Trump ally Stone must surrender to prison by June 30, won’t need to go to quarantine site

Just last week, the agency said it would “process all newly-sentenced Bureau inmates through one of three quarantine sites.”

By the end of June, he’ll be Inmate No. 19579-104.

But Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, will start his prison sentence without needing to comply with a Bureau of Prisons directive that newly sentenced inmates be sent to a federal quarantine site.

Just last week, the agency said it would “process all newly-sentenced Bureau inmates through one of three quarantine sites” or at a federal detention facility. But that won’t be the case for Stone.

Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Sue Allison told The Associated Press that Stone is supposed to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by June 30 and will not be required to go to a quarantine facility. That’s because he’s voluntarily surrendering, she said. The agency has an exemption for those who are voluntarily surrendering, absolving them of the requirement to be sent to a quarantine site, a policy designed to stop the spread of coronavirus that has exploded in the federal prison system. The exception was not laid out in the policy the agency made public last week.

Advocates have raised alarms for years about racial disparities of so-called “voluntary surrenders” which typically happen in cases with special circumstances or involve affluent or high-profile defendants.

Stone will need to quarantine for 14 days at the prison where he surrenders, Allison said. The agency will not say where he’ll serve his prison sentence.

As of Thursday, 4,979 inmates had tested positive for Covid-19 since late March; the Bureau of Prisons has said 3,232 had recovered. At least 60 inmates have died.

The response from the federal Bureau of Prisons coronavirus has raised alarm among advocates and lawmakers about whether the agency is doing enough to ensure the safety of the about 137,000 inmates serving time in federal facilities.