Paul Manafort Trump Prison
Paul Manafort, Trump’s Ex-Campaign Manager, Released from Prison
UPDATE: MAY 14, 2020
Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, was released to home confinement on Wednesday from the minimum security federal prison in Pennsylvania where he had served close to two years of a seven and a half year sentence. His lawyers had argued he was at risk of contracting COVID-19 because of his age and history of health problems.
Fears over Coronavirus
As cases of COVID-19 have raced through the nation’s overcrowded jails and prisons, attorneys and activist groups have pleaded with judges to release nonviolent offenders already serving time. The rallying cries sharpened last month when a New York man, whose case dragged on following an arrest on a minor parole violation, was infected inside Rikers Island jail and died.
That is the argument used to release Manafort from jail, but his release was quickly criticized because he did not appear to have met the latest guidelines issued by the Federal Bureau of Prisons about which inmates can be sent on home confinement.
Under those guidelines, prisoners must have served at least half of their sentences or at least a quarter of their sentences to be sent on home confinement. So why was Paul Manafort released?
“Mr. Manafort is 71 years old and suffers from several preexisting health conditions, including high blood pressure, liver disease, and respiratory ailments,” his lawyers wrote in an April motion arguing for Manafort’s early release.
Manafort has served just under 30% of his prison sentence, however prison officials have wide latitude when considering these releases on a case-by-case basis.
Campaigns, Fundraisers Work To Bail New York City Inmates Amid COVID-19 Outbreaks
Paul Manafort Trump Prison
The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit organization in New York City, says the infection rate on New York City’s Rikers Island jail is 8.14% compared to 1.31% in the city and 1.04% in the state as of April 14.
On April 10, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s office said that over 1,500 inmates had been released from city jails in response to the coronavirus, a move which they noted served as “a steeper population decline than in all of last year.”
More than 100 inmates who were released from Rikers Island jail over Covid-19 concerns at the outset of the lockdown in late March have landed back behind bars on May 13, 2020 for allegedly committing new crimes. About a quarter of the arrests were for burglaries, which helps explain the 43 per cent jump in break-ins citywide over the past month.
On May 4, 2020 a federal Judge ordered the inspection of Manhattan Federal Jail in a class action filed by attorneys from Covington & Burling who claim the coronavirus was spreading “unmonitored and undetected” throughout the jail.
Not all high-profile inmates at risk have been released however. Bernard Madoff, the 82-year-old investor convicted of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, told a federal judge earlier this year that he has less than 18 months to live and asked for compassionate release. His request was denied on March 5, 2020.
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Paul Manafort Trump Prison
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