Norton Releases Federal Bureau of Prisons Response after Agency Visits Hope Village at Her Request

Statement

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released a letter from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) informing her that BOP had conducted an unannounced site visit to Hope Village, the men's halfway house in the District of Columbia, as Norton had requested. At Norton's request, BOP conducted the site visit after two Hope Village residents died there in the last week. BOP reports that no residents at Hope Village appeared to have been neglected and that the facility and the residents had adequate supplies, food and other necessities. BOP said that it is working to transfer all eligible and appropriate residents to home confinement, as Norton requested. Norton reiterated her urgent call to release to home confinement all eligible Hope Village residents.

"I appreciate that the Federal Bureau of Prisons quickly conducted the site visit I requested to ensure that the residents and staff are safe and have adequate supplies," Norton said. "We must continue our vigilance to ensure that all D.C. residents, wherever they are, are protected from the coronavirus. Most important now, however, is to avoid pressing our luck by acting to release all eligible halfway house residents, including those at Hope Village, to home confinement. Hope Village residents are being held in order to transition them to release. Holding them in necessarily close quarters can only enhance the possibility of spread of the coronavirus"

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