Gwen Levi, 76, had served 16 years in different prisons for heroin trafficking and in June of last year she was finally able to go out on the streets.
He could finish his 24-year sentence in home confinement under the supervision of prison officials.
But a year later they sent her back behind bars.
The first thing Levi did was move to Baltimore with his 94-year-old mother.
There she started a new life and volunteered with prisoner advocacy organizations, hoping to get paid work.
He also contacted his children and grandchildren.
[California gives 76,000 inmates a chance to get out of jail early. Lifetime benefits included]
On June 12, the woman attended a computer class.
While receiving lessons, she left her phone unattended and was out of contact for a few hours with supervising officials, according to the incident report from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Levi is now in jail in Washington, DC, awaiting transfer to a federal facility, according to his attorney, Sapna Mirchandani, of the Maryland Office of the Federal Public Defender.
"There is no doubt that she was in class. As I was told, she could have been robbing a bank, they are going to treat her that way,"
Mirchandani said.
Levi is one of the roughly 4,500 federal prisoners sent to house confinement last year to reduce the chances of them catching the coronavirus.
Activists celebrated the Trump Administration's move and hoped that President Biden would continue to keep the expresses at home even after the pandemic abated.
[A Latina who spent 18 years in prison is released from jail on charges of killing the baby she was caring for. It could all be an accident]
But the White House appears to be following President Donald Trump's lead regarding a Justice Department memo calling for nearly everyone to return to jail when the public health emergency is over.
Sanctions "are not imposed in a capricious or retaliatory manner," he recalled, and office staff "are the determining factor in making decisions about the transfer of an inmate," Kristie A. Breshears, a spokeswoman for the Post, told the Post. Bureau of Prisons.
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Breshears added that the Bureau of Prisons could decide to allow inmates near the end of their sentences to remain in home confinement after the pandemic.
"For the most difficult cases, where prisoners still have years of sentence left, this will be a problem only after the pandemic is over," he added.
The Biden Administration supports a bill to end the disparity in sentences for crack-related misdemeanors [cocaine dissolved in a mixture of water and ammonia or sodium bicarbonate and sold in rock or stone form] and the powdered cocaine.
[A fight between rival gangs leaves 6 dead and 9 injured in a prison in Mexico]
According to the incident report from Levi's Bureau of Prisons, supervising officers were alerted by her ankle monitor that she was not at home and she did not answer calls to her phone for the next several hours.
The report called the incident an "escape."
In a statement released by Mirchandani, Levi said she was "devastated."
"I feel like I was trying to do everything the right way. Breaking the rules is not part of me. I tried to explain what happened and tell the truth. I never thought I should not go to that class. I apologize to my mother and my family because of what this is doing to them, "Levi explained.
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Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, said that if the Justice Department does not rescind the memorandum, the government could use another legal tool: clemency.
Osler said he has spoken with administration officials about that possibility.
But such grants could prove controversial as Biden announces measures to combat violent crime amid an increase in violence across the country.
["I am innocent": Sara Rogel, sentenced to 30 years in prison in El Salvador after suffering an obstetric emergency, is released]
Moving prisoners to home confinement during the pandemic has proven to be safe, according to Osler, but
as national leaders debate criminal justice, Levi is back behind bars
.
Her son, Craig, stated that it was a blessing to have his mother at home.
Now she's gone.
"We do not understand how things got out of hand. It is unjustified, the stress they put on the family," he lamented to the Post.
With information from The Washington Post.
