Congress OKs bill forcing feds to fix broken prison cameras

WASHINGTON >> Congress has passed legislation requiring the federal Bureau of Prisons to overhaul failing and outdated security systems in the wake of rampant staff sexual abuse, inmate escapes and high-profile deaths.

The bill, approved by the House on a voice vote Wednesday, would force the troubled prison agency to fix broken surveillance cameras and install new ones, providing upgraded tools to fight and investigate staff misconduct, inmate violence and other problems.

The Prison Camera Reform Act, which the Senate passed last year, now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

“Broken prison camera systems are enabling corruption, misconduct, and abuse,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. He has led multiple investigations of crime and corruption in federal prisons as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, part of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The bipartisan legislation would require 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.

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.