As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its spread throughout the nation, federal prisons are experiencing an unprecedented crisis due to its inability to implement social distancing, resulting in exponential increases in COVID-19 cases among inmates and prison staff. On April 14, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) released troubling data: In just one week, its 122 institutions saw a staggering increase in confirmed positive cases, including 446 inmates and 248 staff members, with 14 federal inmate COVID-19-related deaths. (https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/ (April 15, 2020)).

With the pandemic raging, attorneys representing non-violent defendants in the federal system confront a vexing question: Where does traditional communal incarceration stand in the face of a pandemic that demands social distancing?