'A Christmas miracle': DOJ overturns prior memo, allowing prisoners transferred home during COVID to stay there

In what NPR calls a "rare reconsideration," the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has concluded the Bureau of Prisons has the "discretion" to permit the low-risk inmates released from prison and placed in "extended home confinement" to remain there once the COVID-19 emergency ends.
This reversal of a previous, Trump administration memo was engineered by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who "asked the OLC to reconsider the issue after personally reviewing the law," NPR reports. The decision arrives after "months of intense pressure from a coalition of advocates across the political spectrum." Inmates were sent home originally to ease crowding during the pandemic.
"Thousands of people on home confinement have reconnected with their families, have found gainful employment, and have followed the rules," Garland said in a statement. "We will exercise our authority so that those who have made rehabilitative progress and complied with the conditions of home confinement, and who in the interests of justice should be given an opportunity to continue transitioning back to society, are not unnecessarily returned to prison."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Assistant Attorney General Christopher Schroeder wrote in the new memo that the office did not "lightly depart from our precedents," but rather found that the prior opinion issued at the end of the previous administration "failed to address important and persuasive counterarguements."
"I screamed into the phone but who care's it's a Christmas miracle!!!" tweeted President of Justice Action Network Holly Harris in celebration of the news.
"Thousands of people can now breathe a sigh of relief knowing they will be able to remain in the communities where they have been living and working," wrote ACLU Justice Division Director Udi Ofer in a statement. But "while we celebrate today, we also commit to continuing to advocate for President Biden to use his power of clemency to commute these sentences."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
Book reviews: 'America, América: A New History of the New World' and 'Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson'
Feature A historian tells a new story of the Americas and the forgotten story of a pioneering preacher
-
Another messaging app used by the White House is in hot water
The Explainer TeleMessage was seen being used by former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz
-
AI hallucinations are getting worse
In the Spotlight And no one knows why it is happening
-
Suspect charged after 11 die in Vancouver car attack
Speed Read Kai-Ji Adam Lo drove an SUV into a crowd at the Lapu Lapu Day festival
-
Kenya arrests alleged ant smugglers
speed read Two young Belgians have been charged for attempting to smuggle ants out of the country to exotic pet buyers
-
Judge ends Eric Adams case, Trump leverage
Speed Read Federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams were dismissed, as requested by Trump's Justice Department
-
Texas arrests midwife on felony abortion charges
Speed Read Maria Margarita Rojas and an employee at one of her clinics are the first to be criminally charged under Texas' near-total abortion ban
-
South Carolina to execute prisoner by firing squad
speed read Death row inmate Brad Sigmon prefers the squad over the electric chair or lethal injection, his lawyer said
-
Mexico extradites 29 cartel figures amid US tariff threat
Speed Read The extradited suspects include Rafael Caro Quintero, long sought after killing a US narcotics agent
-
Leonard Peltier released from prison
Speed Read The Native American activist convicted of killing two FBI agents had his life sentence commuted by former President Joe Biden
-
Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez sentenced to 11 years
Speed Read The former New Jersey senator was convicted on federal bribery and corruption charges last year