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Source: Congress.gov
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The Oversight and Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. We welcome everyone to today's hearing on oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from the great state of Kansas, Mr. Schmidt, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. And please stay risen. We are going to have a moment of silence afterward. Moment of silence. I will now recognize myself for an opening statement. I want to welcome everyone to today's joint hearing. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today, especially those who have served or are currently serving in our federal correctional institutions and are working from the outside to support and enhance the Bureau of Prisons, which, God help us, it needs. And I welcome those officers and employees from the Bureau of Prisons who are joining us in the gallery or watching from across the country. This week marks National Corrections Officers Week. It's a time when we should honor the professionalism, the discipline, and the sacrifice of those who serve behind those walls. The men and women who staff our federal prisons are law enforcement officers in every sense of the word. They walk the toughest beats in the United States of America. And it is our duty to ensure that they have the tools, the training, and the leadership they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.
So let me be blunt. The Bureau of Prisons is not a system in need of some minor improvements. It is in need of a true reckoning. That's not my opinion. It's fact. The DOJ Inspector General has published over 100 reports since the early 2000s documenting the systemic failure of the Bureau of Prisons, deteriorating facilities, chronic understaffing, and failure to retain staff, low morale, breakdowns in safety, and resource mismanagement. This hearing's an opportunity to begin that work in earnest that we need to do. It should not only be a political exercise, It is a roadmap and an educational and constructive platform for the new Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Mr. William K. Marshall III. Director Marshall steps into this role as a pivotal, at a pivotal, and promising moment. With decades of public service and corrections, decades of experience, he will be useful and helpful. Director Marshall now has the opportunity to chart a bold, credible, and accountable path into the future. To frame today's discussion, I want to identify some of the specific challenges that require urgent attention. First, staffing. The Bureau is currently operating with thousands of vacancies, including nearly 6,000 fewer staff than its authorized level. This is not sustainable to go in this direction. And I've worked, as I've worked on this issue over the years, I've come to learn a lot about correctional officers, not just what they do, but what they endure. I'm gonna give you some stats, but I know, you know, I was in the state Senate, I was in the state legislature in the state of New Jersey for 16 years, and we had the prison gang task force, and we went to every single prison in the state of New Jersey, and to see what they had to put up with, what was going on, the challenges they had,
was a real eye opener for me. I have always had a special place in my heart for correctional officers. We know their lifespan. I know, I know their lifespan is shorter. Correctional officers on average, on average, live to just 59 years old, nearly 20 years below the national average. I know their rates of suicide are higher. The rate is more than seven times the national average. I know they get sick more. Stress, sleep deprivation, trauma drive higher rates of heart disease, high blood pressure. I know they get divorced more often. Their divorce rate outpaces nearly every other law enforcement official. I know they get paid less. In New Jersey, I know for a fact federal correction officers make nearly just about half of what their state counterparts earn.
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