

But what is beyond argument is that the people remaining in home confinement are doing everything we, as a society, ask of offenders: They have been held accountable, paid a price, and are working to lead crime-free lives.

It is said that even a broken clock is still right twice a day. No matter the flaws in the process, implementation of the CARES Act has been a success. To return 3,000 people to prison at this point is fiscally wasteful and buys us no more in terms of public safety.

David Safavian is general counsel for the Conservative Political Action Coalition and an advocate for prison reform. Timothy Head is executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.