Norton Announces Federal Bureau of Prisons Releasing as Many D.C. Halfway House Residence as Possible, Following Her Advice

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the response she received from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) concerning Hope Village, the men's halfway house in the District of Columbia. According to the letter, the BOP is responding to Norton's request to release as many Hope Village residents as possible to home confinement during the coronavirus. Norton raised concerns, however, with the few remaining residents who have no place to go and again requested that they be placed in D.C. hotels with appropriate monitoring, such as ankle monitors.

"I appreciate that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has responded to my urgent request and has begun releasing as many Hope Village residents to home conferment as possible," Norton said. "While I realize that this is an ongoing process and that there are a handful of residents who have no place to go, I look forward to the BOP releasing as many of these individuals safely to their homes, where they will continue to be monitored but will not be confined in a space that could be more ripe for spread of the coronavirus. It is still unacceptable, however, that the few remaining residents who otherwise would not have a place to go will be placed in halfway houses outside of the District of Columbia. While the halfway houses outside of the District are not as far away as they could have been, these individuals need to be placed in hotels in the District so that they can continue to be close to their friends, families and jobs."

The BOP letter follows:

Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congresswoman Holmes Norton,

This is in response to your correspondence dated April 10, 2020, and April 16, 2020, concerning the Hope Village Residential Reentry Center (RRC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, your letter raises several concerns related to the need for continuing Residential Reentry Center (RRC) services in the District of Columbia.

As you are aware the Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) has been actively soliciting for RRC services for D.C. since October 2015, to include awarding a contract for RRC services in November 2018 to Core D.C. to provide these services. Due to several protests and legal actions the performance of this new contract was delayed and subsequently the Bureau was required to reopen the solicitation and re-enter discussions with all potential providers. This solicitation is still open and the Bureau of Prisons is continuing discussions with potential contractors in an attempt to award this contract. We anticipate that this award for RRC Service will be made within the next several months.

On April 9, 2020 the Bureau received correspondence from Hope Village that they were not amenable to providing on-going RRC services to the Bureau after April 30, 2020, and further that they were withdrawing their proposal under the current solicitation. As such the Bureau has taken extraordinary steps to ensure that some services were provided to returning D.C. residents. These steps include the announcement of a Home Confinement/Electronic Monitoring solicitation on April 10, 2020 to provide home confinement services for all inmates who are returning to the district who have a viable release residence. This solicitation closed on April 14, 2020 and on April 17, 2020 an award was made to Core DC to provide these services effective April 26, 2020.

In anticipation of the award of the home confinement/electronic monitoring contract, Bureau staff conducted a visit to Hope Village on April 14, 2020 where they met with every resident of the facility to ascertain their release plan with the intent that every inmate who has a viable release plan will be transferred to home confinement once performance of the new home confinement/electronic monitoring contract begins performance.

Lastly, for those inmates who do not currently have a viable release residence, the Bureau intends to transfer them to RRCs in the surrounding area. The Bureau will continue to work with them on the development of a release residence and transfer to home confinement as soon as appropriate.

We look forward to the anticipated award of a new RRC in the District of Columbia, and the Bureau remains committed to providing halfway house services to the residents of the District of Columbia. We appreciate the support you have provided to the Bureau as we work through the legal and contracting process.

Sincerely,

Hugh J. Hurwitz
Assistant Director

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