The Federal Bureau of Prisons has long been an agency in crisis, with poorly managed facilities that are unsafe for inmates and employees alike.<\/p>\n
In March, The Washington Post reported on three critical federal watchdog reports released that month alone and the BOP\u2019s inclusion last year on the Government Accountability Office\u2019s biennial \u201cHigh-Risk List\u201d because it has such serious, ongoing problems.<\/p>\n
Now, finally, Congress is working to change the BOP\u2019s noxious reputation with last week\u2019s 41-1 approval of the Federal Prison Oversight Act, by the often partisan House Oversight and Accountability Committee.<\/p>\n
Perhaps by coincidence, the bureau this week announced the closing of one of the most disgraceful prisons, the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., a women\u2019s facility that the Associated Press reported had gained the moniker \u201crape club\u201d among workers and prisoners. Even a former warden and chaplain there were convicted on sexual abuse charges.<\/p>\n
Instead of calling for new facilities or big staffing increases, the bill focuses on transparency and an \u201cinspection regime\u201d bolstered by an empowered Justice Department inspector general and a new ombudsman position exclusively for the prison agency. With \u201caccess to all Bureau facilities\u201d at any time, without prior notice, as the bill provides, they could shine light on the system\u2019s dark and dangerous practices.<\/p>\n
Rep. Lucy McBath\u2019s motivation to introduce the bill was personal, but not in the way you might expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son, Jordan Davis, was killed at just 17 years old by a man with a gun who is now serving a life sentence in prison,\u201d the Georgia Democrat said by email. \u201cThrough my family\u2019s pain, I have found the strength to forgive my son\u2019s killer. I heard from advocates and leadership within the Department of Justice and Bureau of Prisons that additional reforms were needed to protect staff and incarcerated individuals in our prison system, so I introduced this bill in the House.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March, David C. Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project, lambasted the BOP as \u201ca profoundly broken agency\u201d in a Post interview. Now he is more optimistic, describing the bill in a phone interview as \u201ca major step forward for transparency. \u2026 Prison oversight is just essential. Prisons are closed institutions, and they house people who are unpopular and politically powerless. So, without some kind of oversight, that is a recipe for neglect and mistreatment and abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the bill, which must be approved by the full House and Senate before becoming law, the Justice Department\u2019s inspector general would conduct periodic prison inspections. The attorney general would be mandated to ensure the inspectors have \u201caccess to any covered facility, including the incarcerated people, detainees, staff, bargaining unit representative organization, and any other information\u201d needed.<\/p>\n
The legislation says the assessments \u201cmay include\u201d incarceration conditions; staff adequacy and working conditions; availability of recidivism-reduction programs; solitary- and restrictive-confinement practices; prison medical and mental health services; and violence, sexual abuse and excessive-force allegations.<\/p>\n
After the inspections, a report on the findings would be available to Congress, employee organizations and the public. Prison officials would have 60 days to respond in writing to the report, which must include a \u201ccorrective action plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u201crisk score\u201d based on a variety of issues would be developed for each facility by the inspector general\u2019s office and sent to the House and Senate judiciary committees. Higher-risk prisons would be inspected more frequently.<\/p>\n
One new element in prison accountability would be a dedicated prison ombudsman who takes complaints from inmates, employees or others \u201cregarding issues that may adversely affect the health, safety, welfare, or rights of incarcerated people or staff.\u201d The ombudsman would decide the merits of each complaint and report the findings to the BOP. If the ombudsman believes there are ongoing, \u201csignificant health, safety, welfare, working conditions, or rehabilitation\u201d issues, the official would report that to the attorney general and Congress. The ombudsman also would be empowered to monitor internal disciplinary actions \u201cto ensure a fair and objective process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The oversight act also calls for reporting tools such as an online form and a telephone hotline for \u201crepresentatives of incarcerated people\u201d and \u201cmultiple internal ways for incarcerated individuals\u201d to privately submit complaints.<\/p>\n
As with Fathi, other strong critics of the BOP welcomed the legislation.<\/p>\n
After describing problems from his years as a federal inmate in two facilities, including inadequate health and emotional care, dirty conditions, and poor diets, Eddie Ellis, a 48-year-old resident of Montgomery County, Md., praised the bill for creating a \u201ccheck box on making sure that you humanize the people in those spaces.\u201d He\u2019s been out 18 years and now is a co-director of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not just a check box, he added, pointing to measures that included input from families so that \u201cif something is not happening right, something can take place before it gets too bad or worse than what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel Landsman, a vice president of the criminal justice organization FAMM (formerly Families Against Mandatory Minimums), said that \u201cthis bill would give us, for the first time, really comprehensive, and well fleshed out, independent oversight of our federal prison system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bipartisan nature of the bill was indicated by the Conservative Political Action Conference\u2019s endorsement. David Safavian, general counsel for the American Conservative Union, CPAC\u2019s parent organization, praised \u201cincreased prison oversight,\u201d saying the BOP \u201cspends $8 billion of taxpayer money each year \u2014 with little meaningful oversight by policymakers.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the policymakers and lawmakers who are ultimately responsible for prisons that are \u201cthe one place where we take full care and custody and control over people,\u201d said Rep. Kelly Armstrong (N.D.), a Republican sponsor of the bill. \u201cIs this going to solve it all? Probably not. But this is a step in the right direction in figuring out where we are really derelict and where funds are best needed to get up to speed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has long been an agency in crisis, with poorly managed facilities that are unsafe for inmates and employees alike. In March, The Washington Post reported on three critical federal watchdog reports released that month alone and the BOP\u2019s inclusion last year on the Government Accountability Office\u2019s biennial \u201cHigh-Risk List\u201d because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}