In granting the early release of a medically vulnerable felon from prison, U.S. District Judge Anita Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said that prisons are “tinderboxes for infectious disease” that could exacerbate the coronavirus pandemic.

Brody’s decision to release inmate Jeremy Rodriguez—who has served 17 years of a 20-year sentence for drug and firearm charges—comes after several of her peers on the federal bench have approved similar requests in a short span of time under the “compassionate release” statute.