Gwen Levi, a Grandmother Didn’t Answer Her Phone During a Class, Headed Back to Prison

Gwen Levi is headed back to prison and not for a major crime, but for missing a phone call.

What We Know:

• Levi, 76, was arrested for conspiracy to sell at least a kilogram of heroin and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. She was sent to various facilities in Maryland, Alabama, and Texas. Last year, she was released after serving 16 years as a part of former President Donald Trump’s administration’s attempt to prevent prisoners from getting COVID-19. Trump released close to 4,500 inmates who qualified for early dismissal.
• Levi returned home to her 94-year-old mother in Baltimore, MD, and volunteered with multiple prison advocacy organizations. She was taking a computer-processing course, with hopes that the new skills would help her get a job. Levi also was rekindling relationships with her children and grandchildren.
• The senior citizen was in class at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor when her supervisor noticed her ankle monitor wasn’t at home. They were unable to get in contact with the grandma for a few hours and finally saw her location was back home. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has classified this incident as an escape, as she left home and missed phone calls from her supervisors. According to the Washington Post, Levi has been sitting in a Washington, D.C. jail since June 12th while she awaits transfer.
• Sapna Mirchandani, Levi’s lawyer, has expressed to officials that there is no doubt that her client was in class at the time of the missed calls. She stated that she was informed that “because [Levi] could have been robbing a bank, they’re going to treat her as if she was robbing a bank.” Levi has expressed her devastation with her arrest and felt like she was doing all the right things to start over.

“Breaking rules is not who I am. I tried to explain what happened, and to tell the truth. At no time did I think I wasn’t supposed to go to that class. I apologize to my mother and my family for what this is doing to them,” said Levi.

• Inmates who were released early due to the pandemic may face the same fate as Levi. During Trump’s final days, the U.S. Department of Justice put out a memo that stated, “inmates whose sentences lasted beyond the ‘pandemic emergency period’ would have to go back to prison.” Before leaving office, Trump pardoned inmates who were allies of his and soldiers who were convicted of killing unarmed civilians.
• President Joe Biden has the executive power to revoke the policy established under Trump, and many are asking him to keep these inmates under home confinement. Criminal justice reform was one of Biden’s selling points during the election and he claimed he would “cut the prison population by more than half and expand programs that offered alternatives to detention.”

Kristie Breshears, a spokeswoman for the BOP, said that it’s the bureau staff’s decision on if an inmate will remain home or be forced back into prison. The BOP will take into consideration inmates who are nearing their sentencing and those who still have time left will be looked at after the pandemic ends. Until the Biden administration makes a decision, many inmates are left in limbo regarding their life.