76-Year-Old Woman Arrested After Missing Phone Call During Class Released From Prison

Gwen Levi, the older woman who was arrested after she failed to pick up a phone call from officials during her computer class, was released from prison.

Levi was released on Tuesday after U.S. District Judge Deborah C. Chasanow granted her a compassionate release, noting that serving her whole sentence “would do little” for Levi, a nonviolent offender and in remission from lung cancer.

Judge Chasanow wrote in a four-page ruling that “During her (Levi’s) incarceration, she took many courses, worked and completed drug education,” adding that the 76-year-old had “done well on home confinement” before her arrest.

Levi was in the middle of serving more than 30 years for drug conspiracy charges when her sentence was commuted as part of the “First Step Act”— a bill signed during Donald Trump’s administration, which reduced punishments for nonviolent drug offenders.

Levi later became one of more than 24,000 federal prisoners permitted to serve the remainder of their sentence at home due to the pandemic.

The older woman’s home confinement was initially interrupted by a Justice Department memo that ruled that inmates with sentences that extend beyond the pandemic must return to the prison facilities to serve the remaining portion of their time behind bars.

After she missed several phone calls from officials at her halfway house, Levi was eventually arrested last month.