{"id":13408,"date":"2022-05-20T10:15:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T14:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=13408"},"modified":"2022-05-20T10:15:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T14:15:19","slug":"sens-ossoff-kennedy-introduce-bipartisan-prison-transparency-legislation","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sens-ossoff-kennedy-introduce-bipartisan-prison-transparency-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Sens. Ossoff, Kennedy Introduce Bipartisan Prison Transparency Legislation<\/strong> "},"content":{"rendered":"

Legislation will ensure families receive timely notifications of any health complications of incarcerated family members<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Families across Georgia have suffered from the prison system\u2019s failure to notify people of their relatives\u2019 health issues<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington, D.C. \u2014 <\/strong>U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and John Kennedy (R-LA) today introduced new bipartisan prison transparency legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senators\u2019 bipartisan Family Notification of Death, Injury, or Illness in Custody Act of 2022 <\/em>will ensure family members are notified in a timely and compassionate manner about any health challenges of loved ones while in custody.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bipartisan bill would require the Department of Justice to establish best practices for this notification process by issuing central guidance to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and local and state institutions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToo often, the families of those incarcerated never find out about a serious illness, a life-threatening injury, or even the death of a loved one behind bars. That\u2019s why we introduced this bipartisan reform legislation,\u201d Sen. Ossoff said.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is about good policy. Families have the right to know about the wellbeing of their loved ones, and our bill would simply make sure that happens,\u201d said Sen. Kennedy.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis bill, the Family Notification of Death, Injury, or Illness in Custody Act of 2022<\/em>, provides an important step toward creating a national standard for notifying next of kin when someone in federal custody becomes ill or dies. Too often, family members do not receive critical updates about the health and well-being of their loved ones in a timely manner,\u201dsaid Nicholas Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice. <\/strong>\u201cThis legislation reaffirms the basic compassion, dignity, and fairness that all people should be afforded.\u201d    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to read the Family Notification of Death, Injury, or Illness in Custody Act of 2022.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Families across Georgia have suffered from the prison system\u2019s failure to notify people of their relatives\u2019 health in recent years:<\/u><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an inmate had fallen and suffered from serious injuries in a Clayton County Jail, including a collapsed lunch that required hospitalization. Her daughter was never alerted about her hospitalization and only received notice of her death<\/a> once the mother\u2019s longtime boyfriend attempted to visit the jail and was told that she was no longer there. Neither the boyfriend nor the daughter was provided with additional information on the mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Georgia, a woman was only notified of her father\u2019s death<\/a> at Valdosta State Prison after a letter was returned to her stamped, \u201cReturn to sender: inmate dead.\u201d She was then unable to obtain any further information about her father\u2019s death from prison officials.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March of 2020, a mother in Macon<\/a> was notified by an incarcerated individual, and not by Macon State Prison\u2019s staff, that her 23-year-old son was stabbed to death.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff has been a longtime advocate for improving transparency in the U.S. prison system.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the Senate passed Sens. Ossoff and Grassley\u2019s bipartisan Prison Camera Reform Act of 2021,<\/em><\/a> which would require BOP to ensure all correctional facilities have the security camera coverage necessary to protect the civil rights and safety of incarcerated people and staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This February, Sens. Ossoff and Braun launched<\/a> the Senate Bipartisan Prison Policy Working Group <\/em>to develop policies and proposals that will strengthen oversight of the Federal prison system and improve communications between Congress and the Federal BOP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff also recently joined Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Mike Lee (R-UT) to introduce legislation that would increase Federal oversight and accountability of the Federal prison system by making the BOP Director a U.S. Senate-confirmed position. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legislation will ensure families receive timely notifications of any health complications of incarcerated family members  Families across Georgia have suffered from the prison system\u2019s failure to notify people of their relatives\u2019 health issues  Washington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and John Kennedy (R-LA) today introduced new bipartisan prison transparency legislation.  The Senators\u2019 bipartisan Family Notification […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13408","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/13408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/13408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13410,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/13408\/revisions\/13410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}