Federal prison system to begin moving nearly 7K inmates

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal Bureau of Prisons will begin moving about 6,800 inmates from local detention centers across the U.S. after severely curtailing inmate movement for several months.

Officials said on Friday that the inmates have been held at local detention facilities and will be sent either to one of three designated quarantine sites or to a Bureau of Prisons detention center.

Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal said that expanded testing capacity will help to mitigate the spread of coronavirus in the federal prison system. The bureau said that it has worked to decrease internal movement of inmates by about 90% as compared to this time last year.