Prison Fellowship Applauds U.S. Senate for Passing the Federal Prison Oversight Act
July 10 2024 - 7:29PM
Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving
currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families and a
leading advocate for criminal justice reform, praises the U.S.
Senate for passing the Federal Prison Oversight Act (H.R.3019 |
S.1401). Led by Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Mike Braun (R-IN), and
Dick Durbin (D-IL), the bipartisan bill, which passed in the U.S.
House of Representatives in May, will create new tools for regular
independent oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
This announcement follows a Day of Action on June 18, where more
than 40 Prison Fellowship employees, including 30 who were formerly
incarcerated, visited 29 congressional offices to advocate for the
bill.
“We applaud today’s actions by the Senate in passing this
landmark bill, which paves the way to ensuring conditions in
prisons are safer and more humane for staff and incarcerated people
alike,” said Heather Rice-Minus, president and CEO of Prison
Fellowship. “We’re honored that so many of our formerly
incarcerated employees were willing to share their stories in hopes
that the Senate would listen and pass the bill. Now that it has
passed in both the Senate and the House, we are eager for the bill
to become law.”
“Prison conditions must change and allow men and women behind
bars to pay their debt to society in humane and secure correctional
environments,” said Kate Trammell, Prison Fellowship’s vice
president of legal and advocacy. “This issue of agency
accountability, human dignity, and transparency in government has
cut through the partisan noise of our day. We are glad to see an
important step taken toward safer, more constructive federal
prisons in America.”
Background:Under intense scrutiny from various government
and watchdog agencies, the BOP incarcerates over 150,000 men and
women with a budget of more than $8 billion. In 2023, management of
the BOP was added to the GAO’s list of high-risk government
programs “vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement or
in need of transformation”.
The Federal Prison Oversight Act (H.R.3019 | S.1401) would
require regular inspections of BOP facilities with an accompanying
risk score report that would produce accountability actions by the
BOP. The bill also creates an independent Ombudsman office to
investigate allegations of unhealthy prison conditions for staff or
prisoners. If the Ombudsman believes that a health, safety,
welfare, working condition, or rehabilitation issue at a BOP
facility remains unaddressed, they will report those findings to
the Attorney General and to Congress. The bill includes
confidentiality and non-retaliation protections to promote
reporting and permit independent review.
Prison FellowshipPrison Fellowship is the nation's largest
Christian nonprofit equipping the Church to serve currently and
formerly incarcerated people and their families, and to advocate
for justice and human dignity both inside and outside of prison.
With nearly 50 years of experience helping restore men and women
behind bars, Prison Fellowship advocates for federal and state
criminal justice reforms that transform those responsible for
crime, validate victims, and encourage communities to play a role
in creating a safe, redemptive, and just society.
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Susan Merriman
Prison Fellowship
703-554-8698
susan_merriman@pfm.org