Congress receives recent oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons

Aside from the overwhelming criticism of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), there may be little on Capitol Hill that unites the 2 parties. U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff’s bipartisan bill to strengthen BOP oversight has passed the U.S. Senate and now goes to the President to develop into law. The bill comes shortly after reports of staff corruption, inmate mistreatment, prison closures, and delays in fully implementing the First Step Act. Senator Ossoff has been an advocate for BOP reform, holding hearings on the “rape club” at the ladies’s prison FCI Dublin, which has since been closed, and rampant corruption at USP Atlanta (now a low-security FCI Atlanta).

The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), led by IG Michael Horowitz, has conducted quite a few investigations into understaffing, poor medical care in prisons, inedible food, and decaying facilities. The OIG even has a piece on its website with reports that Compendium of BOP ProblemsMany of those are still open, some were brought on by unannounced OIG inspections.

The non-partisan Federal Prison Supervision Act would require the OIG to conduct comprehensive, risk-based inspections of the BOP’s 122 correctional facilities, make recommendations to correct problems, and assign a risk rating to every facility, with higher-risk facilities requiring more frequent inspections. The OIG will report its findings and suggestions to Congress and the general public, and the BOP must reply to all inspection reports inside 60 days with a corrective motion plan. The BOP has a history of failing to comply with congressional requests.

The bill also establishes an independent ombudsman to analyze the health, safety, welfare and rights of inmates and staff, including the BOP’s compliance with the First Step Act, a comprehensive law that, even after five years, continues to be tormented by problems that lead to inmates being held for longer than obligatoryThe office would establish a secure hotline and an internet form through which relations, friends and representatives of inmates can submit complaints and inquiries.

Senator Ossoff’s office issued the next statement on the bill: “My bipartisan Senate investigations into corruption, abuse, and misconduct in the federal prison system have found that an urgent overhaul of federal prison oversight is urgently needed. I now look forward to President Biden signing and signing our bipartisan bill into law.”

IG Michael Horwitz also issued an announcement, saying, “I applaud Congress’s passage of the Federal Prison Oversight Act and the overwhelming bipartisan support for greater oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Last year, OIG launched an unannounced inspection program of BOP facilities. The inspections we conducted identified critical deficiencies in BOP operations, including understaffing in health and education programs, infrastructure in dire need of repair, and moldy and spoiled food served to inmates.”

BOP Director Colette Peters inherited an agency that needed a significant overhaul when the previous Director Michael Carvajal was pushed to resign in January 2022 after having an ongoing relationship with Congress. While Peters has made progress on the First Step Act and transparency efforts, her high-profile interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes was criticized for her handling of the abuse of ladies in FCI DublinPeters had promised a more lenient BOP that emphasized returning to higher residents after serving a jail sentence.

The BOP issued an announcement appearing to welcome the oversight. The statement reads: “The Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) welcomes congressional oversight and looks forward to working with Congress to implement the bipartisan Federal Prison Oversight Act. The FBOP will require additional resources to ensure it can respond to the additional oversight and other requirements of the Act.”

On November 7, 2023, Director Peters stated before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Surveillance: “As I have said many times, I believe in accountability, oversight and transparency. I know we cannot do this work alone. The only thing I would ask is that if you consider additional oversight in the legislation, that we be given the appropriate resources so that I am not caught off guard with additional requests and additional oversight for information and then we do not have the staff and resources to respond in a timely and efficient manner.”

I spoke with Hugh Hurwitz, former deputy director of the BOP, concerning the bill and the BOP’s response. “Director Peters is 100 percent correct about the resources needed to give this bill the power it needs to address serious problems within the BOP,” Hurwitz said. The bill has two parts: one creating an ombudsman office inside the BOP, the opposite requiring the inspector general to report on facilities. Both parts would require significant resources to be effective.

“The ombudsman’s office is going to be inundated with calls once that office exists,” Hurwitz said. “Any time a family member or somebody else has a problem or an attorney has a problem with the BOP, they’re going to call that office, and I estimate they’re going to get thousands and thousands of calls, and they need money to not only answer those calls, but to handle them.” Right now, the BOP has a systemic staffing problem that has led to closures at several facilities, staff transfers from one location to a different, and poor morale from overworked employees.

Another issue is funding the bill, because it is just not a part of the budget for fiscal yr 2025, which begins Oct. 1, 2024. Hurwitz said, “Remember, any time Congress passes a bill like this Oversight Act, which is great, it just passes a bill, but it’s the Appropriations Committee that actually funds it.” Without funding, the bill has no meaning. Hurwitz noted that Congress is already in negotiations over the upcoming budget and it seems unlikely that anything can be added for this bill in the approaching yr. “Expect funding in late 2026 and another year to get things going and another year after that to see real results,” Hurwitz said.