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Bureau of Prisons can keep inmates in home confinement after coronavirus emergency ends

December 21, 2021 at 6:13 p.m. EST
Attorney General Merrick Garland, seen at a Washington news conference Dec. 6. (Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg News)

The Justice Department ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is not required to reimprison thousands of federal inmates who were granted home confinement to limit the spread of the coronavirus — even after the federal health emergency ends.

The decision reverses a January order issued in the final days of the Trump administration and allows the federal agency to avoid recalling prisoners en masse.