Breaking: President Biden Signs into Law Prison Oversight Bill that Passed Congress with Near Unanimous Support
By Daniel Landsman and Kevin Hagan
The 118th Congress has been defined by intense partisan gridlock — a product of an increasingly polarized electorate. The majority of Americans believe there is little to no common ground between the Democratic and Republican parties on many of today’s hot-button issues.
Despite this, members of Congress came together to pass comprehensive prison reform legislation by a nearly unanimous vote. On Wednesday, July 10, Congress successfully passed the Federal Prison Oversight Act (FPOA), a massive step forward in increasing transparency and accountability within our federal prisons. Today, July 25, President Joe Biden signed the bill into law.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which oversees these institutions, incarcerates over 150,000 people and employs tens of thousands of staff members with an annual budget of more than $8 billion. Yet, until now, the BOP has operated with limited independent oversight. The consequences have been disastrous for correctional staff, incarcerated individuals, and the families of both.
The BOP has been rife with scandal for decades but a series of recent investigations has uncovered the depth of the problems. This includes the details of inhumane conditions in Kansas’ USP Leavenworth prison, where incarcerated people were deprived of food and water; the preventable deaths in facilities such as the infamous prison in Hazelton, West Virginia; and the absolutely horrifying stories of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse at California’s FCI Dublin women’s prison and the opacity surrounding the facility’s closure.
With this vote, Congress has sent a clear, bipartisan message that the conditions within our federal Bureau of Prisons must improve, not only for the incarcerated population and correctional staff, but for their families as well.
Under the FPOA, the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General will be charged with assigning a risk score to every federal correctional facility under BOP’s jurisdiction and conducting inspections based on the risks. The bill also creates a Correctional Ombudsman position, who will be charged with carrying out targeted investigations of complaints lodged by designated individuals. These include: an incarcerated individual, a family advocate, a representative of the incarcerated individual, BOP staff, a representative of BOP staff, a Member of Congress, or a member of the federal judiciary.
This independent oversight structure will be essential to addressing the underlying issues within the BOP. Too often, the issues plaguing our federal prison system only come to light when they have reached a fever pitch. With comprehensive independent oversight, we will be better equipped to address problems in real time before they become full-blown crises.
FPOA passed the House by a vote of 392–2, and passed the Senate by unanimous consent, demonstrating that accountability and oversight are not partisan issues. In fact, polling has found that 82 percent of Americans support independent oversight for our nation’s prisons. The overwhelming support of the public was crucial in getting this bipartisan bill over the finish line.
What can we take away from the passage of FPOA? We have yet again seen that there’s still strong bipartisan interest in the continued improvement of our beleaguered criminal justice system, which is good news because there’s still so much more that needs to be done. Congress should continue to pursue bipartisan criminal justice reform on the heels of FPOA’s success for the sake of the health and safety of those who live and work in our federal prisons and their families.
Daniel Landsman is FAMM’s Vice President of Policy. Kevin Hagan is FAMM’s Director of Federal Legislative Affairs.
