Senate Judiciary Committeee hearing scheduled for “Examining and Preventing Deaths of Incarcerated Individuals in Federal Prisons”

In this post a few weeks ago, I noted the DOJ Inspector General’s new report on issues surrounding inmate deaths in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).  This report, which “identified several operational and managerial deficiencies that created unsafe conditions prior to and at the time of a number of these deaths,” has now lead to a congressional hearing. 

As detailed here, the full US Senate Judiciary Committee will be conducting a hearing on the morning of February 28, 2024, focused on “Examining and Preventing Deaths of Incarcerated Individuals in Federal Prisons.”  As of this writing, the only scheduled witnesses for this hearing are Michael Horowitz, DOJ’s Inspector General, and Colette Peters, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  

My sense is that Congress has conducted any number of hearings relating to any number of problems with BOP “operational and managerial deficiencies” that contribute to harmful and deadly prison conditions.  I hope this latest hearing might help advance legislative action to address BOP problems, though it is always seemingly easier for Congress to talk about problems than to act on them.