# COVID-19 Safer Detention Act of 2021

This bill is designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in jails and prisons by requiring the federal government to help local and state detention facilities implement safety measures. The law focuses on protecting both people who are incarcerated and the staff who work in these facilities during the pandemic.

The bill requires the federal government to provide guidance, resources, and potentially funding to help detention facilities adopt COVID-19 prevention strategies. This includes things like improving ventilation systems, providing personal protective equipment like masks and gloves, establishing testing and quarantine procedures, and creating isolation areas for people who test positive or show symptoms. The law also encourages facilities to reduce overcrowding where possible, since crowded conditions make it much harder to prevent disease spread.

The bill affects incarcerated individuals, detention facility staff, and the families and communities connected to these facilities. People in jails and prisons are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because they live in close quarters with limited ability to distance themselves from others. Staff members face daily exposure risk. By requiring better safety protocols, the bill aims to protect these groups and prevent detention facilities from becoming outbreak hotspots that could spread the virus to surrounding communities.

Essentially, this is a public health measure that treats detention facilities like any other place where people gather in large numbers during a pandemic—recognizing that keeping people safe inside these facilities is also a way to protect public health on the outside.

COVID–19 Safer Detention Act of 2021

Nadler, Jerrold

COVID-19 Safer Detention Act of 2021 This bill expands statutory authority for federal prisoners to be released before completing their sentences or to be placed in the community to serve the final portion of their sentences. First, the bill makes changes to the early release pilot program. The early release pilot program authorizes the Bureau of Prisons to release early and place on home confinement elderly offenders and terminally ill offenders who meet eligibility criteria. This bill <ul> <li>expands eligibility to offenders serving time for an offense under the laws of the District of Columbia, </li> <li>expands eligibility to offenders who have served at least one-half (currently, two-thirds) of their prison term, </li> <li>reduces the amount of time an offender must serve by the good time credits earned by the offender, and </li> <li>creates a judicial review process for prisoners and shortens the waiting period for judicial review during the COVID-19 pandemic. </li> </ul> Second, the bill modifies the compassionate release process. The compassionate release process authorizes federal courts to reduce a prisoner's sentence and impose a term of probation or supervised released in certain circumstances. This bill <ul> <li>expands eligibility to prisoners sentenced before November 1, 1987, </li> <li>specifies that vulnerability to COVID-19 is a basis for compassionate release, and </li> <li>shortens the waiting period for judicial review during the COVID-19 pandemic.</li> </ul>