Federal Prisoners Restricted To Cells For Two Weeks

NPR reports:

In an effort to tamp down the COVID-19 infection rate across the nation’s corrections system, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced on Tuesday that starting Wednesday, inmates in all of its institutions across the country will be kept in their assigned cells or quarters, effectively putting them in lockdown.

The order will hold for at least 14 days, but it may be extended to a later date. In addition, the BOP said, it is working with the U.S. Marshals Service to “significantly decrease incoming movement” to American prisons, though it did not specify how that would happen.

The BOP added that “to the extent practicable,” inmates would still have access to programs and services, including mental health services, and that “limited group gathering” would give prisoners continued access to commissaries, laundry and showers, as well as to telephones and email.