FAMM Member Tells Senate Judiciary Committee: We Need Federal Oversight!
By FAMM Foundation
On Sept. 29, 2022, FAMM member and returning citizen Cecilia Cardenas testified in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.” The day before marked the introduction of the bipartisan Federal Prison Oversight Act, which would establish independent oversight of the nation’s 122 federal prisons.
Cecilia’s testimony had a big impact on the committee, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), pictured above with her. As Cecilia describes it: “It was an incredible experience, fundamental to my healing process. It was amazing to know that I was a part of something that aims to bring transparency and accountability to a place where harassment and intimidation are the norm.”
Portions of the Statement of Cecilia Cardenas
Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons”
September 29, 2022
Thank you for the opportunity to testify at today’s hearing. My name is Cecilia Cardenas.
I was born in Breckenridge, Texas, and grew up in Davenport, Iowa.
While in college, I had a boyfriend who sold drugs and I made the terrible decision to sell drugs too. […] I was sentenced to ten years in federal prison and served most of my sentence in FPC Bryan and part in FPC Pekin.
I benefited when Congress passed the CARES Act, which allowed people like me who were not convicted of violent crimes and were determined to be low risk, to go to home confinement if we had served at least half of our sentences. […] In January of this year, four years after the First Step Act passed, the Justice Department announced its plan for implementing the earned time credit provision. I learned that I would be able to redeem 365 days of my credit and move from home confinement to supervised release. I didn’t have a whole year left on my sentence at that point, but the change allowed me to leave home confinement a month early. I got the news on January 13, 2022, and got my ankle monitor removed the next day.
I am glad this committee is holding this oversight hearing because the BOP needs more transparency and accountability. The culture in the institutions I served at was toxic and inappropriate. Correctional officers are free to do whatever they please regardless of written policy, and many harass prisoners. I saw staff members gang up on prisoners and make their life hard simply because one officer had a personal issue with a prisoner. They would go through a prisoner’s personal belongings and throw the belongings all over their cell. At times belongings were taken and prisoners would have to prove that they purchased the item from commissary. If you were unable to find your receipt, staff would not return your item. Staff would also talk to prisoners in an aggressive manner on a continual basis, amongst other things to make the prisoners lives miserable. This was all normal behavior within the toxic culture.
Prisoners would get harassed for exercising their rights, like requesting a transfer. If a prisoner would write up or complain to the administration about an officer, they would get retaliated against, thrown in solitary confinement, shipped from the compound altogether or the write-up would get thrown out. When we witnessed misconduct, a prisoner co-worker reported it to the Inspector General and nothing became of it. In fact, one time my co-worker talked to the IG about fraud committed by another prisoner. She thought the conversation was confidential, but the IG called the office of the investigated person’s partner so everything my co-worker had said was now out in the open.
During my time in prison, male correctional officers would sexually harass women, myself included. Some would make unwanted advances on me, and one officer made a comment about my body and said I should expect to get attention because of my shape. If you were to report the officers, you would be shipped off to a transfer facility while there was a supposed investigation, and then ultimately moved to another prison. Most of the time nothing came of it. Male officers are allowed to go into the women’s bathroom and shower area, leaving prisoners to feel vulnerable.
Most of the staff does not have the education or skills necessary to teach the programs offered by the prisons, so they resort to utilizing the prisoners to teach, which doesn’t always end beneficially. While incarcerated I worked at UNICOR, which is supposed to be a work program that rehabilitates prisoners and reduces recidivism. However, the staff would target prisoners simply because they felt the prisoner was “entitled” and they would create an environment of fear by threatening that person’s good time and earned programming time.
I also saw how bad the medical care was. They simply didn’t take care of people. Even when people complained of pain or more severe concerns, the medical staff would say just to drink water, walk the track, and go to commissary and get over-the-counter medicine when it was your day to shop. A lot of the time medical staff accused the prisoners of lying about their medical concerns. One woman I knew was turned away only to suffer a heart attack. I witnessed many women with medical issues that were unresolved and even led to death. While I was in FPC Bryan, we didn’t have any dental care for about three years.
I believe the BOP needs independent oversight so that staff are held accountable when they act inappropriately or illegally. Better yet, effective oversight could probably prevent a lot of problems. Currently, inspections are announced in advance and so problems are hidden and prisoners are provided with some sort of reward — like bags of candy, food, items and soda that are not usually offered in the prison for going along with the staff’s narrative.
Take action today: Tell Congress we need independent oversight of federal prisons!
