The Safer Detention Act expands a federal home detention program for elderly and terminally ill prisoners by allowing courts to review and reduce their prison sentences. Under current law, only the Bureau of Prisons can decide whether eligible elderly offenders serve their remaining sentence at home with supervision instead of in prison. This bill adds judicial review, meaning inmates can petition a judge for home detention if the Bureau of Prisons denies their request or doesn't respond within 30 days. The bill also loosens eligibility requirements by reducing the minimum portion of sentence served from two-thirds to one-half, and includes District of Columbia offenses in the definition of nonviolent crimes. Additionally, it extends the pilot program authorization from 2023 through 2029 and makes similar judicial review changes to compassionate release procedures for terminally ill prisoners. The bill applies to both current and past offenses committed before specific cutoff dates, potentially affecting hundreds of aging inmates in federal custody.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.