[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1994 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1994

To ensure that the incarceration of inmates is not provided by private 
  contractors or vendors and that persons charged or convicted of an 
offense against the United States shall be housed in facilities managed 
        and maintained by Federal, State, or local governments.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 6, 2003

Mr. Strickland (for himself, Mr. Holden, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Cummings, Ms. 
 Baldwin, Mr. McNulty, Mr. Hoeffel, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, Mr. 
    Scott of Georgia, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, and Mr. Brown of Ohio) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure that the incarceration of inmates is not provided by private 
  contractors or vendors and that persons charged or convicted of an 
offense against the United States shall be housed in facilities managed 
        and maintained by Federal, State, or local governments.

    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 facilities for 
        persons previously incarcerated by governmental entities has 
        resulted in frequent escapes by violent criminals, riots 
        resulting in extensive damage, 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 result 
        in expensive law enforcement costs for 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 therefore 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. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS.

    (a) In General.--Funds provided by the Federal Government to a 
State or local government for the purpose of providing core 
correctional services may not be used to contract with private 
contractors or vendors to provide such activities.
    (b) Definition.--For purposes of this section, the term ``core 
correctional services'' means the housing, safeguarding, protecting, 
and disciplining of persons charged or convicted of an offense.

SEC. 4. ENHANCING PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY IN THE DUTIES OF THE 
              BUREAU OF PRISONS.

    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 nonprofit 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 Federal, State, 
        or local governments;
            ``(6) provide that the housing, safeguarding, protection, 
        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 Federal, State, or local governments; and''.
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