Published on: Friday, March 20, 2020
On March 19, 2020, the Federal Public and Community Defenders sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr requesting immediate action from the Department of Justice because of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the reality that jails and prisons do not provide adequate medical care in the best of times.  This PDF icon Letter to AG Barr, among other things, requests that DOJ immediately take the following two steps:
  1. Direct all United States Attorneys' Offices to minimize arrests, decline to seek detention of
    individuals at their initial appearance in court and consent to the release of those already detained except in cases involving a specific and substantial risk that a person will cause bodily injury or use violent force against the person of another, and
  2. Direct BOP to utilize its existing authorities under the First Step Act and Second Chance Act to maximize the use of community corrections and compassionate release.

The Traning Division is collecting COVID-19 resources from all over the country and posting them on www.fd.org. We are updating these materials multiple times daily.  There are resources available on the public and password protected sides of fd.org.