WASHINGTON ( Associated Press) – New legislation introduced in the Senate would require the Justice Department to establish guidelines for the federal Bureau of Prisons and the state correctional system to inform families of imprisoned people if their loved one has a serious illness. have a life-threatening injury or if they die behind bars.
Law – Introduced by censors John Osoff, D-Ga., and John Kennedy, R-La. — is the latest move by members of Congress to oversee the troubled federal prison system, which has moved from crisis to crisis in recent years.
The introduction of the bill on Thursday comes two years after the Associated Press reported how the Federal Bureau of Prisons ignored its internal guidelines and failed to notify the families of inmates who were seriously ill with the coronavirus as the virus spread throughout the country. Was spread to federal prisons in America. And it comes on the heels of reports of similar conduct in state prisons in the US.
Associated Press’s reporting on the federal prison system reveals layer by layer Abuse, neglect and leadership mistakes at the Bureau of Prisons – including rampant sexual abuse by workers, severe staff shortages, prisoner escapes and the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic – led directly to the agency’s director to announce his resignation. earlier this year.
The bill, known as Family Notification of Death, Injury, or Sickness in Disease 2022, aims to ensure that families receive timely notifications if their family members are suffering from serious health complications.
In April 2020, the Associated Press reported that FCI Terminal Island officials, A federal prison in Los Angeles had deviated from policy and decided not to call the family of 59-year-old Michael Fleming, who was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator after being diagnosed with COVID-19. The only call his son had received was the day his father died, asking a prison pastor whether the body should be cremated and where the ashes should be sent.
Fleming learned the cause of his father’s death from an Associated Press reporter. Prison Bureau policy requires prison officials to “immediately” notify the families of prisoners with serious illnesses. The agency defended its decision at the time, saying it has “prudence when creating the information”.
“Not having the opportunity to say goodbye – it would have been priceless,” the younger Fleming said in an interview with the Associated Press in 2020. “We’ll never have that chance.”
Osoff’s office said similar cases have been reported in Georgia in local prisons and state prisons. In one instance, a woman collapsed in the Clayton County Jail and suffered injuries so severe that she had to be hospitalized. She died soon. Her family found out when the woman’s longtime boyfriend attempted to go to jail and was told he was no longer there. Another woman learned that her father had died in a Georgia state prison when she was returned a letter with a seal that read: “Return to sender: Prisoner dead.”
“Often, the families of those held in captivity never come to know about any serious illness, life-threatening injury or even death of a loved one behind bars. That’s why we introduced this bipartisan reform law,” Osoff, a Democrat, said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Kennedy, a Republican, said families “have a right to know about the well-being of their loved ones, and our bill will just make sure that happens.”
Osoff has repeatedly pushed for increased transparency in the federal prison system and is one of a growing group of lawmakers required to confirm the director of the Bureau of Prisons by the Senate.
Georgia senator also launched a bipartisan working group of lawmakers The Associated Press reporting followed an investigation into situations within the Bureau of Prisons that uncovered widespread corruption and abuse in federal prisons. The group was launched with Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican from Indiana.
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On Twitter, follow Michael Sisak twitter.com/mikesisak and Michael Balsamo et twitter.com/mikebalsamo1, Read more about the Associated Press’s reporting on federal prisons at apnews.com And send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/.
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