Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty joins national law enforcement leaders and prosecutors defending the successful CARES Act Home Confinement Program
4/10/2024
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty today announced she has joined more than 40 law enforcement leaders and prosecutors to call on the U.S. Senate to preserve the successful CARES Act Home Confinement Program and oppose the reimprisonment of 3,000 nonviolent individuals currently serving their sentences on home confinement. Moriarty, along with more than 40 individuals from law enforcement and prosecutorial backgrounds, signed on to a letter opposing Senate Joint Resolution 47 for its negative impact on public safety.
In the four years since the program was implemented by the Bureau of Prisons, the recidivism rate for this group sits at 0.2 percent. The overall recidivism rate for federal offenders is 43 percent.
“The evidence that the CARES Act Home Confinement Program is working as intended could not be any clearer,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “The individuals who are finishing their sentences under home confinement are enrolling in school, getting jobs, and reconnecting with their loved ones. If we want our communities to be safer, we have to support successful transitions when people head home and not destroy successful reentry processes with no benefit to public safety.”
All individuals deemed eligible for home confinement under the CARES Act passed an extensive review process and remain subject to restrictions including ankle monitoring, curfew, approved work assignments, and random drug and alcohol screenings.
Reimprisoning these individuals interrupts the clear progress that has been made in suppressing recidivism and in rebuilding their lives for no public safety benefit and at greater cost to the American taxpayer. Home confinement is less than half the cost of incarceration in a federal facility per day, saving taxpayers more than $100 million each year.
National organizations joining the opposition to Senate Joint Resolution 47 include Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime & Incarceration, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, and Fair and Just Prosecution.
Additional Facts:
- In March 2020, the Bureau of Prisons selected individuals from the federal prison population to be placed on home confinement following an extensive review focused on public safety.
- Eligibility requirements restricted release to the following criteria:
- Medically vulnerable individuals with no violent, sexual, or terrorism-related convictions
- No disciplinary infractions within the past 12 months
- No history of violence or gang involvement while in prison
- A low-risk score on the Bureau of Prison’s PATTERN risk assessment tool
- A viable release plan to aid in reentry
- Having already served a substantial amount of their sentence in a low- or minimum-security facility
- A total of 13,204 individuals were placed on home confinement.
- Of the 13,204 individuals, only 27 people had been rearrested for a new offense as of November 2023.
- This 0.2 percent recidivism rate is dramatically lower than the overall recidivism rate for federal offenders of 43 percent.
- In FY 2020, the cost of incarcerating someone in a federal facility was $120.50 per day.
- Home confinement averages $55.26 per day, saving taxpayers $23,940.30 per year, per person; this amounts to more than $100 million in savings each year.
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