BOP STEPS ON THE GAS IN CARES ACT’S FINAL DAYS
President Biden will end the COVID-19 national emergency on May 11, 2023. The immediate effect for the Federal Bureau of Prisons is that the agency will lose its authorization to place prisoners in extended Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES“) Act, home confinement 30 days later.
Among the myriad of federal responses mandated by the bloated CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion response to COVID-19 that runs some 324 pages in Volume 134 of the United States Statutes, the BOP was given authority in § 12003(b)(2) to “lengthen the maximum amount of time for which the Director is authorized to place a prisoner in home confinement under the first sentence of section 3624(c)(2) of title 18, United States Code, as the Director determines appropriate.” Practically speaking, this gave the BOP the right to place prisoners on home confinement indefinitely, despite the old 18 USC 3624(c)(2) limitation of 10% of the sentence up to a maximum of six months.