Lawyers
They were released from prison because of COVID-19. Their freedom didn't last long.
Tiffany Cusaac-Smith
USA TODAY
- The Bureau of Prisons is facing scrutiny for re-incarcerating people in home confinement over minor offenses, even as the agency relies on the program more to help reduce recidivism and prison populations.
- Lawyers in the three federal lawsuits said the court should have a transparent, constitutional process for the return of people who have home confinement infractions.
- During the pandemic, more than 43,000 people nationwide were released from prison to home confinement.
NEW YORK – Eric Alvarez felt something was off as he waited in a taxi outside a nearby Bronx halfway house. His fiancée, Eva Cardoza, was taking hours to come out on that June 2021 day from a home confinement check-in. She had tested positive for marijuana.
He went home alone. She was taken into custody and was eventually sent back to Danbury prison, the federal low-security camp in Connecticut where she had served nine years of a 15-year prison sentence for drug offenses before being granted home confinement to help cap the spread of coronavirus in May 2020.