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The federal Bureau of Prisons said Tuesday that it would keep thousands of inmates at facilities nationwide locked in their cells with limited exceptions for the next 14 days as officials try to stem the spread of the coronavirus after one prisoner died and more prisoners and staff tested positive for the disease. Prison officials stopped short of calling the rare move a lockdown but said inmates would only be allowed out in small groups for things such as showers, commissary and phone calls. (Gurman and Paul, 3/31)

One man was accused of stealing whiskey from a drugstore. A homeless man had allegedly refused to leave a hotel lobby. A woman had walked out of a grocery store without paying for a cart full of food worth $375, according to the police. These are among the people the New Orleans Police Department arrested and booked into the city jail during the past 10 days, as it became clear that the city was at the center of one of the nation’s fastest-growing covid-19 hotspots. (Webster, Brown and Kindy, 3/31)

Two men allegedly involved in a robbery where a New York City police detective was killed in friendly fire were among the violent offenders on the list of inmates slated to be released from the infamous Rikers Island jail complex due to the coronavirus pendemic, until prosecutors intervened, multiple sources told ABC News. ... The only thing that kept alleged violent offenders from being released was the intervention of the city’s five district attorneys, who said in a joint letter issued Monday that “we want to make clear that the categories of those proposed for release have, in some instances, included individuals who pose a high risk to public safety.” (Carrega and Katersky, 3/31)

California is granting early release to 3,500 inmates in an effort to reduce crowding as coronavirus infections begin spreading through the state prison system. Lawyers for Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday told a panel of federal judges the state is taking “extraordinary and unprecedented protective measures” to slow the spread of the virus and protect those who live and work within California’s 35 prisons. The accelerated prison discharges — affecting inmates due to be released over the next 60 days — come in the face of pressure to do much more. (St. John, 3/31)