Congress passes Federal Prison Oversight Act after Senate approves bill by unanimous consent

In these partisan times, Congress has shown yet again that some forms of criminal justice reform can garner not just bipartisan support, but near unanimous support.  This AP article, headlined “Congress OKs bill overhauling oversight of troubled federal Bureau of Prisons,” reports on the latest notable variation of this story at the federal level:

The Senate passed legislation Wednesday to overhaul oversight and bring greater transparency to the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons following reporting from The Associated Press that exposed systemic corruption in the federal prison system and increased congressional scrutiny.

The Federal Prison Oversight Act, which the House passed in May, now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. It establishes an independent ombudsman for the agency to field and investigate complaints in the wake of rampant sexual abuse and other criminal misconduct by staff, chronic understaffing, escapes and high-profile deaths.

It also requires that the Justice Department’s Inspector General conduct risk-based inspections of all 122 federal prison facilities, provide recommendations to address deficiencies and assign each facility a risk score. Higher-risk facilities would then receive more frequent inspections.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., introduced the bill in 2022 while leading an investigation of the Bureau of Prisons as chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on investigations. It passed unanimously Wednesday without a formal roll call vote, meaning no senator objected.

Ossoff and the bill’s two other sponsors, Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., launched the Senate Bipartisan Prison Policy Working Group in February 2022 amid turmoil at the Bureau of Prisons, much of it uncovered by AP reporting. Reps. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., and Lucy McBath, D-Ga., backed the House version of the bill.

In a statement, Ossoff called Wednesday’s passage “a major milestone” and that his investigation had “revealed an urgent need to overhaul Federal prison oversight.”

Advocates for incarcerated people also praised the bill’s passage. “After all the headlines, scandals, and controversy that have plagued the Bureau of Prisons for decades, we’re very happy to see this Congress take action to bring transparency and accountability to an agency that has gone so long without it,” said Daniel Landsman, the vice president of policy for the advocacy group FAMM.

Jonathan Zumkehr, the union president at a federal prison in Thomson, Illinois, said the legislation will also help protect prison workers.  At his facility, female staff members were subject to more than 1,600 instances of sexual harassment and abuse by inmates from 2019 to 2023, and had little recourse to stop it, he said….

Under the legislation, an independent federal prison ombudsman would collect complaints via a secure hotline and online form and then investigate and report to the attorney general and Congress dangerous conditions affecting the health, safety, welfare and rights of inmates and staff.

Along with inspecting prison facilities, the legislation requires the Justice Department’s Inspector General to report any findings and recommendations to Congress and the public.  The Bureau of Prisons would then need to respond with a corrective action plan within 60 days.