Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Will Not Be Released From Prison Early

After initial reports last week that former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick would most likely be freed from jail, it turns out that’s not the case, according to The Detroit News.

A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman told The Detroit News earlier this week that officials had reviewed Kilpatrick’s case and refused to release him to home confinement. The review appeared to be part of a broader effort to release prisoners due to attempts to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus that has so far killed 64 federal inmates nationwide.

“On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Prisons reviewed and denied inmate Kwame Kilpatrick for home confinement,” the Bureau of Prisons office of public affairs wrote in an email to The Detroit News. Kilpatrick will remain incarcerated at the low-security prison in Oakdale, LA. His expected release date is January 2037.

He was convicted on 24 counts of public corruption including bribery, racketeering, and fraud.

In a press release that was issued last week, the Ebony Foundation claimed that Kilpatrick “has been granted early release after spending 7 years of a 28-year sentence.”

“He said that he was being released,” state Rep. Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit, who has been pushing for Kilpatrick’s freedom said, adding: “I’m elated for him. … An out is an out. … He’s done his time. And I think, ‘My God when is long enough long enough.’”

Whitsett also told the Detroit Free Press that she’d confirmed with the White House that Kilpatrick is among 3,000 inmates who will be released.

Kilpatrick, who was convicted and jailed for multiple public corruption crimes, is currently in a federal prison in Louisiana after he was convicted in 2013 of 24 charges including extortion, mail fraud, and tax violations. He has requested a commutation of his prison term from the White House after losing all filed appeals. He maintains that he was wrongfully convicted and railroaded by overzealous prosecutors.