News Opinons Politics

Dem Rep. Pressley Calls for Prison Sentence Commutations, Clemency for Some in Wake of Coronavirus Epidemic

Saturday during an interview with MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), a member of the liberal congressional foursome known as “The Squad,” argued now may be the time to commute sentences of some federal prisoners given their vulnerability to coronavirus.

Pressley said she and other congressional Democrats were lobbying the Bureau of Prisons for “compassionate” releases.

“[W]hen we are talking about our most vulnerable, our low-income residents and those experiencing homelessness, our seniors and that we are also including the incarcerated men and women, who are amongst one of the most vulnerable populations and given the crowding and overpopulating in our prisons for a confluence of other reasons we won’t get into in this interview, Rev., buy you are certainly well aware of, are an ecosystem and a petri dish for the spreading of this pandemic, which is why I partnered with my colleagues, Representatives [Nydia] Velázquez, [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez and [Rashida] Tlaib, to lobby the Bureau of Prisons to use their full power to communicate guidance for how we will contain and mitigate this epidemic behind the wall.”



ICE arrests in Minnesota surge include numerous convicted child rapists, killers
Woman Jailed After Gruesome Discovery Made in Light Bulb Box Buried in Back Yard
Pure Evil: Court Docs Claim Virginia Dem. Official Tried Getting Sexual Access to 9-Year-Old Boy… and then the Comments About Toddlers Started
One Agency Tried to Stop the Somali Welfare Fraud as Early as 2020, but Activists Used DEI to Intimidate It Into Silence
After Ayatollah Strikes Back at Trump and Says He’ll Fall From ‘The Peak of His Hubris,’ X Users Add Epic Community Note
Crowd-for-hire boss rejects Minneapolis unrest as illegal chaos
US military launches airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria, officials say
State Department declares ‘international bureaucracies’ will no longer get ‘blank checks’ from the US
Four tankers that left Venezuela in ‘dark mode’ return as US eyes the country’s oil
Luxury Car Company Recalls Hundreds of Thousands of Cars Over Rearview Camera Defect
Trump signs order to protect Venezuela oil revenue held in US accounts
‘Stranger Things’ Directors Defend ‘Coming Out’ Scene That Had Fans Outraged
Christmas Drone Strike Killed 11 Christians in War-Torn African Nation
Major Trump Advisor Declares Which Major Red State City Will Replace NYC as Financial Capitol Thanks to Mamdani
Brown University shooting videos show awareness and planning, experts say

“Specifically, do they have access to testing? Secondly, has anyone tested positive, and what are the quarantine measures? Again given the overpopulating and the fact that many of these facilities are already subpar and that incarcerated men and women do not have access to soap, to alcohol-based hand sanitizers — and to regular showers, what is the guidance for those incarcerated and for staff? And that the B.O.P. Use their full powers, I think now would be the time to commute some sentences, to exact clemency and to take care of our most our vulnerable. Ten percent of those incarcerated are over the age of 60 and already have an underlying condition. We should be using compassionate release.”

See also  Senate Democrats spent lavishly on luxury retreats during government shutdown, filings show
Story cited here.
Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter