Letter to the Hon. Merrick Garland, Attorney General - Statement on the Pending Release of Gwen Levi, Congratulating Federal Public Defender and Advocacy Groups for Work to Get Grandmother Out of Jail

Letter

Dear Attorney General Garland:

This letter conveys my strong concern regarding the case of Gwen Levi, a 76-year-old
Baltimore woman who is in a District of Columbia jail awaiting transfer to a Federal Bureau of
Prisons ("BOP") facility. Additionally, this letter asks for clarification on the basis for her
continued detention.

After serving 16 years in federal facilities on a 24 years sentence, Ms. Levi was
transitioned to home confinement in June 2020. She was one of approximately 4,500 federal
prisoners similarly transitioned last year under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act ("CARES Act") in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 in federal prisons and to
protect vulnerable, including elderly, prisoners from contracting COVID-19. During her home
confinement, Ms. Levi productively engaged in volunteer work with prisoner advocacy
organizations and was meaningfully strengthening her relationships with her 94-year-old mother,
her sons, and grandsons.

A recent BOP incident report states Ms. Levi was arrested on June 12, 2021 for being
"out of contact for a few hours with the officials supervising her." This insinuates Ms. Levi was
doing something nefarious during the time she could not be reach by her supervisors.
Based on discussions with advocates and representatives of Ms. Levi as well as published
reports, this could not be further from the truth.

Ms. Levi was out of contact for 2 hours, 26 minutes and was in fact attending a computer
word-processing class in Baltimore's Inner Harbor to gain skills that could lead to full
employment during the time at issue. Emblematic of her respect for the institutions of
government and the terms of her "debt to society," Ms. Levi voluntarily turned herself in to clarify the misunderstanding related to her monitoring system and her time at the computer class
based on all information available to me.

In the attached letter to you dated May 27, 2021, led by my colleague Congresswoman
Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), you are encouraged to undo the prior administration's
retaliatory approach to transitioning citizens. By way of this letter, I join in encouraging you to
do the same.

Thank you for your assistance with this matter, and I look forward to working with you.

Source