Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort — Donald Trump's former lawyer and his former campaign manager — are among the relatively few federal prisoners to win early release amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many others remain behind bars, lacking legal help and connections to make their cases, experts say.

"I don't wish for bad things to happen to these people," said Melissa Ketter, a Minnesota woman whose daughter is in federal prison for a nonviolent drug crime. "But it's like can everybody be treated the same?"