By Connie Martinez
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has announced its strong support for the passage of the Federal Prison Oversight Act that calls for the establishment of an oversight office to investigate federal prisons.
As noted by the ACLU, the measure would address dangers because the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which manages the federal prison system incarcerating 160,000 people across the country, “is in crisis.”
The ACLU wrote, “A severe staffing shortage and overcrowded facilities have led to unsafe and cruel conditions, sexual and physical assaults, overuse of solitary confinement, and a lack of medical and mental health care.”
The group noted systemic issues, including sexual abuse of incarcerated women at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin in California, which “to date has resulted in federal convictions for eight corrections officers and the prison warden.”
Nina Patel, senior policy counsel at the ACLU’s Justice Division, states, “The ACLU applauds the bipartisan efforts of Sens. Ossoff, Braun, Durbin, and Manchin, and Reps. McBath and Armstrong to provide a common-sense solution to this ongoing crisis.”
Patel added, “The act creates oversight and accountability mechanisms that are essential to protect the civil liberties and dignity of individuals who are incarcerated in federal prisons.”
The ACLU noted retaliation at FCI Dublin, charging “women subjected to sexual abuse faced retaliation for reporting the abuse, including the denial of medical and mental health care, punishment of solitary confinement, and an inability to have contact with their families.”
“The ACLU has raised the alarm for decades as the federal prison system lurched from one crisis to the next, regardless of administration,” said Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project.
Kendrick argued, “The independent oversight and transparency required in this bill is the first step to protect the civil liberties and dignity of the 160,000 people incarcerated in federal prisons across the country.”
The Federal Prison Oversight Act will now go to President Biden for his signature.
