From Brennan Center for Justice:
What is the Federal Prison Oversight Act?
Signed into law in 2024, the Federal Prison Oversight Act was designed to bring more transparency and accountability to the U.S. prison system, which is the largest corrections system in the country. The Federal Bureau of Prisons — the agency responsible for managing that system — has more than 35,000 staff members and supervises approximately 155,000 people held in 122 facilities across 37 states and Puerto Rico.
The law gives the Department of Justice’s inspector general office new authority to regularly inspect all the federal prisons and publish its findings. The law also establishes an independent ombudsman office to investigate complaints from incarcerated people, their families, and prison staff. Both the inspector general and ombudsman are expected to release regular reports on their findings to Congress and the public.
Why did Congress pass the Federal Prison Oversight Act?
Over the last few years, investigative news reports and a DOJ inspector general report have uncovered several instances of preventable deaths, sexual assaults, and neglect in federal prisons. These reports prompted Senate investigations that shed more light on the lack of systemic oversight over federal prisons. One report found instances of sexual abuse at two-thirds of the facilities that incarcerate women, as well as flawed management and investigative practices that allowed the abuse to continue. These inexcusable abuses occurred in facilities that struggle to recruit and retain appropriate staffing levels while crumbling under a critical infrastructure repair backlog of an estimated $3 billion. Continue reading >>>
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