This meeting is about 90 minutes. We are joined by several members of our committee. Guests will share their perspectives. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these challenging times. I appreciate that so many members who have gathered today for this discussion. I am pleased the public will have an opportunity to listen. A lot of important work has been done responding to the covid crisis. This roundtable discussion follows a virtual roundtable held last week about ices covid19 in detention facilities. I want to thank our guests for taking the time to participate. Think everyone in advance for bearing with technological glitches. I will turn it over to the subcommittee chair. Thank you, mr. Nadler. I want to provide a few guidelines that i think will help this roundtable go smoothly. First, i asked that everyone mute their microphones unless it is your turn to talk. This will minimize interruptions or strain noise. Im going to have my feet on during my video feed on, but if you prefer to participate through just audio or you would like to be visible only when it is your time to speak, you are welcome to turn off your camera at any time. I want to explain how cities roundtable will work. I will make opening comments, chairman nadler will make comments. Our guests will follow with opening remarks, then the members will have the opportunity to ask questions. This will allow for an informal give and take between the members and our guests in contrast with the more rigid rules that apply during a formal hearing. I appreciate the value of everyones time and i hope we can manage our time efficiently. Im going to limit myself to a couple questions and i hope other members will, too. I hope we can have a good conversation and wrap up by 5 30 eastern time. Advance foryone in your patience and i look forward to a good discussion. I will make opening comments. We have called this roundtable to bring light to the dangerous situation being experienced by prisoners and detainees in the bureau of prisons and at prisons and jails across our country as a result of the covid19 pandemic. Urgent. Is there are tens of thousands of people in custody who are potentially in harms way because of the department of justices unwillingness to act to save lives. The death toll in our prisons is at least 57 lives lost. I think that is an undercount. The rate of infection within our federal correction facilities is 6. 4 times greater than that of the u. S. Population. This is simply unacceptable. We passed the cares act in march. Opportunity and discretion to place a hold on confinement for those most vulnerable to covid19. And many members of congress have written letters to ensure people are placed out of harms. Their than taking discretion, what we hear is that in many of the nations prisons it has been business as usual. Rather than opening to more releases, there are barriers in the way of taking steps to protect the health of individuals under their care. There is great inconsistency between federal prisons. Released few prisoners into home confinement, a minuscule amount if you think there are over 150 prisoners in their custody. It likely includes many who were already in the pipeline to be released to home confinement or wouldve been released anyway. The fact of the matter is the doj has significantly underutilized the Authority Congress granted to them under the cares act. It has slow walked its response to covid19 at best. At worst, they have been derelict in their duty to prevent deaths in the facilities they operate. We are concerned about the staff and workers who must work in facilities where covid19 is raging. About thecerned communities on the outside and the fact they are bearing the brunt of this disease. If you think many if not most of the people who are incarcerated, when they are released, will come to the same communities that are experiencing a disproportionate death rate right now. Claims to have an action plan in place, but it is hard to see how their actions are directed by a plan. Earlier this month, the prison in los angeles and the federal prison here at Terminal Island, testing revealed there were large numbers of prisoners infected with covid19. Another prison in california, the percentage of infected prisoners was 70 . We can only hope bop has a plan in place to release prisoners responsibly and protect the community. And protect the workers. Todays roundtable is an effort to call attention to this and other issues. I want to thank our guests who are on the frontline of the struggle to achieve justice for those who are imprisoned. I look forward to hearing what they have to say. I will now introduce todays guests. David tanton has been the executive director and attorney in chief of the federal defenders of new york since july 2011. Practicing at all levels and courts across the country on the front line of protecting the rights of individuals incarcerated during this crisis. The founder and executive director of the National Council on incarcerated women and formerly incarcerated women and works directly with persons impacted by the outbreak of covid19 in jails and prisons. Angela cardwell is the daughter of thomas paul singer, a prisoner at latina in anthony, texas. She is a psychologist living in los angeles who grew up in el paso. She will share what her father has experienced and what she is experiencing during this crisis. We welcome our guests and we thank them for participating. I will now ask our guests to briefly share their perspectives with us. Mr. Patton, we hope you will summarize your comments in five minutes so we will have time for questions. Mr. Patton. Thank you so much. For convening todays roundtable. As you are aware, Public Health experts have been sounding the alarm about this humanitarian disaster unfolding in prisons. Eat,cerating people live, and brief together by the dozens. In unsanitary spaces. It is the opposite of social distancing. Predictably, the rate of infection in the federal bureau of prisons facilities is six times the population at large. At least 59 people have now died in the custody of the bop. Certain federal prison names have become shorthand for tragedy. Where nine people have died. In north carolina, or eight people have died. Oakdale in louisiana, seven have died. Terminal island in california, eight have died. There are many others. Those numbers do not include the many who, as we sit here today, who are hospitalized and on ventilators. The only responsible way to deal with this crisis is to identify Vulnerable People. People who pose an extremely low risk of any danger to the committee the community and get them out. It can be done responsibly and consistent with Public Health protocols. Despite extraordinary rates of infection and the mounting death toll, the bureau of prisons are putting up roadblocks. Despite the rates of infection and mounting death toll, the doj and bureau of prisons are putting up roadblocks and a return. And would like the public to him think that they are doing something. They issue memos and press releases when people like Paul Manafort or Michael Cohen are released. But out of the public spotlight where the best majority of people, they are doing nothing. And fact, they are doing worse than nothing and opposing release when Vulnerable People seek bail or compassionate release. Every day, prosecutors are going into courts around the country claiming that the dop has a meeting under control. That the positive test results are low. They of course never mentioned that the dop is only testing a tiny fraction of the people incarcerated. Federal prosecutors tell policy and procedure while ignoring the facts on the ground and the Court Ordered medical inspections which have found the jails and prisons engaged in a systemic failure. In courthouses around the country, as my colleagues and i attempted to get people out, we see the intransigence and the cruelty firsthand. We are not the only ones. Federal judges have referred to the doj and dop policies as an outrage, illogical, alarming, unfathomable, and shocking. I could go on. Federal judges are using those descriptors because more than two months into the crisis, the doj and dop still do not have any sense of urgency and transparency or a coherent system for releasing Vulnerable People. The dop has moved less than 2 of the prison population and to home confinement. The website touts a 111 increase in home confinement. All that shows is how paltry their use of home confinement was prior to the crisis. The doj is now taking the battle to the appeals courts selectively in court they think are favorable to them. They are appealing judges rulings requiring release. Members of the committee, i want to thank you for your efforts in passing the heroes act. I know you feel the same way we in the trenches feel. That this crisis has become about more than dry legal concepts. It is about basic human decency. Doj and dop should have taken action long before march 28 when 49yearold Patrick Jones became the first to die. If his death and others were not enough, the death of a 30yearold, eight months pregnant when she gave birth to her child via csection while on a ventilator before she died on april 28 should have been an immediate call to action. And yet, for doj and dop, it was not. Because they have proven they are unwilling to do the right thing, it is essential that Congress Give judges broader tools to responsibly release Vulnerable People quickly, regardless of dop or doj opposition. The heroes act does that. I thank this body for recognizing the need to act and i hope your colleagues in the senate will follow suit. Thank you. Ms. James . Yes. We can hear you. Ms. James thank you very much for inviting us again to participate. We are the National CouncilMembership Organization of women in prison or formerly incarcerated. I want to make the point that we are on the front line and directly in contact with women who are still there. Thank you again for allowing us to address this forum. For months, we have been juggling numerous calls per day from Family Members who do not understand why the bop will not let their elderly or ill Family Members come home. We have been inundated with countless stories from the women in federal prison that there scores have gone from low to high for no reason making them ineligible for release under the attorney general barrs directive. We have received countless emails saying that women are being quarantined in spaces that are not designed to house people such as visiting rooms and a kitchen. Im tired of reading statistics like the one from danbury prison about the 159 reviewed for home confinement, only 21 have been given permission to go home. Im tired of the work we have to do to determine whether they have actually been released. Regardless of what congress has legislated and the attorney general has directed, bop staff have decided to make it nearly impossible for elderly and desperately ill people to get compassionate release and go home. For instance, at danbury, staff started out by refusing to consider people for release if the pattern score was low, rather than minimal when attorney general barrs april directive clarified the people who were ranked low werent eligible, staff unilaterally increased scores without knowledge or justification to prevent them from qualifying. Staff at carswell told a group of women that they would be released to home confinement, but they needed to leave the Drug Recovery program and enter quarantine before release. Successful completion subject a subtracts a full year off of a sentence. Then, carswell staff reported a change in doj policy that only people who had completed 50 of their sentence can be released to home confinement. The women who were no longer qualified were told they had to reapply and start the program over. We receive daily reports from the women of confusing and consistently changing policy. One woman incarcerated at carswell described the situation. She said i have kept a daily journal. The things are changing daily, the criteria changes hourly. I have a printout of requirements that were posted at 8 00 a. M. And they change by 11 30 a. M. The 8 00 a. M. Posting said 50 of time must be done. We are now confused as to what is required. Avalon gaston, one of our formerly incarcerated members at the National Council who is now and advocate come emailed us with great concerns for women in general. It is one of the most important programs for women who are we entering have taken the brave step towards starting out free from drug use. Avalon updated us today that there are people who are participating in the program which is now caused due to covid19 that will as a result end up serving more time than have if these would program had continued in some form. Basically, their incarceration will be extended by the number of months by the number of months the program was caused. Kin violated pea the cares act by not allowing women to make free or video calls. The staff explained they could not figure out how to make these calls free and therefore they were not going to comply with the directive from the attorney general making the policy so that people could keep in touch with their families during lockdowns necessitated by the coronavirus. One case manager at pekin has denied the release request from those at high risk of covid19 complications who meet the attorney generals criteria and another case manager there would on the make one copy of a compassionate release request. The human toll of these policies cavalier policies is enormous. For example, lisa crowe, who is only 44 years old has stage four Breast Cancer and has been given 12 months to live. She cannot dress or wash yourself and is confined to a wheelchair when she has enough energy to get up at all. After much advocacy, the warden agreed to home confinement, but the Regional Office would not approve release, so she could go home to die with her family. The reason given to a woman who is bedridden, who can barely speak because of eight metastasized lump in her throat, was that she might start trafficking oxycontin during her last month on this earth. This is not an oversight or a question of a release request falling through the cracks. Miss crowe has many advocates, including her congressman representative tenney davis, who has made inquiries into her case. The dop is actively refusing to the bop is actively refusing to release a dying woman. We received an update today that she is now struggling not to strangle in her saliva. There are three ways, in closing, a person can get Early Release. One way is a transfer to home confinement under the elderly prisoner Pilot Program for those who meet the criteria. Another way is release under the march 26 andrals april 3 directive. Then, compassionate release by court order. Under the first step act, a person may petition the Sentencing Court directly for release based on extraordinary and compelling circumstances after exhausting his or her administrative remedies. The statute is awkwardly written, but appears to mandate that a person petition the warden and if no answer is received after 30 days, the person can file a motion for release. If the warden denies the request within 30 days, the person has to go through the administrative appeals process, which can take months. People who are vulnerable to covid19 cannot wait 30 days, especially if the answer, whether yes or no, means more waiting. If the warden agrees, the release still has to be approved by other parts of the bop. If the warden says no, and a an administrative appeal is required. If the warden says nothing, the person must draft a motion and wait for the court to act. Between 2014 and 2018, 81 people died while they had compassionate release requests pending and that was before covid19 struck. One crucial step in saving incarcerated people who are vulnerable to covid19 would be to remove the exhaustion requirement from the first step act. Two senators have introduced an emergency act to streamline the compassionate release project. The standard for granting compassionate release, extraordinary and compelling, is high. The exhaustion requirement makes compassionate release essentially unobtainable. But congress wanted our people to have a viable path to release during this pandemic. As ive outlined, the bop is unwilling or unable to provide one. As we continue at the National Council to be on the front lines in the fight to protect the human beings who are incarcerated during this covid19 pandemic, we will continue to be at the receiving end for the phone calls from the families and documenting the desperate pleas from the women themselves and we will continue to do all we can to provide them with the support they need notwithstanding our overstretched staffing capacity and budget, but we need help. Congress can help to fix this and we believe congress has a moral responsibility to do so. Thank you again for this opportunity. Thank you very much. Angela caldwell . Caldwell thank you. This past march, when covid19 started hitting the United States, people started asking whether they would be going to school, whether their offices would be shut down, whether they would lose their jobs. My family started asking whether we would lose our father. My dads name is thomas. Hes incarcerated at the la tuna prison camp just outside of el paso, texas. It is a minimal security facility with mostly elderly, nonviolent firsttime offenders. There isnt even a fence around the campus. The inmates there are all extremely low rates for recidivism. Otherwise they would not have qualified for a camp. These men are not hardened criminals. They pose no danger to the public. They made mistakes and are trying to pay their debts to society quietly and honorably. My dad is 67 years old and has been diagnosed with advanced coronary artery disease. He suffers from high Blood Pressure and hypertension. According to the cdc, this places him in the highest risk group for dying from covid. In late march, he suffered his fourth heart attack and was denied appropriate medical care. When he asked the staff to protect him from covid early on, they laughed at him and sent him back to his cell. My father was identified