Nadler & Bass Demand Answers from DOJ About Federal Bureau of Prisons & U.S. Marshals Service Response to Coronavirus
Members Warn that Federal Prisons Could Become Epicenter of Outbreak
Washington, D.C. — Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Subcommittee on Crime Chairwoman Karen Bass (D-CA) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr requesting information concerning the Department of Justice’s handling of novel coronavirus (or COVID-19) and the health and safety of those imprisoned and working in federal prisons.
On March 12, 2020, Chairman Nadler originally requested information from DOJ about their handling of the health crisis. To date, he has not received a response. Given the urgency of the global health pandemic, Nadler and Bass are renewing the request. The Federal Bureau of Prisons currently imprisons 175,000 people in about 100 facilities throughout the country. The U.S. Marshals Service has an additional 75,000 people who are incarcerated pretrial, many in local jail or private contract facilities.
Full text of the original letter is available here.
Full text of today’s letter is available here and below.
