Overview
In this lesson, participants learn about the power state and federal governments have to release prisoners to home confinement for their own safety and community safety. After understanding the reasons the federal government has allowed more sentences to be served at home due to COVID, participants will then research home release and other rules in their own states, comparing federal and local response. The group will then
engage in a roundtable discussion on this topic and larger questions of sentencing laws and reforms.
Objectives
- Participants will understand the discretion criminal justice systems have to change sentences, especially emergency situations such as the COVID pandemic
- Participants will understand the difference between federal and state criminal justice systems
- Participants will address the following essential questions:
- What type of harms impact individuals, families and communities when those convicted of crimes serve time in crowded prisons?
- Do you think individual states should model home confinement practices after the federal government’s approach to COVID home confinement?
- Would more home confinement help address other harms outside of worsening the pandemic?
Subjects
U.S. government, social studies, civicsGrade Levels
Grades 9 – 12Supplemental Links
Standards
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Common Core Standards
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9: Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
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C3 Standards
D2.His.3.9-12. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.
This lesson is part of our Searching for Justice series. For a google doc version of this lesson, click here.
INTRODUCTION
At the height of the pandemic in March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act, which gave the Justice Department the power to release thousands of low-level inmates into home confinement. Prisoners would serve their sentence at home in order to ease crowding and reduce the spread of COVID-19. Debate ensued over when the inmates would be returned to prison and what effects that would have on their health.
Then in December 2021, the Department of Justice announced that inmates released because of the pandemic will now be allowed to remain in home confinement. See this AP news story for more information.
But what about the states? Most people in prison or jail are subject to the authorities of individual states, and many have not reduced prison or jail populations at all or very little, contributing to COVID outbreaks in the prisons and surrounding communities.
What burdens does COVID place on individuals, communities and institutions to incarcerate people during a crisis, such as the COVID pandemic? Should states consider sentencing reforms even beyond COVID?
WARM-UP ACTIVITY
Have participants watch the following video and answer the discussion questions.
- Provide background on Rufus Rochelle. What is his story?
- Why were many of the more than 4,000 people released during the start of the pandemic facing possible reincarceration at the time the video was made?
- What has home confinement been like for Rochelle?
- How has being released to home confinement changed Diana Marquez’s life?
MAIN ACTIVITY
Provide the following instructions for participants:
- Read this AP article or this one from Reuters on why the federal government decided to continue to allow many federal prisoners to serve sentences in home confinement.
- Now, research your own state’s policy toward reducing prison and jail populations in the face of COVID outbreaks. Information on legislation, executive orders and more by state can be found in this resource from the Prison Policy Initiative . You might also search for your state’s furlough policies online. For example, here is information from Connecticut.
After giving students time to read and process the information, arrange the room in a semicircle and engage in a discussion using the following questions. Encourage students to respond to each other by using the following approach to sharing opinions:
- I agree with you because…
- I disagree with you because…
- I heard what you said about … and I agree/disagree with you because…
- I’d like to add on to the point you made about …
Discussion questions:
- How does your state’s response compare to the federal response? Is it allowing more or fewer inmates to serve sentences at home, proportionally?
- What are the benefits and concerns some might have in reducing prison and jail populations?
- Do you think the sentencing and furlough rules in your state are fair? What changes would you suggest (you draw from federal guidelines or other state rules for suggestions)?
EXTENSION ACTIVITY
Consider having participants write an editorial or opinion piece highlighting their stance on home confinement sentencing during COVID in your state.
Ricky House is a U.S. history educator at an independent school in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as an Urban Fellow and Master of Arts in Teaching candidate. He has over eight years of teaching experience in school systems in Arlington, Virginia, Anne Arundel County Maryland and Washington, D.C. He has appeared on PBS NewsHour and has also written several columns for the NewsHour.
