Thank you, senator. From my perspective, having joined as a correctional officer in 1988 and around that time the bureaus population was a little more than 60,000. I think historically when you book at the bureau of prisons and go back from 1940 to 1980, the bureaus population pretty much remained flat for many, many years in excess of 20,000. So in 1980, which is the primary target for this discussion, we, as an agency, we had approximately 24,000 inmates in the federal system. We had less than 9,000 employees, 41 institutions and able to operate the entour bur en tour bureau of prisons for 330 million. So when you look at the increase from 1980 to 2013, we were at more than 800 as far as the growth of the population. And our staffing didnt keep pace with that growth. And with our mission, where we are tasked with anyone and everyone who is convicted and turned over to the department of justice and placed in the care of the bureau of prisons, we have a job to do, a significant job. An
The clerk the speakers room, washington, d. C. , august 4 2015. I hereby appoint the honorable jeff denham to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, john a. Boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain reverend dr. Dan c. Cummings from Skyline Wesleyan Church in san diego, california. The chaplain join with me in prayer. To the lord, the chief shepherd and savior of our souls. While members of congress are at home in their districts, we pray give each member rest. Cause them to lie down in Green Pastures lead them beside the still waters, restore and refresh their souls, lead them in the paths of righteousness for your namesake and our nations benefit. While other members are abroad who may walk through the valley of the shadow of death let them fear no evil, assure them you are near. Let your rod and your staff bring comfort. Prepare a table for all in the presence of their families. Anoint them wit
Couple years ago when we were looking at the number of individuals who would meet the criteria for the release based on a terminal illness, we discovered that there were 200 inmates in the bureau of prisons. 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 with a population at times that was at 220,000 is a very small number. Senator we are talking about passionate release, early release, release of foreign nationals. Are you saying that the law or the regulation is written to restrictively and doesnt give you the latitude to utilize those programs more fully . Inspector general, i will be asking you the same question. Mr. Samuels we moved from apple to nonmedical. Even when we look at those cases , when you are looking at the criteria as well as being responsible for Public Safety for any of those individual
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. 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. Mr. Ofer i will give a perspective informed by the fact that i spend a lot of my time in newark, new jersey. A city that is
Example, out of trenton, where an in mate by the name of sean washington in 2013 he 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 but a corrections officer said you cannot leave and the facts are disputed but the worst facts, the facts that the state claims, is that mr. Washington then said mother fer, dont tell me what to do. What was his punishment . 90 days in solitary confinement. That is a real example we see all across the nation. So just for time. So we know that people are being sent to solitary for many Different Reasons and some of them have to do with administrative issues and the like. Right. Does it work in terms of somehow effecting the behavior of prison str any is there any productive value in the bureau of prisons. Im going to push back on the language they use and some people are sent to solitary for administrative reasons and that is a loaded term because the bureau of prisons commonly call sol