[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1311]]
                  PRISONERS AND PUBLIC AT HEALTH RISK

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 28, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw attention to an article 
from the June 8, 2006, Washington Times newspaper entitled ``Prisoners, 
Public at health risk'' reporting on the findings of the 21-member 
Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's prisons.
  The article discusses the high rates of disease and illnesses among 
the inmates in the Nation's jails and prison and the subsequent threat 
this problem poses to communities outside of the prison's scope as 
inmates are released back into the communities.
  Based on data gathered and reported by the Commission on Safety and 
Abuse in America's Prison, more than 1.5 million people are released 
from jails and prisons nationwide carrying life-threatening contagious 
diseases, and another 350,000 inmates have serious mental illnesses.
  While this article and the report explores the prisons' inability to 
treat physical and mental illnesses it also examines prison 
overcrowding, violence and abuse. It addresses the impact of reduced 
funding for programming, a reduction which directly leads to inactivity 
and unproductiveness in our prisons. The report reveals that most 
correctional systems are set up to fail because they are charged with 
protecting public health and public safety, and reducing human 
suffering as they strive to care for the sick on a shoestring budget 
with very little support from the community health care providers and 
public health authorities.
  Mr. Speaker: I enter this article into the Record to send a message 
that it is imperative that health officials and lawmakers realize that 
the issue of inadequate health care in our Nations' prisons has to be 
addressed and rectified sooner rather than later.

               [From the Washington Times, June 8, 2006]

                    Prisoners, Public at Health Risk

                            (By Jerry Seper)

       High rates of disease and illness among inmates in the 
     Nation's jails and prisons, coupled with inadequate funding 
     for correctional health care, has put the Nation's 2.2 
     million prisoners at risk, along with corrections officers 
     and the public, a report said yesterday.
       Every year, according to a report by the 21-member 
     Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons, more 
     than 1.5 million people are released from jails and prisons 
     nationwide carrying life-threatening contagious diseases, and 
     another 350,000 inmates have serious mental illnesses.
       ``Protecting public health and public safety, reducing 
     human suffering and limiting the financial cost of untreated 
     illness depends on adequately funded, good quality 
     correctional health care,'' the report said. ``Unfortunately, 
     most correctional systems are set up to fail.
       ``They have to care for a sick population on shoestring 
     budgets and with little support from community health-care 
     providers and public health authorities,'' it said.
       The commission, co-chaired by former Attorney General 
     Nicholas de B. Katzenbach, is based on a lengthy 
     investigation and hearings, which included testimony from 
     corrections professionals, prison monitors and litigators, 
     former prisoners, scholars and others. The inquiry focused on 
     the ``crucial role of oversight and accountability'' in 
     creating safe conditions in U.S. prisons and jails, and on 
     the nature and prevalence of gang violence.
       ``The questions `who's watching' and `who's responsible' 
     are at the beginning and end of dealing with all of the 
     problems we've examined,'' Mr. Katzenbach said.
       The report also concluded:
        Violence remains a serious problem in the Nation's prisons 
     and jails, with ``disturbing evidence'' of assaults and 
     patterns of violence in some U.S. correctional facilities. It 
     said corrections officers reported a near-constant fear of 
     being assaulted, and prisoners recounted gang violence, rapes 
     and beatings.
       Violence and abuse are not inevitable, but the majority of 
     prisons and many jails nationwide hold more people than they 
     can accommodate safely and effectively, creating a degree of 
     disorder and tension almost certain to erupt into violence.
       Because lawmakers have reduced funding for programming in 
     the country's prisons and jails, inmates are largely inactive 
     and unproductive.
       The increasing use of high-security segregation is 
     counterproductive, often causing violence inside facilities 
     and contributing to recidivism after release. People who pose 
     no threat and those who are mentally ill are ``languishing 
     for months or years'' in high-security units and supermax 
     prisons.
       Better safety inside prisons and jails depends on changing 
     the institutional culture, which cannot be accomplished 
     without enhancing the corrections professional at all levels. 
     Because the exercise of power is a defining characteristic of 
     correctional facilities, there is a constant potential for 
     abuse.
       The report will be presented today at a hearing of the 
     Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime, corrections and 
     victims' rights.

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