We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
MIKE CARVAJAL’S LEGACY
The Associated Press reported last Friday that a bipartisan group of senators led by Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mike Braun (R-IN) has launched a working group “aimed at developing policies and proposals to strengthen oversight of the beleaguered federal prison system and improve communication between the Bureau of Prisons and Congress.”
Senator Ossoff said in a press release that the Senators will “examine conditions of incarceration in U.S. Federal prisons, protect human rights, and promote transparency.”
The AP says the task force – which calls itself the Senate Bipartisan Prison Policy Working Group – formed “following reporting by The Associated Press that uncovered widespread corruption and abuse in federal prisons.”
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) will be part of the group.
AP has called the federal prison system “a hotbed of corruption and misconduct… [that] has been plagued by myriad crises in recent years, including widespread criminal activity among employees, systemic sexual abuse at a federal women’s prison in California, critically low staffing levels that have hampered responses to emergencies, the rapid spread of COVID-19, a failed response to the pandemic and dozens of escapes.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed serious weaknesses in our federal prison system, but also provided a blueprint for reform. Congress should take an active role in ensuring that BOP builds on the lessons of the pandemic to ensure the safety of incarcerated persons and the community, promote rehabilitation and reentry, and maximize alternatives to incarceration,” Kyle O’Dowd, Associate Executive Director for National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said. “The Prison Policy Working Group can open a bipartisan dialogue on these issues and lead the way in creating a more humane and rational prison system.”
David Safavian, General Counsel, American Conservative Union, said, “It is high time that Congress addresses issues facing both federal prisoners and correctional officers alike. The newly created Senate Prison Policy Working Group must help develop policies that strengthen public safety, advance human dignity, and ensure that the prison bureaucracy is held accountable for the results it delivers to the taxpayers.”
Ossoff and Braun recently introduced legislation recently that will require the director of the BOP to be confirmed by the Senate, legislation co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of senators including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Associated Press, Senate launches group to examine embattled US prison system (February 17, 2022)
Senator Jon Ossoff, Sens. Ossoff, Braun Launch Bipartisan Working Group to Examine U.S. Prison Conditions, Promote Transparency (February 17, 2022)
The Hill, Senate group to examine federal prison system after corruption, abuse allegations (February 18, 2022)
– Thomas L. Root