Staffing shortages. Low pay. Dangerous working environment. Forced overtime. Endless ‘augmentation’ of employees into unfamiliar roles. Unsafe housing conditions. The sorry state of America’s federal prisons was in full display at a Sept. 29 congressional hearing where AFGE Council of Prison Locals President Shane Fausey testified.
Senate Judiciary Committee members and panelists, including BOP’s new director Colette Peters, agreed that BOP has a serious problem with staffing shortages. Peters was pressed on how she plans to address the problems she inherited just two months ago when she was appointed director.
Speaking on behalf of BOP employees who work inside the prison walls every single day, Fausey brought a unique perspective on all these problems and how to fix them. The council president told lawmakers that the union’s number one priority is the safety of BOP employees, which has been severely compromised by staffing shortages set in motion in 2005 by staffing cuts.
A few important things Fausey pointed out:
How can we fix staffing problems? Full staffing and competitive pay
To run federal prisons safely, Fausey said urgent funding is needed to fill all current and authorized positions up to and including all authorized positions as of January 2016. To accomplish this, the Deputy Attorney General needs to demand that all BOP correctional facilities fill all positions immediately and hold those accountable that do not fulfill this expectation.
To attract job applicants, the current administration must restructure the current pay-bands to make BOP competitive in terms of pay. Starting salaries at BOP, for example, are $19 an hour. People can get $24 an hour working at Target and don’t have to worry about getting stabbed at work.
An agencywide retention incentive for all primary law enforcement employees eligible for retirement is also necessary to curb the exodus and loss of valuable correctional experience.
Fausey said AFGE is committed to working with the new director to address staffing issues. This is the first time that BOP is focused on staffing wellness, which is being negotiated with the union right now.
“The men and women that work in America’s prisons and penitentiaries do so unassumingly and ask for little in return,” Fausey said. “Most simply want to return to their families at the end of their shift as safely as possible. These are extraordinary human beings that would instantly sacrifice their lives for their fellow officers, and in some instances, risk their own peril for complete strangers.”
False narrative
In his testimony, Fausey pointed out a false narrative in recent headlines that has misrepresented BOP and its employees about alleged misconduct.
“Although any instance of misconduct is serious, and to be crystal clear, the national prison council emphatically does not condone nor tolerate misconduct of any kind, the fact remains that, the reported 100 employees since 2019 of our total 35,000 over the course of 3 years, results in a 0.28% rate of misconduct for an extremely large organization,” he told the lawmakers.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin thanked Fausey for addressing the false narrative presented in the media.
Independent oversight
The council, which represents 30,000 federal corrections professionals nationwide, also supports a new bill that would bring greater transparency and independent oversight to BOP through a prisons ombudsman who would field complaints about prison conditions.
“We all believe in safe prisons whether you live there or work there. A safe workplace is a safe place for offenders to live,” he told Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., one of the sponsors of the bipartisan bill, in response to his question why Fausey supports this bill.
When asked by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., about home confinement of some non-violent offenders, Fausey said based on his 30 years of experience, home confinement for non-violent offenders could be a solution for staffing issues so that resources could be diverted to keep the most dangerous criminals off the streets.
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