[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 979 Introduced in House (IH)]







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''.
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