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.”
Washington Monument to become ‘birthday candle’ as US marks start of 250th year
House Oversight Committee Announces Minnesota Fraud Hearing, Calls on Tim Walz to Explain Himself
Dem governor-elect taps Crockett’s former ‘chief brand strategist’ for top DEI role
GOP Rep. Tom Emmer Calls for Somali Deportations – in 2015, He Dismissed His Voters’ Concerns About Them
Jack Smith withheld names from judges who greenlit GOP lawmakers’ phone records access
Trump tells Colorado governor and district attorney to ‘rot in Hell’ over Tina Peters incarceration
Germany’s Merz says Europe must ‘defend and assert’ interests amid ‘changing’ relations with US
Somali daycare in Minnesota broken into, key documents stolen in overnight burglary
Blue cities U-turn on distributing drug supplies to addicts after progressive policies fail to stem epidemic
President Trump Has a Backup Plan if the Supreme Court Strikes Down His Tariffs
Treasury targets oil traders, tankers accused of helping Maduro evade U.S. sanctions
Ex-police officer given prison time in case prosecuted under Soros DA sees conviction overturned a year later
Trump Presides Over the Largest One-Year Drop in Homicides Ever Recorded
CNN Finally Shows Up at Minneapolis Day Care, But for All the Wrong Reasons
Why the Times Square Ball Will Drop Twice This Year for the First Time Ever
“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.”
