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Beaumont Prison -
BOP officers
Nov. 14, U. S. Representative from Southeast Texas and California united to introduce the bipartisan “Prison Staffing Reform Act” to direct the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to conduct a review of understaffing, devise a 3-year plan to fill vacancies and implement the plan, as well as submit yearly progress reports to Congress. The plan requires addressing “the effects of understaffing on workplace safety, the processing of inmate casework, and the availability of medical care and educational programs for inmates.”
“The crisis of chronic understaffing at the federal Bureau of Prisons is a major problem that needs to be addressed immediately,” local Rep. Randy Weber said in the wake of the bill’s introduction. “Doing so will lead to better and safer conditions for our correctional officers and inmates. As members of the BOP Reform Caucus, we are championing solutions to address problems that have plagued the BOP and our correctional officers, and our bipartisan bill is a step in the right direction.”
According to California’s Jackie Speier, the BOP oversees a prison system that includes 35,000 employees at 121 federal institutions containing over 125,000 inmates.
“When these facilities are understaffed, everyone suffers, especially inmates,” she said. “The toxic environments and alarmingly rampant rates of sexual harassment and abuse of women inmates at these facilities is disgraceful. The bipartisan Prison Staffing Reform Act is a crucial step towards addressing some of the long-standing conditions in BOP prisons that allow abusers and sexual predators to flourish without recourse.”
The Prison Staffing Reform Act would require BOP to assess the impacts of chronic understaffing on several metrics, as well as implement a plan to fill vacancies and advance associated priorities for the agency. Among the issues to be addressed: availability of medical care for inmates, including mental health, substance misuse, and maternal health services; processing of inmates’ applications for compassionate release, home confinement, and time credits; availability of teachers, therapists, and support staff aimed at reducing recidivism; adequate protections for staff and inmates against violence and sexual misconduct; availability of sanitary and efficient food services; prison security, including the detection of contraband and installation of cameras; workplace conditions that may jeopardize employees’ mental health; and wasteful costs incurred by BOP associated with augmentation and overtime.
A complete copy of the bill’s text can be found at https://speier.house.gov/_cache/files/3/d/3d947cb4-8109-4ae1-8460-4cb3546f5351/0B2291CFFD2E1BC66F43E382688FCA04.speier-336-xml-prison-staffing-reform-act---final-text.pdf.