Federal Prison Oversight Act Becomes Law
On July 25, 2024, Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D) signed into law the Federal Prison Oversight Act, now codified at 5 U.S.C. § 413. The law takes effect 90 days after appropriations are made available by Congress to implement and carry out the Act.
The Act requires the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) to “conduct period inspections” of all 122 lockups operated by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), though not post-incarceration residential re-entry centers. Inspections require an assessment of a broad swath of information, including: staffing levels and working conditions; overall conditions of confinement; the availability of evidence-based rehabilitative programs; prisoner classification and housing policies; segregation policies and practices; the availability and effectiveness of medical and mental health services; the use of lockdowns; prisoner deaths; use of excessive force or sexual assaults against prisoners; and prisoner access to legal counsel.
These inspections must be conducted on a schedule developed by the OIG, which will assign each facility a risk-level based on the results. Higher-risk facilities must be inspected more often. The OIG is required to prepare a report to Congress following each inspection, which must include recommendations for improving conditions, and make the report available to the public. BOP must respond in writing to these reports with a “corrective action plan,” which must also be made publicly available on the OIG webpage.
The Act also mandates the creation of an ombudsman within the DOJ to receive complaints from prisoners, their families or legal representatives about alleged abuse; inadequate medical care; substandard conditions of confinement; failure to respond to grievances by the BOP; and policy or law violations by BOP staff. The ombudsman is authorized to refer complaints to other federal agencies or appropriate resources, as well as making inquiries and recommending corrective actions on behalf of the complainant. A complaint deemed meritless may be closed. The ombudsman must inform the complainant in writing of its actions. The BOP is required to cooperate with the ombudsman’s investigation and respond to any recommendations in writing.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) introduced the Act in 2022, following the arrest of former Warden Ray Garcia and two other staffers who sexually abused prisoners at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. As PLN reported, the scandal eventually widened to include seven staffers, and BOP closed the lockup that had become known as the “rape club.” [See: PLN, May 2022, p.28; and July 2024, p.13.] Meanwhile, a wide-ranging, multi-year AP News investigation exposed systemic corruption and abuses at the BOP.
The Act passed the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 392-2 in May 2024 and unanimously passed the Senate without amendment on July 10, 2024. Biden signed it into law a few weeks later.
It remains to be seen what impact this legislation will have, if any, on the notoriously horrendous conditions of confinement, mismanagement and prisoner abuses at BOP prisons. At a minimum, the Act should increase BOP’s transparency, as well as public awareness of the way it treats those in its custody.
Additional source: AP News
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