Attorney General Bill Barr is ordering federal prison officials to intensify their efforts to release “vulnerable” inmates at three prison complexes that are struggling to contain major outbreaks of the coronavirus.

Barr said he’s seeking to speed the process of sending selected inmates at prisons in Danbury, Conn., Oakdale, La., and Elkton, Ohio to home confinement because of the danger serious levels of infection at those facilities pose to elderly prisoners and those with pre-existing health conditions.

“We are experiencing significant levels of infection at several of our facilities,” Barr said in the new memo dated Friday and obtained by POLITICO Friday night. “We have to move with dispatch in using home confinement, where appropriate, to move vulnerable inmates out of these institutions.”

Barr also said he was exercising for the first time expanded release authority Congress granted him in the stimulus bill known as the Cares Act that was signed into law by President Donald Trump last Friday.

Under previous law, federal prisoners were only eligible for home confinement after they’d completed 90 percent of their sentences. However, the new legislation allows for earlier releases if the attorney general formally declares an emergency, which he did Friday.

“The CARES Act now authorizes me to expand the cohort of inmates who can be considered for home release upon my finding that emergency conditions are materially affecting the functioning of the Bureau of Prisons,” Barr wrote. “I hereby make that finding and direct that…you give priority in implementing these new standards to the most vulnerable inmates at the most affected facilities.”

Seven federal prisoners have died from COVID-19 so far: five at the Louisiana prison Barr is prioritizing and two at the Ohio facility.

The tallies of infected inmates and prison staff have grown daily. As of Friday, 91 federal inmates were confirmed to be infected with the virus, up from 75 a day earlier. Confirmed staff infections rose to 50 from 39.

Barr announced last Thursday that he was instructing the Bureau of Prisons to increase early releases, particularly for older inmates who “no longer pose a threat.”


A total of 522 inmates were moved to home confinement following Barr’s directive last week.

Barr’s public comments supporting early releases for some inmates seemed to be in tension with remarks Trump made Thursday, where he lashed out at state and local officials for endangering the public by releasing convicted criminals and said he might even step in to try to halt such releases.

Asked about what he was doing to protect prisoners, Trump seemed to downplay the danger to most inmates. He also appeared to boast that the federal government had not followed the state’s lead of making additional releases due to the pandemic.

“I have not done that at all, but some states are letting people out of prison. Some people are getting out that are very serious criminals, in some states. And I don't like that. I don't like it,” Trump said during a regular White House briefing. “But it's a city or state thing in certain cases, as you know. I think maybe Philadelphia comes to mind. ... We don't like it. The people don't like it. And we're looking in to see if I have the right to stop it in some cases.”

Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump’s view on early release for federal inmates and whether he was consulted on the Justice Department’s release plans.