Brett Tolman, formerly a U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah, spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee on August 1 about his concerns that the “warehousing of federal inmates is “… a danger to public safety, ” and a”…misuse of precious taxpayers dollars.”
Highlights taken from his testimony, which was released by the Senate Judiciary Committee, include:
From the 1940s to the 1980s, the population remained stable at approximately 24,000 prisoners. But it more than doubled in the 1980s, to approximately 58,000, and more than doubled again in the 1990s, to approximately 134,000. In the 2000s, the number of Federal prisoners increased another 45 percent, to approximately 210,000. The Federal prison population now closes in on a quarter-million prisoners--and will increase by an estimated 11,500 by FY2013.
The BOP is operating at 38 percent above its rated capacity, with 53 percent overcrowding at high security facilities and 49 percent overcrowding at medium security facilities.
Since fiscal year 2000, the inmate to staff ratio has increased from about 4:1 to a projected 5:1 in fiscal year 2013.
From fiscal year 1998 to fiscal year 2012, the BOP enacted budget increased 113 percent, from $3,100,000,000 to $6,600,000,000.
The President’s fiscal year 2013 budget request for the BOP totaled nearly $7 Billion.
The Bureau has already spent $6,200,000,000 on new construction since 1999.
Critical of the way the BOP is running the federal prison system, Tolman called for a bipartisan effort to improve the federal system by looking at states which successfully resolved problems similar to the ones the BOP is facing. The goal, says Tolman is to “make the Federal criminal justice system the model.”
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