[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 161 (Friday, October 3, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2245-E2246]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DEATHS IN CUSTODY REPORTING PROGRAM

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 3, 2008

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Congressman 
Scott from Virginia for his critical insight into this much needed 
legislation before us. H.R. 3971, the Death in Custody Reporting 
Program reauthorizes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, BJS, program, 
which is designed to report the deaths of prisoners and immigration 
detainees in local and State custody.
  The Death in Custody Reporting Act is a critical oversight tool which 
allows State and local corrections officials and advocates to monitor 
in-custody suicides, homicides, drug and alcohol overdoses and other 
critical issues.
  Due to the current lack of transparency and accountability, the 
public and advocacy groups have to rely on word-of-mouth and media 
accounts to find out about deaths of immigration detainees. According 
to the ACLU, at least 69 immigrants have died in custody since 2004. A 
significant number of these deaths occurred in Federal detention 
facilities.
  I am pleased that the Senate amended this legislation to ensure that 
Federal detention center authorities also had to report under the same 
circumstances and the State detention centers; finally closing the 
loophole that allowed deaths of immigration detainees in Federal 
detention facilities to go unreported.
  This program which began in 2000, is supposed to receive death 
records quarterly from each State's prison and juvenile justice systems 
and from nearly 18,000 State and local law enforcement agencies. The 
reports include the age, gender and race of the deceased, the criminal 
history of the deceased and the circumstances surrounding the death.
  Sadly, according to a report by Human Rights Watch the U.S. criminal 
justice system fails to meet many international standards for the 
treatment of crime victims. Among other proposed measures in the 
report, HRW recommended that the United States ratify the 1979 
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against 
Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
  Colleagues, nearly 300,000 men, women, and children are detained by 
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, each year, the majority 
of whom have no criminal history whatsoever. Thousands arrived on our 
shores fleeing persecution and torture, only to be locked up like 
criminals in one of over 400 detention facilities around the country. 
We must not let go of our belief in the innate value of human life, or 
stray from our fundamental values while detaining immigrants or 
criminal offenders.
  In 1995, after a one-year investigation by journalist Mike Masterson 
into prison conditions and the death rate of persons in custody, 
Ashberry Park Press of New Jersey, ran a series of award winning 
editorials which listed the following abuses resulting in death that 
were occurring in our jails and prisons: Racially motivated violence, 
overzealous police investigations, cover-ups and general law 
enforcement incompetence.

  This prompted the Death In Custody Act of 2000 which required 
reporting of deaths of persons in custody. Since then, The Bureau of 
Justice Statistics has compiled a number of statistics. My colleague, 
Congressman Bobby Scott at one point testified to the most astounding 
statistic--that since reporting deaths have been made mandatory, the 
latest report dated August 2005 shows a 64 percent decline in suicides 
and 93 percent decline in homicides for individuals in custody. He 
stated that these statistics suggest that the oversight measures play 
an important role in ensuring safety and security of prisoners in State 
facilities.
  I agree with his finds and that is why I support H.R. 3971. We need 
continued oversight over the conduct of law enforcement in the arrest 
and imprisonment of citizens and immigrants.
  The Bureau of Justice Statistics date shows that between 2001 and 
2005, there were 15,308 State prisoner deaths, 5,935 local prisoner 
deaths and 43 juvenile deaths during incarceration. In my district 
alone, in the last decade, 106 deaths have occurred in Harris County 
jail, many because of inability to secure meds or to secure med care 
after an attack.


                          Immigrants in Jails

  Survivors of torture, asylum-seekers, families with small children 
and individuals with serious mental health and medical conditions such 
as HIV/AIDS, are routinely locked up in jails or under jail-like 
conditions. Studies conducted by the bipartisan Commission on 
International Religious Freedom, New York University's Bellevue 
Program, and Physicians for Human Rights have demonstrated that, even 
in well-run jails, detention itself poses a serious threat to the 
psychological health of the detainees.
  Without the right to appointed counsel and often detained in remote 
locations, detainees are unable to exercise fully what rights they do 
have. While I do not stand here and advocate allowing duly processed 
criminals to be released, or those breaking our immigration law to be 
simply be set loose, there are safer and more cost-effective 
alternatives to detention for most immigrants ICE currently detains.


                               conclusion

  Angela Davis, an activist who went from being on the most wanted list 
to a distinguished and tenured professor in California, said that 
``Jails and prisons are designed to

[[Page E2246]]

break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo--
obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.''
  Is that our goal? Are jails and prisons rehabilitating or are they 
simply creating more dangerous criminals? We need to better understand 
what is happening in our society and take account for it. This 
legislation maintains a log--a report that will track deaths in 
custody. The more we know what is going on, the more responsible we 
must become. It is my belief that this is just the beginning of a 
criminal justice system that needs reform.

                          ____________________