Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee introduced legislation on Friday to provide $1 billion in grants to state and local correctional facilities to help them mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. In order to qualify for those funds, authorities will have to reduce their incarcerated populations by immediately releasing inmates who have a high risk of contracting COVID-19 and a low risk of harming others. The bill, introduced by Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), comes on the heels of Congress’ passage of a $2 trillion bill to provide economic relief because of the pandemic. But another response from Congress to the crisis is considered inevitable, and a person familiar with the effort told The Daily Beast that lawmakers are aiming to include the provisions in this bill to the next round of emergency legislation.
