Senators Demand Answers, Transparency from Prisons Bureau Director
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Colette Peters testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee a little more than one year into her tenure on efforts to reform the federal prison system. The system has been under criticism for numerous issues including sexual abuse against inmates, escapes, inmate deaths, and chronic understaffing.
Director Peters said she is making progress, noting that fixing prisons does not happen overnight.
“Change requires focus, effort, and persistence over time. I believe our efforts over the last year have generated visible change, and our work continues,” Director Peters testified.
Director Peters pointed to reforms including overhauling problematic prisons and beefing up the internal affairs office.
Senators Demand Answers
However, senators of both parties complained that Director Peters has not been open and transparent with lawmakers. Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Mike Lee (R-UT) said they are still waiting for answers to follow-up questions sent to Director Peters after a hearing in September 2022.
“These are not difficult questions,” said Senator Lee.
Director Peters declined to agree to a firm deadline to respond and blamed the delay on uncertainty surrounding an ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) review process.
Director Peters also appeared to frustrate senators when she did not know the answers to questions such as how many correctional officers are on staff. “I don’t have that number in front of me,” Director Peters replied.
Senator Cotton said the answer is 12,731, indicating at least 7,700 budgeted correctional officer positions are not filled.
“Senators really take it personally when you don’t answer their questions,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL). “More than almost any other thing that I would recommend I’d make that a high priority.”
Despite the bipartisan concerns directed at Director Peters, there was a divergence in questioning from Democrats and Republicans. While Democrats mostly focused on BOP’s challenges considering the numerous investigations of sexual assault of prisoners by prison staff, nearly every Republican quizzed Peters on transgender inmates, asking about transgender women housed in women’s prisons.
Director Peters said there are fewer than ten transgender women incarcerated in facilities with incarcerated women. There are nearly 158,000 incarcerated people in BOP facilities.
Meanwhile, Senator Durbin said he is concerned about the continuing use of solitary confinement, noting that the numbers of those incarcerated in solitary confinement have not changed since Director Peters took over.
“We both know that locking someone in a cell for more than 22 hours a day will not make them a good neighbor,” Senator Durbin said.
BOP is the largest law enforcement agency within DOJ with more than 30,000 employees and an annual budget of $8 billion.
Senator Durbin remarked he hopes the bipartisan frustration toward BOP will translate to a bigger funding package for the agency.