Congressman Fred Keller (R-PA) was on Fox News’ Fox & Friends First Monday morning where he talked about his ongoing efforts to halt federal inmate movement immediately for the duration of the COVID-19 national emergency, including the PANDEMIC Act, which he introduced last week with bipartisan support.
Congressman Keller also discussed Pennsylvania’s mitigation efforts and how the federal response has allowed people to stay at home and stay safe while having the economic burden reduced.
Here are some excerpts from the Keller interview relative to the inmate movement issue:
“When we had heard that there were going to be transfers, we got with the Bureau of Prisons. They’ve slowed those down, but our stance is that they need to stop those transfers immediately from one place in the country to another.”
“We want to make sure that we, as the federal government, are also making sure that the spread doesn’t happen because we are transferring inmates.”
“The Bureau of Prisons moves [inmates] from one location to another and what we are simply saying is that since we are in a shelter-in-place situation here in Pennsylvania, what they should be doing in the prison system is sheltering those inmates in place rather than doing any transfers.”
“They thought we needed legislation, so we introduced legislation, but it’s our opinion that they control the movement and they need to stop it now.”
You can watch the interview in full HERE.
