On Apr. 19, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights, announced an inquiry into Georgia’s Fulton County Jail and Indiana’s Jackson County Jail after reports on two brutal prison deaths were released. The deceased, Lashawn Thompson and Joshua McLemore, struggled with mental illness and were denied medical attention according to jail reports.
Senators Ossoff, Mike Braun (R-IN) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee introduced the bill, the Federal Prison Oversight Act on Wednesday -- a week after Ossoff launched an inquiry into Thompson and McLemore’s deaths.
Representatives Lucy McBath and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND-AL) introduced an identical bill to the U.S. House of Representatives.
If passed, the bill calls for two changes to the U.S. prison system. The first requires the Department of Justice’s Inspector General to inspect each of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’s (BOP) 122 facilities, give solutions to identified issues, and assign each facility a risk score. The higher a facility’s risk score, the more inspections the facility will face. The Inspector General will also need to report all findings and solutions to Congress and the public, and the BOP is required to respond to all reports within 60 days with a corrective action plan.
The second requirement creates an independent Ombudsman to address health and security of incarcerated people and staff. The Ombudsman must create a hotline and online form for family members, friends, and representatives of the incarcerated to post complaints and inquiries.
The bill has support from several civil rights and public safety organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC).
