Ossoff bill becomes law, forcing feds to fix broken prison cameras
WASHINGTON - Federal prisons must now overhaul failing and outdated security systems in the wake of staff sexual abuse, inmate escapes and high-profile deaths.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law the mandate in legislation from Sen. Jon Ossoff that’s meant to ensure all facilities have the coverage necessary to protect the safety of prisoners and employees.
“Broken prison camera systems are enabling corruption, misconduct and abuse,” said Ossoff, D-Ga. “That’s why I brought Republicans and Democrats together to my Prison Camera Reform Act, which is now law.”
The bipartisan Prison Camera Reform Act, which ed the Senate last year and the House on Dec. 14, requires the Bureau of Prisons to evaluate and enhance security camera, radio and public address systems at its 122 facilities.
The agency must submit a report to Congress within three months detailing deficiencies and a plan to make needed upgrades. Those upgrades are required within three years and the bureau must submit annual progress reports to lawmakers.
The bill’s age came after Ossoff unveiled the results of his eight-month bipartisan investigation into sexual abuse of women in federal prisons. Unveiled at a hearing, the inquiry revealed that the federal Bureau of Prisons has failed to prevent, detect, and stop recurring sexual abuse by its own employees.
Survivors of sexual abuse in federal prisons testified at the hearing that prison employees assaulted them in areas where they knew there was no camera coverage.
The Department of Justice’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, also testified that outdated and broken prison cameras have hindered prosecution of serious cases involving assault and civil rights violations.
The bill requires the Bureau of Prisons to upgrade prison camera systems to ensure the secure storage, logging, preservation and accessibility of recordings for future investigators pursuing allegations of misconduct, abuse or other criminal activity in prisons, including the flow of dangerous contraband.
Failing and inadequate security cameras have allowed inmates to escape from federal prisons and hampered investigations. They were an issue in the deaths of gangster James “Whitey” Bulger at a federal prison in West Virginia in 2018 and financier Jeffrey Epstein at a federal jail in New York City in 2019.
Cameras captured inmates going into Bulger’s cell, but not the assault that ended his life — due to limitations on how they can be positioned.
In Epstein’s case, some cameras malfunctioned while others revealed that guards failed to make some required half-hourly checks, and footage of his apparent suicide attempt a few weeks earlier was lost “as a result of technical errors,” prosecutors said.
In introducing the camera bill last year, Ossoff said that blind spots, lost footage, and technical failures were unacceptable. He said federal prisons “must be cleaned up and held to the highest standards.”
The legislation also had the backing of the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee — the chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and the top Republican, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.
Copyright 2022 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
