The Senate passed legislation Wednesday to overhaul oversight and bring greater transparency to the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons after reporting by the Associated Press that exposed systemic corruption in the federal prison system and increased congressional scrutiny, AP reports. The Federal Prison Oversight Act, which the House passed in May, now goes to President Biden It establishes an independent ombudsman for the agency to field and investigate complaints in the wake of rampant sexual abuse and other criminal misconduct by staff, chronic understaffing, escapes and high-profile deaths. It requires that the Justice Department’s Inspector General conduct risk-based inspections of all 122 federal prison facilities, provide recommendations to address deficiencies and assign each facility a risk score. Higher-risk facilities would receive more frequent inspections.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) introduced the bill in 2022 while leading an investigation of the Bureau of Prisons as chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on investigations. It passed unanimously Wednesday. Ossoff and the bill’s two other sponsors, Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), launched the Senate Bipartisan Prison Policy Working Group in February 2022 amid turmoil at the Bureau of Prisons. Reps. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) and Lucy McBath (D-GA) backed the House version of the bill. Ossoff called the measure “a major milestone” and said his investigation had “revealed an urgent need to overhaul federal prison oversight.” Advocates for prisoners praised the bill’s passage. “After all the headlines, scandals, and controversy that have plagued the Bureau of Prisons for decades, we’re very happy to see this Congress take action to bring transparency and accountability to an agency that has gone so long without it,” said Daniel Landsman of the advocacy group FAMM.