Heard at BOP oversight hearing: "Simply put, our prison system at the federal level is failing."

The quote in this title of this post is sentence from the opening statement by Senator Dick Durbin during this morning's hearing titled "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons" before the US Senate Judiciary Committee. The only witness for this hearing is Michael Carvajal, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and I had hoped by now that there might be publicly available some written testimony from him (as well as official statements from Senator Durbin or others).  Lacking such available written statements as of 10:30am today, I guess I need to do a little "live blogging."  Specifically, how about this from Senator Chuck Grassley's opening statement:

"I consider the passage of the First Step Act as one of the good things I have done since being a Senator.  It's because of the hard work and overwhelmingly bipartisan nature of the First Step Act that I am disheartened with the lackluster implementation.

"It seems as though the Justice Department -- and within that Department, the Bureau of Prisons -- are implementing the First Step Act as if they want it to fail.  I hope this isn't true, but action speak louder than words, and the inaction of the Justice Department and BOP on this paints a very difficult picture."

UPDATE: I new see, as of 11:30pm EDT, that the written testimony of Director Carvajal is now available here.  It runs eight pages, and here are a few notable data points from the statement:

Since March of last year, we have transferred approximately 24,000 inmates to home confinement, with almost 7,000 transferred directly under the CARES Act, a 250% increase in home confinement placements since the beginning of the pandemic....

The Bureau manages the health and treatment of approximately 140,000 inmates in Bureau facilities and RRCs. As of April 6, 2021, the Bureau had 406 positive COVID-19 inmate cases and 47,227 inmates recovered in our federal prisons, while there were 51 positive cases in our RRCs and 55 positive cases in home confinement. With respect to staff, there were 1,243 positive cases and 5,532 recovered cases. Sadly, there have been 4 staff deaths and 230 inmate deaths from COVID-19....

Despite the pandemic, the Bureau is on track to meet the requirements of the First Step Act (FSA).  While the global pandemic certainly impacted the delivery of FSA programs in institutions, critical services such as mental health care, crisis intervention, and religious services have continued unabated throughout the pandemic.  As we have learned more about virus mitigation strategies and begun the process of vaccinating staff and inmates, we have been able to resume much of our programming.  As of April 1, 2021, over 49,000 inmates were enrolled in Evidence-Based Recidivism Reduction (EBRR) Programs and Productive Activities (PA).  With respect to inmate eligibility for FSA Time Credit, of approximately 124,000 inmates reviewed for eligibility, approximately 50% are eligible.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I just saw a copy of the detailed written submitted testimony of Kevin Ring, FAMM President.  Here are excerpts from page one of the lengthy submission:

FAMM was established 30 years ago. During the past few decades, we have learned a great deal about the hardship people in federal prison endure.  Prison is never easy, even under the best of circumstances.  However, the past year has been by far the most difficult year for people in prison and their loved ones that we have ever witnessed.  We appreciate that everyone in the country was affected by the spread of COVID-19 and resulting lockdowns and disruptions, and we acknowledge the unprecedented challenges the leadership of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had to face.  Our firm conclusion is that the BOP failed in several ways and that these failures were compounded by an inexplicable and infurating lack of transparency.

I fear we cannot adequately convey to you the desperation, fear, separation, and hardship that we have felt from the families we work with every day.  We asked some of them to share their firsthand experiences with us, so that we could paint a clearer picture of what transpired and how they felt.  Their observations are included in our comments below and in the addendum to this testimony.  The BOP ignored their voices throughout the past year and denied them basic information about the health and safety of their loved ones.

This statement includes a small portion of the concerns articulated by families.  In particular, we have highlighted their concerns regarding healthcare and the management of COVID-19 spread; the appalling conditions resulting from altered operations of the past year; the BOP’s lack of transparency with families and the public; underutilization of release mechanisms intended to protect prisoners; and lacking implementation of the First Step Act.  We share these families’ voices with you in the hope that will finally be heard and that they will inform your oversight.