Customers a day. Host you will have to leave it there. We appreciate your time. We will now bring you to the Senate Homeland security and Government Affairs committee. They are looking at the bureau of oversight. And the challenges facing the federal prison system. You can see the chairman, ron johnson, who will be gathering there shortly. Senator johnson good morning. This hearing will come to order. I am looking forward to this. I was telling the witnesses, i have read all of the testimony, and i generally do that to the best of my ability, sometimes the testimony can be a little dry and will put me to sleep when im reading later at night. In this case, not whatsoever. The testimony was fascinating partly because i am new to the issue. I will keep my Opening Statement brief. I know senator booker wants to make an Opening Statement and he is been involved longer than i have. Being a business guy i am dated driven data driven. The data on this with a high level incarceration rates are stark. In 1980, there were 25,000 people in the federal prison systems. Today there are 2009000, a seven hundred 30 6 increase as our population has only increased 40 . In total, there were 500,000 people in prison in 1980 today there are 3. 6 million. America has the highest level of incarceration in the world. In 2013 716 per 100,000 in the population. The next closest country was rwanda. My primary comment is when you look at those stark statistics and you see and i appreciate the dealer from that of sin wisconsin, i met with them earlier, he is part of a group of individuals, some of them are ex offenders trying to help other people Reenter Society. I remember during the meeting how many times did i wince as i was being told the stories of how unbelievably difficult we make it for former offenders to Reenter Society . The purpose is to lay out the realities. You understand what the bureau of prisons is dealing with. It is a difficult and complex problem. The testimony by Charles Samuels , the current director, is also powerful and lays out a little bit of the problem in terms of the dual mission of the bureau of prisons. The dual fold mission is to protect society by confining prisoners in a safe and Cost Effective and culturally secure. And to make sure that the prisoners are because of trading and programs to make them lawabiding citizens when they return to society. I wish i could say we were really nailing it, we have the problem solved. We are a long way from it. The testimony in the federal system, we have only a 41 recitizism rate. That is a long way from a successful result. Im sure you will agree with me. I will not steal the funder from mrs. Kermans report but i want you to Pay Attention to the quote that she lays out. It will lay out the issue and asked the question we should be asking as a civilized society. Senator carper i would like to thank all of you for coming as witnesses. My day job before i came to the u. S. Senate was i was the governor of delaware for eight years and was actively involved in the situation. In delaware we do not have county or city jails, we have the state correctional system. We have one for adults and one for juveniles. In my second term as governor general Barry Mccaffrey came to delaware. He wanted to visit the program in the city of wilmington. Because we were doing a good job. He wanted to find out how we were doing it. He brought an abc camera crew, as well. Before he went into the prison and looked at the program to see how it worked we met with 50 inmates. We met in a room smaller than this. The guard, general mccaffrey and myself. I had been two middle schools great schools, churches, ballgames, and they knew who i was. I said before we got started on the program part of the tour the inmates were mostly 19 to 22 years old. I said what happened in your lives or did not happen that led you here . Five or six guys spoke up before we took the tour and told stories that were very similar. Very similar. I was born when my mom was young, never knew my father, when i was in kindergarten other kids could read, i could not. I got into first grade and fell behind. In the second and third grade and fourth grade i fell further behind. One guy said i realized if i was a nuisance in class the teacher stopped calling on me. So he put his head down. He said, eventually, i was put out into the hall. By the fifth or sixth grade. When i was in the seventh and eighth grades i was suspended. I liked that because i was no longer embarrassed by how little i knew. He said, in ninth grade i was expelled. I found myself on the outside in the world. Everyone wants to be popular. He said if you are a good athlete you can be popular in school. If you are smart you can be popular in schools. I was none of those. On the outside i wanted to feel good about myself, and the only way was to take drugs or consume alcohol. When i did that i felt good about myself. I did not have the ability to pay for those things and ended up in a life of crime. I ended up in this place. Everyone told the same story. Same story. A wonderful guy used to say to me 95 to 98 of the people incarcerated would be released into the society, we can send them back is better people, better parents, or better criminals. He said it is our choice. It is also a choice of the inmates themselves. If we take young men and women not so young men and women, and do something about their addictions while they are incarcerated it is helpful. If we do something about the lack of education, it is helpful. If we do something about work skills so they have a job to go to, that is helpful. We can learn a lot from one another. Today, we will learn from you. I would like to thank you for suggesting that we be here cory. Thank you. I would like to submit my Opening Statement to the record. I would like to express my gratitude to the Ranking Member and chairman for having this hearing. It has been the best experience ive had in the United States senate since i began to find such bipartisan willingness to deal with issues of justice in our country. It is extraordinary from our meeting to be able to sit with you today and to be able to see this willingness to confront the wrongs in our country that surround criminal justice. We talked about this earlier. We were going to do a field hearing in milwaukee on that subject. We did not because it was complex and was difficult to design the hearing so it was not inflammatory. I appreciate your working with me so we hold this first one here. This is the first in a series. We held a hearing on School Choice instead which starts the beginning of this time spectrum in terms of not providing a proper education, and it ins to this result, in terms of prison. I appreciate your willingness to work with me on this, and i hope that we can move this discussion into different areas. One of them would be in milwaukee. Im grateful to you. We have had countless conversations about criminal justice reform. Your eagerness willingness, and sincere desire to do something about it was encouraging to my time in the senate. It is a movement to do something about it when we have a president of the United States willing to visit a prison. We see that as a part of our culture. As a christian it says in matthew 25, when i was hungry he gave me something to eat, when i was thirsty, you gave me something to drink when i was in prison, you came to visit me. The criminal Justice System is not about fear and retribution, but should be driven i ultimate redemption. That is the american way. We have gone in a way against our values and ideals. This age of mass incarceration is violating our Core Principles in many areas. To have as we proclaim to be the land of freedom and liberty, but have one out of every four imprisoned people on earth in the United States, although we only have 4 to 5 of our population, it runs contrary to our ideals. It is an unnecessary egregious expenditure, a quarter of a Million Dollars a year incarcerating human beings. Many who do not need to be incarcerated at the link that they are rants against our values. When we see our infrastructure crumbling, yet we have the resources to build a new risen in the United States every 10 days it runs against our fiscal prudence and values as a nation. When we see poor people being ground into a system because they do not have the resources for their liberation, we have a modernday debtors prison that runs contrary to our values. We are at a point where we have literally almost one out of every three americans with an arrest record. If we went back to revolutionary times and told them there would be a government that would seize is the liberty of one out of three people, we would have sparked the revolutionary spirit. Now is a time when we need a revolution when it comes to issues of crime and punishment. The chairman was clear that this is a narrow hearing about one specific aspect to begin a process of looking for reforms. As we look at the bureau of prisons, our federal prison population has expanded 800 since 1980. The bureau of prisons has 200,000 inmates and 35 percent to 40 over capacity. It employs 40,000 people. In fiscal year 2014 the bureau of prisons ajit totaled an astonishing 6. 9 billion working on transportation and Commuter Rail seeing that fraction we are debating over when we are spending this much this is 25 of the department of justices discretionary budget. In my first meeting i was talked to about the urgent crisis that the Bureau Prisons is squeezing out of the budget and taking money away from things we should be investing in for Homeland Security for our protection overall because of the massive explosion. The bureau of prisons is so large that it is critical that we exercise our oversight to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely, especially in light of what states are showing that you can reduce populations dramatically and save taxpayer dollars, while lowering crime. As a mayor i learned that you have to make sure that when a crime is committed there is a punishment and that people get a proportional punishment, but i am troubled by the practices that are failing to live up to our common values and do not make economic sense. Im grateful for this hearing. There are areas that we need to drill down in those small areas where we can make improvements that can make a big difference. One is solitary confinement. It is known as segregated housing units. It is a practice that many people and other countries consider torture because of the impact. Prolonged use of solitary confinement on an inmate results in severe psychological harm. Just as kennedy questioned the constitutionality of the punishment saying that the penal system has a solitary confinement regime that will bring you to the edge of madness and perhaps madness itself. The medical community confirms that reality. It is time the federal government acts as a model to end this product is. Congress gave the authority to release prisoners on compassionate release. Now prisoners can be released if they are facing death or serious incapacitation. They are costing taxpayers extraordinary amounts of money. The Compassionate Release Program is properly named in should be explored. Attorney general holder issued guidelines to allow the Bureau Prisons to extend applicants that could be considered for compassionate release. Finally, i hope we can explore the programming the bureau of prisons provide to those who are often marginalized in our society. Specifically those suffering from Mental Health challenges and drug addiction. Now, states across america are struggling to control, for example, a growing heroin epidemic. Many are finding themselves in a federal system that does not adequately treat them. Assistance must be provided for inmate struggling with addiction and Mental Health. This is a hearing i have been excited about. I want to thank our witnesses and especially Charles Samuels who has met with me personally and we have had great conversations. His 10 year is coming to an end but he is a dedicated Public Service and i know that they have a record of making progress on these issues. Senator johnson we all want to thank the witnesses. It is tradition to swear in witnesses. If you would rise and raise your right hand do you swear the testimony you will get before the committee will be the truth the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Thank you, you can be seated. Our first witness is mrs. Piper kerman, the author of orange is the new black, a memoir of her time in womens prison. Mrs. Kerman . Mrs. Kerman i appreciate you inviting me here today. In my mama i recount in detail the 13 months i spent incarcerated in the federal prison system. Most of my time was served at the federal Institution Correctional Facility in danbury, connecticut. I have worked with many men and women who are returned citizens like me who want to get back on our feet and reclaim our rights to citizenship and to make positive contributions to our communities. Our experiences are essential to understanding the reforms needed in the criminal Justice System so it will provide for Public Safety in a way that is legal humane, and sensible. Women are the fastestgrowing population in the american criminal Justice System. Their families and communities are increasingly affected to what happens to women behind bars. 63 of women in prison are there for a nonviolent offense, many are incarcerated due to Substance Abuse and Mental Health issues, which are overwhelmingly prevalent in prisons and jails. The rate of sexual and physical abuse that women experience prior to incarceration is staggering. Female prisoners suffer these problems at greater rates a male prisoners, and these experiences are relative to their crimes and incarceration. These issues are not being adequately addressed by the bureau of prisons. The research on criminal Justice Systems show that the risk factors i mentioned require different approaches and allow for successful reentry. This is not like findings and health care where it shows that women experience heart attack systems differently from men and treatment needs and needs differ. The Bureau Prison should adopt gender responsive correctional approaches that interrupt cycles of unnecessary suffering. States Like Washington and provide a roadmap to do this successfully. When i was in danbury i knew women trying to raise their children during brief reunions in the visitors room while fending off Sexual Harassment and struggling with addiction and trying to get a High School Education so that when they got out they stood some chance of surviving despite a felony conviction. I saw women denied necessary medical care and women with Mental Health issues wait for months to see the one psychiatrist who was available for 1400 women. That is unimaginable in a system where 65 of women experience some kind of Mental Illness. Equally shocking with a mandatory reentry classes inmates took to prepare to leave prison. I attended one on housing led by a man who worked in construction in the prison. Are mostly poor and overwhelm minority women in the class wanted to know how someone with a felony conviction and few resources could find safe Affordable Housing to live in after release. Instead, we heard about fiberglass insulation, roof maintenance, and other Home Improvement tips. The reentry Health Classes were taught by a Department Officer who had no expertise or information on reproductive health, Mental Health, or Substance Abuse options postrelease. He did however play professional baseball for a short time. Many of danburys policies were questionable but it was close to home for most of the women serving time there. Families could visit her children could see their mothers, many of whom were raising their children on their own before being sent to prison. The doc did not see this when they converted it to the mens facility in 2013. This sent women beyond the cold of no more than 500 miles from home, and deprives many of them of programming that male prisoners enjoy like you and a the residential drug and alcohol treatment program, which is one of the most effective programs, but one of the only ways to earn a sentence reduction in the bureau. The desire to empty that prison of women caused the bureau of prisons to examine prisoner sentences and exercise discretion granted by the Second Chance act, signed into law by president bush in 2000 eight, hundreds of women were reassigned to complete sentences and Halfway Houses or home confinement. While briefly exercised in a case the authority has not been used under the act to reduce the federal prison population and return as many prisoners as possible to their communities. The doc should place all unavailable prisoners and Halfway Houses and home confinement at the earliest convenience. This would help relieve persistent overcrowding and keep staff and prisoners safer while reducing cost. Finally, it must be led by individuals who value the role of communities and families in rehabilitation and understand the particular needs of women. We appreciate the service of directors samuels, and he leaves at the end of this year. He should be replaced by someone committed to enacting these into policy. I ask for strong candidates that will make this a model system driven by innovation and creativity. I close with the words of the legendary performer and warden of sing sing prison, thomas osborne, who asked, shall our prisons be scrap heaps or human repair shops . Today with the biggest prison population in Human History in the United States we must insist on a different answer to this question. Thank you. Senator johnson our next witness is mr. Jerome dillard. He served as the director of voices behind bars, a group and it helping former prisoners transition by offering employment and computer classes. Thank you for traveling here from wisconsin for your testimony. Mr. Dillard thank you, senator johnson. I would like to think the committee for having me. Thank you, senator johnson, and my other senator from wisconsin tammy baldwin, for having me sit before you today. I sit here as a former incarcerated citizen who served time in federal and state prison systems. My crimes were not violent driven by a long history of drug addiction. While doing time in prison i witnessed a system that was ballooning with predominately young africanamericans serving long prison sentences. 10, 20, 30 years for drug crimes. This was troubling, seeing so many young then losing the prime of their lives to the criminal Justice System. It was while doing time that i made a strong determination i would do all i can to stay out of the prison system. I have been out roughly 19 years and have had the opportunity to share my own journey of recovery at correctional centers, educational institutions, and the community. Given my personal account on how peers support directly aided in the success of my recovery with regards to Substance Abuse and Mental Health. We dont think of formerly incarcerated citizens in the work being done to address the issues of incarceration. The power of her lead groups and organizations provide so any of the assistance needed for the successful reentry of individuals returning to our communities. An inhouse prison support system of this type would be helpful for the process of rehabilitation. Some of the barriers are opposition from the bureau of prisons and the state prison staff, fostering an us and them mentality. I want to say, in the work i do, i realize the barriers are tremendous. For individuals returning to the community from state and federal prisons, they are often faced with huge amounts of debt, Child Support, restitution, and supervision fees. They are barriers to individuals who are often times subjected to the lower paying Jobs Available in communities. I was given an opportunity to work in a Mental Health a oda aoda prison in our state. They provided Mental Health and care on an individualized basis. What i witnessed there in the programming that went on, i cannot say enough about. Traumas are so prominent with this population. As i talked to these men, i often ask how many men had their fathers in their lives. The majority of the times, these individuals would say, my father was in prison, or i do not know my father, and i was raised by the streets. These are some of the traumas. Even that is a trauma that goes on dressed. That goes on at dressed. For our inner cities those are huge. And our time i cannot elaborate on many things i would like to say, but in closing, and working with our incarcerated and formerly incarcerated citizens for over a decade i am seeing a shift in confronting mass incarceration. It is an issue that both Political Parties agree on, that americas addiction to mass incarceration isnt working. It is costly, it does not restore people, and i feel the climate is right and the ground is fertile for criminal justice reform. The modern war on drugs produced a prison population that remains unprecedented in world history. At the federal level the growth in the incarceration rate has been greater and more sustained than anything in the states. I am encouraged by the initiatives taking place on the local level in many states and counties. In my county we are addressing Racial Disparities and reducing the number of those incarcerated at all levels of the criminal Justice System. Great works are being done addressing these problems. I feel that addressing these problems will require far more tinkering with the sentencing policies of nonviolent offenders or revamping prison programs. To achieve a reasonable level of incarceration we need to reduce the number of people admitted to prison and the length of their sentences. Making a suggestion, i would like to say to the department to continue to solicit feedback from people who are serving time so that they can Craft Program to the prisons population. The programming needs to match labor market data about High Growth Industries and be specific to the region. The bop is to advocate for laws that allow for more time, early release, and incentives for Good Behavior or programming. Thank you. Senator johnson our next witness is udi ofer. He has formed a blueprint on how to reduce the prison population in new jersey. He worked with governor christie to pass reformations in 2016 and has reduced the population in new jersey by 8500 inmates. Mr. Ofer thank you. My name is udi ofer and i am the director of the American Civil Liberties union in new jersey. It is my privilege to be here on behalf of the acl and new jersey. His hearing comes as a critical moment at a critical moment when there is an opportunity to take bold action on reform. Republicans and democrats are taking a second look at the criminal Justice System. Republicans and democrats alike are becoming more pragmatic and less ideological in their approach. Following decades of punitive policies that have sent millions to prison and devastated communities, particularly low income communities of color, americans are realizing that our prisons and jails have grown too big and all too often, the people who end up in prison suffer from drug addiction and mental analyst and should not have been incarcerated in the first place. We know the story of the growth of the incarcerated population. Our prisons hold almost 2. 3 Million People on any given day. In 1980 it has increased at an annual cost the taxpayers of tens of billions of dollars. The costs have severe more severe consequences than the fiscal necessity. The true costs are human lives. Generations of young black and latino men who serve long prison sentences and are lost to their families and communities. The fact is, africanamericans and latinos are disproportionately engulfed in our broken criminal Justice System. It is time for a change. We are at a crossroads as americans recognize the need to reform our federal and state criminal Justice Systems. With this, i come before you to urge you to seize the opportunity to reform practices reduce incarcerated populations, and create a system that is smarter, fairer. The issue of solitary confinement. Five percent of federal prisoners are in solitary confinement. 11,000 people in federal prison are confined to a six by nine cell deprived of human contact little light, and minimal activity for 24 hours a day. In some facilities the average time a prisoner stays in continuous solitary confinement is four years. You need to look no further than the front page of the New York Times, to get a better understanding of the mental and physical consequences of longterm solitary confinement. According to a recent independent review of the federal prison system solitary practices there are major problems. O prisons send thousands of mentally ill individuals into solitary confinement. People who should be receiving treatment. Federal prisons use solitary on close to 1400 people who are therefore detective custody. They are subjected to the same conditions as prisoners who are in solitary for punishment. What can we do . There are many steps the bureau can stake today that are outlined in the independent review. The truth is is is all we take today is small steps we would have lost a historic moment for bold change. Solitary confinement has no place in american prisons. Physical separation may sometimes be necessary for safety and security, but isolation is not. We call on the bureau of prisons and congress to resolve this issue once and for all. It is time to abolish the use of solitary confinement for persons under the age of 18 and for persons with Mental Illness. Senators booker and paul have prohibited the use of solitary confinement on juveniles, and we support this legislation. For all of the prisons, solitary confinement sentences should not last more than 15 days. We believe this would lead to a smarter, more humane system and lead to a decrease in the population. Given the focus of this hearing on bop practices, there are lessons worth mentioning. New jersey is not a perfect model. We had terrible solitary confinement practices. We do have things we have done well. In 1989 the population peaked. Today it is a 30 reduction in a decade and a half. We achieved it through numerous policies. The biggest ones are changing a harsh mandatory sentence for drug sentences and a decrease in the number of parolees returned to prison. We recently had a major victory and a bipartisan matter to overhaul our system which would lead to thousands of fewer people sitting in jail because they are poor. Overhaul our bail system, which would lead to thousands of fewer people sitting in jail because they are poor. The acl urges an increase in fairness and justice in every part of the system. Senator johnson thank you. You mentioned the word bipartisan and number of times. It is true. Some of this committee has been, in describing problems and looking for agreement, this is something we have agreement on. The system is not working. Have to look at the facts and admit the harsh and stark reality. Mrs. Kerman, you have a unique story. Maybe people more tied into pop culture understand, but if you can describe what you are put into prison for and i would like you to tell me what you think your punishment should have been. Mrs. Kerman thank you for your question senator johnson. When i was in my early 20s, which is a typical risk time for folks to be involved in crime or commit crime, i was involved in a relationship with someone in narcotics. I carried a bag of money from chicago to brussels in support of a Drug Trafficking enterprise. I voluntarily left that situation. Good sense kicked in. I was fortunate i already had a college degree. I had many benefits and privileges. I was able to return to the United States, get my life on track, and put any in old meant in crime behind me. Many years went by before i was indicted in the federal system. I was sent to prison 10 years after committing my offense. I pled guilty very swiftly. I was fortunate to only serve 13 months of a 15 month sentence. One thing that was striking to me was the very first day that i spent in prison, was that so many women i was incarcerated with, who i would spend a great deal of time with, were serving harsher sentences that i was. The days, weeks, and months went on and i came to know those other women really well, and it was impossible for me to believe their crimes were so much more serious than mine. The only conclusion i could trawl was that they were treated more harshly by the american criminal Justice System that i had been treated because of social economic reasons, differences in class, and in some cases the color of their skin. I left in 2005. I had two years of probation which i successfully completed. When i reflect on the punishment for my crime, i cannot protest it when i think about the harshness with which poor people of color are treated in this country. It is hard to believe there was a lot of social benefit to the community drawn from my incarceration. It prevented no new crimes. When we consider the punishment for drug offenses we have to reflect on the enactment of these mandatory drug sentencing laws, generally in the middle 80s. At that time, i think those laws were intended to curb Substance Abuse and addiction and some of the crimes they go out Substance Abuse and addiction. Many decades after we have passed those laws we have put millions and millions of americans in prison and saddle them with felony convictions. Today, narcotics are cheaper more potent, and more readily available then before we put mandatory sentencing on the books and incarcerated all of those people. In terms of curbing i think it was a failure. And locking up people for low level drug offenses is a huge waste of time and money. Senator johnson let me go back to the final question. I agree that it is not working. There are two reasons for prison. Punishment and deterrence. What type of punishment would deter people from, for example trafficking drugs to young people, which is damaging to society. What do you think could be the alternative . Mrs. Kerman i think an appropriate part of my punishment would have been Weekly CommunityService Working with people who were addicted to drugs and family suffering on the ravages of addiction. What i experienced while incarcerated were intense and close friendships with women whose lives had been devastated by drug abuse and addiction. That brought home to me the harm of my own actions. I think that is one of the most appropriate ways to deal with that. Senator johnson the other women in prison, in general, were they also there for drug crimes. Mrs. Kerman in both state and federal systems, but overwhelmingly and the federal system, women are incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses and property crimes. In the federal system, if any member of this committee have the opportunity to meet hundreds of women i did time with, you would probably walk away from getting to know those women with a deep feeling that their confinement in a prison cell or facility was a colossal waste and not an appropriate way of intervening in the things that put them into the criminal Justice System. Senator johnson thank you. Mr. Dillard, we met in discussion about the difficulty of reentering society after serving time. Talk about the challenges. You are talking about the debt levels. You are in prison and your Child Support continues to build. When you get out it is difficult to find a job. Even if you do get a job, a lot of them are entry level and do not pay a lot. We expect people who just get out of prison to all of a sudden start paying off debts. Describe what happens when they are not able to. Mr. Dillard the fact is, when you are faced with these barriers and i too came home faced with many barriers, i had support in individuals who kept me encouraged, and someone to give me an analogy put a little bit behind you at a time. I was fortunate to be able to obtain a living wage employment a year and a half after being out. That was helpful. After 13 years i finally got a tax return. That analogy of putting the debt behind you a little at a time is something i teach two young men today. The fact is, many of our young people have ties to the criminal Justice Systems. There is so much hopelessness that comes with being tied to the criminal Justice System that often they feel there is no place for them in the workforce. Application after application, turn down after turn down because, in many instances of your criminal convictions. Individuals lapse into hopelessness. From there addiction can raise its ugly head. It is becoming part of the norm in many communities that have had to resort to these things. Senator johnson in our meeting, one of the individuals we were talking with spoke about how to not paying Child Support is a parole violation which land you back in jail. It will cost us 33,000 for a male prisoner. Is it 50,000 for a female prisoner . There are enormous challenges trying to reenter great into society, get a job, and when you are unable to pay off your Child Support and we all want people to be responsible for their children youll land back into jail. Is that true . Mr. Dillard in some cases. Child support accumulates while you do time. I had a gentleman who was released from prison after 15 years. 70,000 in debt which held support, along with all of the other things that came. The only employment he could find was working in a Fast Food Restaurant at a minimum wage. After taking home his second paycheck he was like, i cannot make it like this. I just cant. Over 40 of his check was being taken before he got it. That is discouragement for him to continue working at a minimumwage position and not be able to pay rent or have transportation. Senator johnson thank you. I am out of time. Senator carper . Senator carper the two reasons for prisons are punishment and deterrence i would say another is correcting behavior. So that people and they come out with be less likely to commit crimes and return to our prison. I mentioned earlier that i was on the commission of corrections when i was in the second term of governor. The majority of people incarcerated will come back into society and communities. They can come out as better people or as better criminals. Senator booker alluded to a moral imperative that we face, whether people of paint or not, matthew 25. When i was sick and in prison did you come to see me . I have been to every prisoner in delaware. I have given this matter a huge amount of time and thought. In the National Governors association we would say and we would have cabinet meetings, during a particular issue i would say some governor in some state has figured out how to deal with this issue successfully. We have defined that state, that governor and who worked on this challenge. A lot of what we are talking about, someone has done something really good and could serve as a model. We need to look around our country and say, what are some states that are doing things well. We changed the juvenile systems into a real school and our state. We decided when we had people in prison, why not work with them on their educational skills and create a school in the prisons. To work with them with their drug addictions. And for people to learn about faith, prepare for transformation, and to learn skills. Whether that is working on computers, loading furniture, or learning auto repair and provide maintenance and our prison system. That way people would have that skill when they walked out. I would like each of you to give us one terrific example state or local correctional system one terrific example within the prison itself, or without because if we do not do a better job on the other side, the Early Childhood side, and so forth, we are not going after the root cause. It is one good example. It could be in the correctional system or before or after release. Thank you. Mrs. Kerman thank you. I currently teach nonfiction writing in 2 state prisons in ohio. One is a mens medium security prison. It was built for 1400 men and now houses 2600. It is led by young warden who was trained as a social worker at osu. He does things differently than any prison ive ever set foot inside. It has more lifers than any other prison in ohio. It is one of two prisons with the lowest violence rate. That is a big change over time in that facility. That warden and his predecessors have done a great job of taking that a much safer prison. That warden and his staff have a tremendous amount of rehabilitative programming of every sort. Vocational, educational, spiritual one of the first programs ever put into place in the 1990s was an interfaith dorm where prisoners of different faiths would live in the dorm for year do a curriculum, and learn to deal with each other and their differences, and go back out into the general population as changed agents. That wardens philosophy, and the philosophy of his staff, one man cannot do it all his staff needs to be on board, is inspirational. I want to make a note. Senator carper i would like to listen to you for the rest of the morning, but i would like for you to hold it right there, then we will come back to you in the second round. The guy who developed that and implemented it in delaware was from ohio state. It came out of columbus, ohio. It worked pretty well. Mr. Dillard, same question. One great example. Piper has given us one, give us one as well. Mr. Dillard i feel like the work is on the offenders themselves. When i met a lifer who rated difference in my life throughout my prison sentence i realized how the older inmates try to encourage the younger ones. I still feel like you cannot leave formerly incarcerated citizens out of the equation. Mrs. Kerman i will give two quick examples mr. Ofer i will give two quick examples. Reducing the risk of solitary confinement in 2011, colorado place solitary confinement at 7 . Today, its about 1 . We have seen a dramatic decrease in the use of solitary by banning the use of solitary against people with Mental Illness. The second example is bail reform. What weve done in new jersey and what other states are looking at we had 10,000 people sit in jail awaiting their trial because they cannot afford a few thousand dollars in bail. We have completely revamped that system. Now, your bail is determined by your Risk Assessment and not whether you are a poor or rich. That change will lead to three quarters of the 10,000 fewer people sitting in jail. The average time a person sat in jail awaiting their trial with 314 days. People presumed innocent until Proven Guilty being treated like guilty. This is a phenomenon all over the country. This is one of the ways we can dramatically reduce our jail population in the United States. Moral imperative we have in this country we also have a fiscal imperative. The deficit is still substantial. Hence the need to find out what is working, do more of that, find out what is not working and do less of that. You mentioned my name i said that jails we jail people to punish and to deter. I also fully mentioned the Mission Statement of the bureau of prisons, to ensure defenders are actively participant programs that will assist them in becoming lawabiding citizens when they returned our communities. Test return to our communities. I strongly hope that our goal is they are human repair shops. Senator booker. Senator booker solitary confinement can you please describe this . Ive had these conversations with friends and others people think solitary confinement as a result of someone doing something wrong in prison. Why is solitary confinement so commonplace . Prisoners are doing things wrong in prison . You seen a dramatic increase in the use of reliance and reliance on solitary we do a terrible job tracking, but there is consensus that it is used in response to overcrowding. Prison officials are overwhelmed and they are sending people to the hole. We have examples from new jersey , around the country of people being sent to solitary for things like talking back. At a new jersey state prison in trenton, an inmate in 2013 was a clerk at the library and he wanted to leave the library to go bring some legal papers to one of the other inmates. A corrections officer said you cannot leave. The facts here are disputed, but the worst facts mr. Washington said mother fer to the corrections officer. What was the punishment . 90 days in solitary confinement. Those are examples we see all across the nation. We know the people are being sent to solitary for many different reasons. Some of them have to do with administrative issues and the like. Does it work in terms of affecting the behavior of is there any productive value in the bureau . Some people are sent to solitary for administrator reasons. That is a loaded term. The bureau of prisons and other prisons commonly call solitary administrative segregation. It sounds harmless but it is solitary. People are sent there for really minor reasons. Some reasons are poor protective custody. For protective custody. The lg bt Community Faces harassment from other inmates. They will be sent to involuntary protective custody to protect them from inmate violence, yet they are being punished. We see this happening all the time. The bureau of prisons, according to you asked if it actually works. There was an independent review that was released to the public in february of this year by cna that looked at solitary practices in our federal prisons and look at this question does inmate behavior change following solitary . Their response was absolutely no. Can we have that report in the record . Not only lg bt prisoners, but also transgender the report found it looked at the disciplinary record 12 months before being sent to solitary and 12 months after coming out of solitary. We found virtually no change whatsoever. Lets get to the New York Times article, the consensus upon legal experts. What is the damage, the trauma, the effect on an individual being in solitary confinement . Ive talked to numerous inmates who have experienced that length of more what is the damage done to someone in general and someone who already has a Mental Health challenge . To use an example that is contemporary i think of Climate Change. There are certain people who deny the science. There is consensus in the Scientific Community. A consensus about Climate Change and consensus there is consensus in the Scientific Community about the harms of solitary confinement. It exacerbates the preexisting conditions. Mental illness that existed before is exacerbated. It produces Mental Illness and physical illness. Anxiety, depression hypersensitivity to stimuli bipolar disorder. The list is long and long and im happy to provide the committee with citations. That would be helpful. I want to say its extraordinary that you are here with your testimony about what the experience of actual people behind bars that is extraordinary. I would like to drill down on something often not talked about, but whats happening as a result of overcrowding. Dan barry was converted into a low security mens facility. You were close to your family. Im wondering what impact does being in prison in close proximity to love ones haves has . Proximity to home, family and community is overwhelmingly important for both men and women confined to prison or jail. The majority of women in prison have children. The majority of prison people are the number one breadwinners for the family. Mr. Dillard absolutely. Most of those mothers are the mothers have minor children. Who experience a seismic impact when their mothers are incarcerated because a lot of those moms are single moms. The opportunity to touch your children, to hold your children to be reassured that their mother or parent is ok is incredibly important to parent and child. The opportunity to see your own parents or family members, to maintain ties to the community to which you will almost inevitably return. The vast majority of people in prison are coming home from prison. Those lifelines to the outside community are incredibly we cannot overstate how important they are. To Public Safety, two peoplo people safe return home when you cut those lifelines by making visits difficult by placing people far from their families or by making prisons and accessible in other ways, by making phone calls exorbitantly expensive or many jokes have no contact visits through glass dish jails have no contact visits through glass those lifelines are cut and the person incarcerated is much less likely to have Family Support safe and stable housing, access to networks which might help them gain employment, all of which are primary concerns for successful reentry. That is true whether you are talking about men or women. When we are talking about female prisoners, we know the three things that drive women plus involvement in crime and incarceration are Substance Abuse, Mental Illness and that overwhelming experience of violence. Sexual violence or physical violence come 80 or more in the system report that happening to them before they were incarcerated. The problem with incarceration prisons and jails are harsh places by design. Is that for prisoners who have experienced significant trauma like rape, childhood sexual abuse, Domestic Violence many of the commonplace correctional practices are very reminiscent of some of those abuses. That creates a serious, serious challenge in terms of regular engagement with female prisoners. In terms of their rehabilitation. Thank you for that. Thank you, senator booker. We buy a large agree there has been Climate Change. And vaccines work . Is that correct . Thank you, mr. Chairman. I was the attorney general in north go to. North dakota. Most of the Drug Task Forces were under my jurisdiction. It was at a time when there was a growing concern in 1992 with the drug problem and more and more Violent Crime as a result, we saw incarceration rates skyrocket because of desperation. I will tell you this we constantly treat the symptoms but never treat the disease. Thats where we are today talking about how do we treat the symptoms and not how do we treat the disease. I will tell you a story about a wise man i did a juvenile justice project. We made it easier to transfer kids into the adult system. I traveled around the state of north dakota with a prison warden. He was a very wise guy. You could interview every prisoner who came into the prison system and he would sit down and he would say tell me about your life. As we talked, they would say my parents were divorced at 11 and i went to live with my grandma. In his opinion, that prisoner was 11 years old emotionally. Thats where we get stuck. A lot of this is related to trauma, a lot of this is related to not understanding trauma and we exacerbate by not only not treating the trauma, but engaging in behaviors that further the trauma, whether its isolation from family, isolation from any human contact at all. Lets be honest about the task society has imposed upon the bureau of prisons. None of this should be any judgment on the bureau of prisons. We have given them an impossible task. They have to maintain some level of security. They are as desperate for solutions as what they can be talking about things that are way downstream. We are not here talking about things that are upstream. The juvenile Justice System is led by a lot of very enlightened people at the department of justice. It has begun a transformation into trauma informed and traumabased therapy. Looking at what we can do to treat trauma, how can we basically prevent a lot of abuse and a lot of abuses selfmedication. A lot of addiction is chemical i get it. A lot of it isnt selfmedicating for the trauma that has been experienced in peoples lives. I would like to know how we could design the system of prevention so that we do not see more people what would you like to see in communities that would prevent the kinds of outcomes that we are seeing right now in the bureau of prisons . Ms. Kerman there is a tremendous amount of recognition that Substance Abuse and Mental Health problems contribute to peoples bad choices and breaking the law. A significant commitment to handle those Health Problems in the Public Health system as often as possible rather than of the women you worked with and were incarcerated with, how many of them were given a choice of drug court or some kind of intermediate intervention . Ms. Kerman that is very rare in the federal system. Much more common in state systems or county systems. There is a program in new york called justice home where women facing at least a year of incarceration, when the District Attorney and judge are able to agree, they stay at home with their children and face a set of Accountability Measures but also get the Mental Health interventions, Substance Abuse interventions Parenting Classes vocational training, what is very whatever is specific to their case to get better outcomes. In york, and costs 60,000 a year to incarcerate summative. That Program Costs 17,000 a year. If we threw in the cost of foster care, the cost would amount to 129,000 a year. Mr. Dillard thank you for your observation. Trauma informed care is truly something that is needed if we are going to be preventive. I can use myself as an example of someone who had traumas at the age of 1213 years old 1213 years old. When i was diagnosed, i had been severely depressed most of my life. One reason i self medicated was Illegal Drugs had i been diagnosed, maybe i could have been given legal drugs and avoided the criminal Justice System. The fact is, we never look at the cause, we just look at the effect. Many, many, many of these women and men who ive encountered have tremendous traumas. We are working as a Pure Organization to help them work through that. To avoid Walking Around as hurting people because we know hurt people hurt people. If we do not address those early on, further down the road after recidivism we are still going to be paying a much higher cost. I will give a perspective informed by the fact that i spend a lot of my time in new york, new jersey. A city that is plagued by poverty. In certain communities, there is violence. What i see in new york and a lot of urban areas across new jersey and across the country, the only Agency Available in that municipality to address social needs the agency primarily available is the police department. To me, that is the root cause of the problem. You have wellmeaning police officers, wellmeaning city officials that literally have no one else to go to if there is minor misbehavior happening on the street that is minor. I will criticize divergent programs. While they are certainly better than sending someone directly to jail or prison, my reaction is this person should not have been in the criminal Justice System in the first place. We need to build up the resources of municipalities and states to have other agencies to go to when they are interacting with people with Mental Illness or drug addiction problems. The stigmatization of that label is something you will carry the rest of your life. It will prevent you from getting Student Loans, from getting a job. It is with a great deal of care that we should ever take that next step because we are in fact relegating that person to a certain quality of life for the rest of their life. Especially given the age of the internet where we can find out anything about anyone. I wanted to make a broader point that we are here to talk about what we are going to do about high incarceration rates. We cannot look at this problem without looking at the broad scope of Services Provided and how we can work more effectively for prevention. I want to thank all of you for being here. Like my colleague we were both attorneys general in our states. One of the things i have worked on as an ag was reentry programs. Im a strong supporter of the Second Chance act in supporting its real authorization. I saw it from attorney general context where even people who were incarcerated for serious crimes, we did not give them any path for success Going Forward because they came out, they had a Substance Abuse problem, the underlying issue was never dealt with, no job, no place to live put your soul in those shoes come i dare say that all of us would not be able to put it back together. I saw that your focus is really on reentry programs. We saw it in our state get some momentum and then fizzle. I wanted to get your thoughts on reentry type programs and what more we could do to make them more effective to try to end this cycle and get people on to productive lives. Mr. Dillard reentry is a crucial point. I know the federal system, six months in a Halfway House is something i wantent through that was beneficial to me. I was able to obtain employment and save some money. To be able to rent a room when i was done with my federal time. What i am saying today is young men are coming out of our state and county systems homeless. 17, 18 years old who cant live with their mother because they have been told you cannot go there because subsidies are connected to their housing and when they are couch surfing comets with those who are not doing so well for the antisocials that had an influence in them being placed in the criminal Justice System. In the very first place. Housing initiatives are huge. We are working on solutions in the region im working in, nonprofits and statebased organizations are engaging with us in providing housing and an affordable rate. Preparation is huge. Individuals have identify certain things while in custody in order to have a paradigm shift that this cannot be an option. I had a client tell me that committing a new crime was not his first option. It was not his first choice, but it was his very last option. I know the troubling times he was in, sleeping on park benches , could not go to the shelter for various reasons. He committed a new crime. It was not his first choice, his very last option. The reentry process along with all the barriers, mentoring or connections with organizations that higher formerly incarcerated we are investors. I look at us as being those who can help them through those trying times and pivot points of reentry. This is an oversight hearing on the bureau of prisons and the independent reviews that i keep referencing to look at this question of the bureau of prisons practices on reentry programming. Here is its finding in one sentence. There is no formal bureau ride bureau wide Richards Program reentry program. Inmates have limited access to reentry programming. The bureau does not do a good job in reentry programming. 2000 people a year in the federal bureau of prisons go back to Community Many of them dont know the exact number because the bureau does not track it come are sent directly from solitary back to communities. That is a terrible practice that needs to stop immediately. There needs to be a focus on reentry programming in the federal bureau of prisons. Thank you. I wanted to ask you, one of the things we are saying i saw this when i was ag as well. We are seeing on a devastating scale in our state, opioid and heroin addiction. Ive been working on legislation called the conference Addiction Recovery act. Im hoping we will take this issue up here i hope the Second Chance act there was some discussion you had about this idea of alternatives. What would you do as you think about this issue . How many people did you encounter that had addiction issues that were underlying why they were in prison . I fully agree we cannot arrest our way out of this. This is a Public Health crisis. Ms. Kerman thank you. Whats happening in New Hampshire is also happening in ohio and all over this country in terms of huge spikes in deaths from heroin. It is heartbreaking. Ms. Kerman it is devastating. It is fundamentally a Public Health question first and foremost. The intersections with the criminal Justice System should be secondary as we continue to see crime rates very low. Violent crime rates very low. People who sell drugs are breaking the law. Remembering that intervening into that addiction cycle is the most important thing and cannot be a couple with a jail cell. We see a lot of people trying lots of different things. I am not a doctor or an expert in addiction, but we see safe harbors in places like massachusetts. They have tried innovative approaches to getting folks the medical health they need and having that be the primary concern rather than incarceration. When we look at states like new york, new jersey, california the states that have reduced their prison populations the most and have simultaneously continued to enjoy huge declines in Violent Crime, one of the things we have seen in those states his a huge decline in prosecutions incarceration of people for lowlevel drug offenses. A recognition that those that public disorder is a reflection of the health problem. That is the way to tackle it. Senator baldwin. Senator baldwin thank you. First of all, i want to thank our panelists what a tremendous opportunity for us to hear from you and interact with you. I wanted to join the thanks for holding this hearing. Also to the Ranking Member as you said in the outset, this is a very big and very complex issue. I hope we will have additional opportunity im glad that you are recognizing this committees role in that discussion and i hope we can keep that up. Theres a number of pigs things i wanted to touch on. I heard the Ranking Member talking about upholding the models in states that are working. I love to brag about my state, but in this case, im just going to share some of the statistics about Racial Disparities in the incarcerated population in our state. In wisconsin africanamericans constitute 6 of the state population. 35 of those incarcerated in state prisons are africanamerican. According to a recent study from the university of wisconsin in milwaukee, 13 of wisconsins africanamerican men of working age were behind bars. Almost double the National Average of 6. 7 . The figures were particularly shocking and dismal for Milwaukee County were 50 of africanamerican men in their 30s had served time in prison. 45 of the inmates at our federal correctional facility are africanamerican and 9. 3 are hispanic. I hope as we continue to work on this complex issue that that will be on our minds. I just wanted to mention i previously i was never attorney general. I practiced law in a small general Practice Firm at the very beginning of my career. Mostly general practice. A couple of times, took misdemeanor public defender cases. I was becoming involved in county politics, statelevel legislative office at this time when i felt like i saw the precursors of what we are seeing now being debated. I had the honor of serving as chairwoman of the Corrections Committee in the state legislature for one term. I took our committee to prisons for tours, visits, conversations with people who work there, people who were inmates there. We had legislative hearings in the prisons, we went to the intake facility one of the minimumsecurity prisons, medium security prisons, womens prisons and visited work release facilities. The legislature was talking about should we allow private prisons to be built and run in wisconsin. Should we contract with other states to deal with our overflow issues and have them house are wisconsin prisoners . The counties were doing the same thing because some of the jails of the county level were overflowing. The substantive criminal justice debate at the time, three strikes youre out, limitation of elimination of parole. New crimes being created. There was a love debate about the elimination of prisonbased vocational programs, mandatory minimums were a big topic. There was a lot of debate. Now that feature has come and it is not going to be overnight that we figure out what missteps we had and how we deal with this in a saner way. I have a couple of questions im hoping you will be willing to submit some answers in writing. You mentioned that women are the fastestgrowing prison population right now. I remember years ago when i was visiting the womens prison in wisconsin, and seemed to me there were gender differences in how they dealt with certain issues. We talked a lot about solitary confinement. Is there a gender difference in how these issues are dealt with in womens prisons . I remember being concerned about over medication of women to deal with behavioral issues as opposed to placement in solitary confinement. This is something we should still be looking at. Ms. Kerman we should absolutely be looking at these of solitary confinement in mens and womens prisons. I echo the testimony that solitary confinement is often used not for the most serious infractions like an assault but rather for very low level infractions. Women are overwhelmingly likely to be incarcerated for a nonViolent Crime and are very unlikely to use violence while they are incarcerated. Womens distilleries facilities do not struggle with violence. Solitary confinement is overwhelmingly used as a punitive measure. Female prisoners are disproportionately likely to suffer from Mental Illness. One of the tragic things that solitary confinement is that mentally ill people have a more difficult time following the rules of a prison. You ceasefire sanctions spiraling sanctions which land them in solitary confinement. A regularly healthy person placed in solitary confinement for 10 days, after 10 days will start to significantly terry deteriorate. Let alone a mentally will person. Mentally ill person. Let me ask a quick question about reentry. Access to vocational and educational programming. You can feel free to elaborate afterthefact in writing. I know i have such limited time. I recall the restriction of any sort of public funds for individualized Financial Aid assistance to those in state prisons because that was something i was looking at closely. I believe that has continued over time and we have additional restrictions once a person is back in the community, they want to seek additional vocational or Higher Education generally. It makes it possible for Financial Aid. You talked about people emerging burdened with debt not related to Higher Education. Tell me about the options for people to secure post High School Education upon release. Mr. Dillard ive seen more opportunities opening up for individuals post release. At one time, there was Student Loans im happy to hear that the pell grant is going on within the federal system. Im so happy to hear that because individuals prior to 1994 came out with Associates Degrees and went on to achieve bachelors and masters. The fact is, 98 of those who get a bachelors or higher degree never returned to prison. That is something we cannot ignore. We should support as far as Higher Education within the system. We do have a second panel. We could keep going on. This has been fascinating. I want to thank this panel we talked before hand, the purpose of every hearing is to define the problem and alter reality so we commit youve accomplished that goal bigtime. We have sold with fear of solitary confinement it might be good to pick one of those articles and hold another hearing. This is just a first of a series of hearings. We have a Mission Statement for this committee. Pretty simple to enhance the economic and National Security of america. This issue touches both. We have tried to find the areas of agreement. Weve seen that there is a great deal of bipartisan agreement that what we are going just does not work, not because of a lack of effort by our next panel of witnesses i encourage you and your organization to continue to press for this and work with those of us who want to solve this problem your points on solitary confinement are dead on and we need to fix that. Mr. Dillard, god bless you for having turned your life around and taking your circumstance and offering that to your fellow man to help other people find redemption. And ms. Kerman , your unintended celebrity, you have done an excellent job of raising these issues ive spoken to my staff i like your answer to the question in terms of what are alternatives. A rigorous dose of community reparation, those types of programs, Community Service is the appropriate for people who have committed crimes we do need punishment and deterrence, but you just might heal in those programs and find that far more effective way of dealing with these issues than locking somebody up and seeing the results of women not working. I want to thank everybody here on this panel. I want to continue to work with you and numbers of the committee on bipartisan basis this is a first of a series of very important hearings. Thank you very much. I will call for the next panel. If you have time, i would love to have you stay and listen to our next panel as well. But you do not need to feel obligated to. It is the condition if you would rise and raise your right hand. These were the testimony you give before this committee this committee will be the whole truth to help you got so help you god . Mr. Samuels as a director of the federal bureau of prisons and was appointed on december 21, 2011. He previously served as assistant is the director of the Correctional Programs Division where he oversaw all inmate management and program functions. He was also responsible for enhancing agencies reentry initiatives. Mr. Samuels good morning. I thank you for your time and focus. Im pleased to discuss and operations of the federal bureau of prisons and on behalf of our very 9000 dedicated correctional workers across the country who are on the job 24 hours a day, 70s a week to support the bureaus Public Safety mission. We provide offenders programs to become lawabiding citizens. We protect society and reduce crime. We faced significant challenge. The bureau does not control the number of offenders into our system or the length of their stay. We are required to house all federal offenders sent to prison while maintaining safety, security and effective reentry programs. We house offenders convicted in a variety of offenses. Many serving long sentences and many with extensive test drug offenders make up almost half of our population. In addition, we have many individuals convicted of weapons, sex and immigration offenses to include individuals convicted of international and domestic terrorism. The bureau is the largest clerk of agency in the nation Corrections Agency in the nation. Our agency began to expand rapidly in the 1980s, due largely to the nations war on drugs. We experienced and a full increase in the size of her inmate population. Crowding in federal prisons reached 40 systemwide and even higher at medium and highsecurity prisons were the more violent offenders reside. The tremendous growth of publishing outpaced staffing resources. Our ability to effectively supervise prisoners and provide inmate programs depends on having sufficient numbers of staff available at our prisons. Recently population pressures abated slightly. 2014, we saw the first decline in inmate population in 34 years. We protect declines to continue for the next couple of years. Crowding will remain a challenge. Staff safety and the safety of the public and the defenders we house is the highest priority. Every day, our staff puts the safety of the American People above their own communities secure. To keep communities secure. Two staffers were killed in line of duty Eric Williams was killed on figuring 25th and the next day, another was murdered. These tragedies are powerful reminders of the brutal dangers our staff face. The bureau has taken advantage of technology for contraband detection and perimeter security. We are requiring the use of protective beds we increased our staffing and highsecurity institutions during evenings weekends and holidays. We have been proactive in addressing concerns regarding the use of restrictive housing since 2012, we substantially reduce the number of inmates in special management units less than 7 of population is in restrictive housing. Few inmates are housed without another individual in the cell. Our focus is to ensure inmates are placed in richard of houses the right reasons and for the right amount of time. We created new secure Mental Health in his this units Mental Health units and i highlevel of supervision to protect them. We look forward to making additional reforms. We have a saying in the bureau that reentry begins the first day of incarceration. We review issues related to criminal behavior, including Substance Abuse, education and Mental Health. We offer numerous programs to target their needs and prepare them to transition successfully to their communities. Many of our programs have been proven to reduce recidivism. Such as the drug treatment program, vocational educational programs. We have programs for mentally ill offenders, including those with a history of trauma. We also have programs for offenders with cognitive and parent impairedness. We provide programs to help defenders deep in their spiritual the bureau relies on a network of communitybased facilities, Residential Reentry Centers are Halfway Houses and home confinement. Community placement helps defenders offenders this concludes my formal statement. Im proud of the work my staff does to keep americans safe. I thank you for your time and focus on the important issue of federal corrections. Our next witnesses michael horvitz. The Inspector General for the department of justice. Increasing safety and Security Risk mr. Horrowitz the Justice Department faces two interrelated crises in managing the present federal prison system. Prison costs continue to rise while federal prisons remain significantly overcrowded. In the era of tight budgets this path is unsustainable. Since 2000, the bureau of prisons budget has nearly doubled. And now for 25 of the departments discretionary budget. More employees than any other doj component. The second largest of the doj trailing only the fbi. One of the primary drivers is health care. Which costs over 1 billion in 2014, a 61 increase since 2006. This rapid increase can be attributed to the aging of the federal inmate population. In a recent report, we found the number of inmates aged 55 and older increased by 25 from 20092013. By contrast, the competition of inmates under age 50 decreased by 1 including 29 decrease for under age 30. Institutions lack appropriate Staffing Levels to address the needs of the aging inmate population. While social workers are are uniquely qualified to assist theyre always ready six there are only 36 social workers nationwide. The vop has not conducted a nationwide review of their institutions since 1996. It does not provide programming opportunities addressing the needs of aging inmates. We also concluded that based on their lower rates of recidivism, certain aging inmates could be viable candidates for early release. We found that in just over one year following the attorney generals announcement of an elderly Compassionate Release Program, the department is only released to elderly inmates pursuant to it. We found that be a Peace Program had been poorly managed and wasnt lamented inconsistently. The expanded their release program and has modestly increased number of inmates released under it. In our two thousand 11 review, the Departments International prisoner transfer program 2011 review the department rejected 97 of transfer requests and transfer less than 1 of inmates to their home countries to complete their sentence. The department needed to make a number of improvements in the program, including ensuring that accurately determined whether inmates are eligible for the program and we are completing a followup to that report. Another area is private contract business largely used to house inmates, many of the 40,000 nonus national inmates. The budget for contract facilities is over 1 million and the proportion of federal inmates housed in country prisons has increased from 2 in 1980 220 in 2013. Is over 1 billion. 2 in 1980 to 20 in 2013. Prison overcrowding represents the most significant threat to safety and security of staff and inmates with federal prisons at 30 over rated capacity. In every one of its Agency Financial reports since 2006, the department has identified prison overcrowding as they programmatic material weakness. Yet, the problem remains unresolved today. In addition to overcrowding contraband presents a serious threat to safety and security. The unauthorized use of cell phones has proven to be a particularly significant risk. The number of cell phones confiscated more than doubled from 20082010. Sexual abuse and prisons remains a serious safety and security issue. In addition, we recently reported on the permits efforts to implement and comply with the prison rape elimination act. Finally, a Significant Management challenge for the department has been measuring the success of its prison programs. An essential Building Block to achieving performance based management is having reliable data. An issue that has proven to be a challenge for the department and the vop. A conference of approach to the collection analysis an analysis of data of how programs are reducing incarceration rates, deterring crime and improving Public Safety will help the department focus its resources and make strategic investments. Thank you for the continued support for our work and i will be happy to answer any questions. Let me start with you i do not envy your task. I want to thank you for your service. Which has been longstanding. According to your bio you began as a correctional officer in march of 1988. We have all quoted statistics here that in the 1980s the prison population was 25000 and is now over 200,000. Can you give us your perspective in terms of what all has happened, what you have witnessed over your career . Mr. Samuels thank you, senator. From my perspective, having joined the agency as a correctional officer in 1988 when the population was 60,000, when you look at the Bureau Prisons and go back to 1940s to 1980, the bureau population remained flat. In 1980, the primary target for discussion, we as an agency had 24,000 coming into the federal system. We had less than 9000 employees 41 institutions and we were able to operate the entire bureau of prisons for 330 million. When you look at the increase in 1980 to 2013, we were 100 800 are staffed not the pace with that growth. Our staff did not keep pace with that growth. We have a job to do, significant job. It takes staff to do the work that is required. From your perspective, you have been there what drove that dramatic increase in prison population . Mr. Samuels the war on drugs in the early 1980s had a significant drive on the growth of the population. As a result, having more offenders coming to the system. We have a longstanding practice going back to the 1930s that our reentry efforts are always in play and that is to ensure we are providing rehabilitation. The challenges associated with what we have to do, we are kind to protect the inmates and the staff in our facilities. The driver has been the war on drugs. Has there been any legitimate increased due to a crackdown on Violent Crime . We just appropriately cracked down on that . We are always arresting those people convicting and putting them in jail. Mr. Samuels in regards to violent offenses, the department through prosecutorial efforts there is a maker of individuals with violence and on violent criminals. It is safe to say that we have a very violent offense in a population to include a significant amount of gang members. We have more than 21,000 Security ThreatGroup Members that pose a significant threat to the public. If we are talking about gang violence, is that also being driven by drugs . Mr. Samuels it can be driven by drugs. The gangs and those associated with that activity is part of the structure. Let me stick with director samuels and let me ask the questions in terms of why havent we been more proactive in terms of sending these programs being reauthorized . Who was to be responsible for releasing some of you to the public that will commit another Violent Crime . Can you speak to why we have not taken advantage of this programs more robustly . Mr. Samuels my authority is very limited. When you look at taking advantage of the various programs being referenced with compassionate release, we as an agency did a thorough review and we determined a couple years ago when we were looking at the number of individuals who would meet the criteria for the release there were 200 inmates. Once they were identified coming up to go further in making sure that for those individuals being considered, that they have the resources if they are given the opportunity and released under that program. 200 inmates agencywide [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore the house will