By Chris Villani

Law360 (March 19, 2020, 12:24 PM EDT) -- The district attorney whose jurisdiction includes Boston announced Thursday that her office would work with the defense bar to identify people in custody who should be released for public health reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rachael Rollins, the first-term Suffolk County DA, said the uncertain landscape caused by the novel coronavirus has left her office seeking to identify prisoners who are vulnerable due to their health, age, socioeconomic status, or other traits that put them at risk for contracting or spreading the disease. Those who fit the criteria and would not cause any risk to the public will be released, Rollins said.

"There will be circumstances where the risk to public safety outweighs any justification for release," Rollins said. "However, we are committed to working with the criminal defense bar in identifying those individuals whose release we deem urgent and necessary for public health reasons."

At a time when people have been urged to practice social distancing to slow the pandemic's spread, Rollins noted that those who are in prison cannot keep themselves away from fellow inmates or guards.

"We need to seriously consider pathways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 for our incarcerated populations, the overwhelming majority of which will return to our communities at some point in the future," Rollins said.

The DA also suggested her office would raise the standard for requesting cash bail for new offenses, choosing to release people on their own recognizance in most cases.

"Now more than ever, if we are going to ask the court to detain someone pre-trial on a cash bail, we will do so only after critically weighing any public health risk against our legitimate concerns for public safety," Rollins said.

The announcement from the Boston DA comes amid a flurry of activity in the Bay State legal community aimed at addressing the crisis. State courts are closed except for the most urgent matters, and most hearings at both the state and federal level are happening over the phone.

During one such teleconference hearing Wednesday, the chief judge for the District of Massachusetts, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, said the federal court's IT professionals are scrambling to get the court and its employees up and running for virtual hearings, primarily so that criminal defendants can appear.

Judge Saylor also said the criminal backlog may end up impacting civil trials that were on the docket in the coming months.

Middlesex County District Attorney Marian T. Ryan said Wednesday her office is working with the county sheriff and other law enforcement officials to put a public safety plan in place during the crisis.

"This plan includes advising issuing summons for arraignments when possible and making arrests only where there is no public safety alternative," Ryan said.

The prosecutor will also be reviewing the bail status of some people in custody to see whether their incarceration should be reevaluated due to specific health considerations.

Meanwhile, Lawyers For Civil Rights in Boston has called on the IRS to extend the filing deadline for individual tax returns in light of the coronavirus. While the deadline to pay taxes has been extended, the filing deadline remains firm at April 15, leading to a rush on tax preparers during the pandemic.

"Over the next week, we fully expect that more cities across the country will follow guidance from public health authorities and urge residents to shelter in place and quarantine," LCR said in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.

"This will make it extremely difficult for people to comply with the April 15 filing deadline," LCR added. "The IRS must extend the individual tax filing deadline by at least two months to minimize the risk of infection as people file their tax returns."

--Editing by Marygrace Murphy.

For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.