HR979
Public Safety Act (Introduced in the House)
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 979
To ensure that services related to the operation of a
correctional facility and the incarceration of inmates are not
provided by private contractors or vendors and that persons
convicted of any offenses against the United States shall be
housed in facilities managed and maintained by Federal employees.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 4, 1999
Mr. STRICKLAND (for himself, Mr. KING, Mr. SWEENEY, Mr. HOLDEN,
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Mr.
WALSH, and Mr. COYNE) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To ensure that services related to the operation of a
correctional facility and the incarceration of inmates are not
provided by private contractors or vendors and that persons
convicted of any offenses against the United States shall be
housed in facilities managed and maintained by Federal employees.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Public Safety Act'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The issues of safety, liability, accountability, and cost are
the paramount issues in running corrections facilities.
(2) In recent years, the privatization of persons previously
incarcerated by governmental entities has resulted in frequent
escapes by violent criminals, riots resulting in extensive
damage, prisoner on prisoner violence, and incidents of prisoner
abuse by staff.
(3) In some instances, the courts have prohibited the transfer of
additional convicts to private prisons because of the danger to
prisoners and the community.
(4) Frequent escapes and riots at private facilities impose
expensive law enforcement operations on State and local
governments.
(5) The need to make profits creates incentives for private
contractors to underfund mechanisms that provide for the security
of the facility and the safety of the inmates, corrections staff,
and neighboring community.
(6) The 1997 Supreme Court ruling in Richardson v. McKnight that
the qualified immunity that shields State and local correctional
officers does not apply to private prison personnel, and therefor
exposes State and local governments to liability for the actions
of private corporations.
(7) Additional liability issues arise when inmates are
transferred outside the jurisdiction of the contracting State.
(8) Studies on private correctional facilities have been unable
to demonstrate any significant cost savings in the privatization
of corrections facilities.
(9) The imposition of punishment on errant citizens through
incarceration requires State and local governments to exercise
their coercive police powers over individuals. These powers,
including the authority to use force over a private citizen,
should not be delegated to another private party.
SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANTS.
(a) IN GENERAL- To be eligible to receive a grant under subtitle
A of title II of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act of 1994, a grantee that receives funds under such subtitle
may not contract with a private contractor or vendor to provide
services related to the operation of a correctional facility or
the incarceration of inmates.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE- Subsection (a) shall apply to grant funds
received after the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 4. ENHANCING PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY IN THE DUTIES OF THE
BUREAU OF PRISONS.
(a) IN GENERAL- Section 4042(a) of title 18, United States Code,
is amended--
(1) by redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (7);
(2) by striking `and' at the end of paragraph (4); and
(3) by inserting after paragraph (4) the following:
(5) provide that any penal or correctional facility or
institution except for community correctional confinement such as
halfway houses, confining any person convicted of offenses
against the United States shall be under the direction of the
director of the Bureau of Prisons and shall be managed and
maintained by employees of the United States as defined in
section 2105 of title 5; and
(6) provide that the housing, safeguarding, care, subsistence,
protection, instructing, and disciplining of any person charged
with or convicted of any offense against the United States,
except such persons in community correctional confinement such as
halfway houses, will be conducted and carried out by individuals
who are employees of the United States as defined in section 2105
of title 5; and'.