DOJ says federal inmates can remain on home confinement after COVID pandemic ends

Thousands of federal inmates may be allowed to continue serving their sentences at home after the coronavirus pandemic comes to an end, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. The decision reverses a Trump-era decision that would have required the Bureau of Prisons to reimprison the inmates. 

Now, more than 7,700 inmates will be able to remain on home confinement under the bureau's control. 

"BOP's interpretation avoids requiring the agency to disrupt the community connections these prisoners have developed in aid of their eventual reentry," Christopher Schroeder, the assistant attorney general in the department's Office of Legal Counsel, wrote in a new 15-page opinion.