[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 82 (Wednesday, May 12, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S2468]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



           National Correctional Officers and Employees Week

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, our Nation just concluded National 
Correctional Officers and Employees Week. Because the Senate was not in 
session last week, I want to take this opportunity to recognize these 
heroes and everything they do to protect our people and uphold the rule 
of law.
  Every day, correctional officers go in to work to guard and operate 
our Federal prisons, State prisons, and local jails. They not only 
administer justice on behalf of innocent victims, but they also defend 
the guilty from unjust adversity.
  They combat the drug trade so that addicts can recover. They fight 
back against vicious prison gangs so that inmates can have a chance to 
find redemption instead of recidivism. They confront the most violent 
offenders so that persons with short minimum-security prison sentences 
don't turn out to have what is a death sentence.
  Without safety, security, and structure, our prisons and our jails 
would devolve into anarchy, into chaos, and crime. Correctional 
officers combat these forces of disorder so that these facilities can 
instead be centers of self-improvement and, indeed, correction. As a 
result, many inmates are able to pursue education, learn marketable 
skills, and find solace in God.
  The profession of a correctional officer is both noble and very 
dangerous. Fewer than 450,000 correctional officers protect and police 
approximately 1.5 million inmates in a normal year, around the clock, 
every minute of every day.
  Riots, jailbreak attempts, and targeted anti-police violence are 
common and result in particularly high-risk situations for correctional 
officers. In a 
9-year period measured by the National Institutes of Health, 
correctional officers suffered over 125,000 work-related injuries and 
113 tragically lost their lives.
  Correctional officers willingly endure this danger, suffer these 
injuries, and sometimes give their lives so that our families, 
neighborhoods, and communities can be safe. The least we can do is to 
recognize their sacrifice and express our gratitude.
  This year, our correctional officers did even more than usual. For 
the past 14 months, they have worked tirelessly to keep our inmates 
healthy in the middle of this global pandemic. They shifted normal 
confinement arrangements, and they maintained order among the 
population under enhanced stress due to coronavirus protocols.
  Correctional officers have done an amazing job and saved so many 
lives during this crisis. Sadly, some even paid the ultimate price for 
their work. They should be proud of their work, and we ought to be 
proud of them. So from the floor of the U.S. Senate, I certainly can 
say I am proud of our correctional officers.
  But our Nation should go beyond gratitude. We ought to give 
correctional officers the funding, the wages, the equipment, the 
facilities, and the support that they need.
  To start, Congress can finally crack down on contraband cell phones. 
Inmates use them to maintain their criminal enterprises from behind 
bars and to terrorize those who put them there. They also use them to 
victimize other inmates and to prey upon random victims outside prison 
walls. In other words, prisoners use these cell phones to undermine the 
life's work of correctional officers.
  Contraband cell phones are even used as tools of retribution against 
the officers themselves. In 2010, a gang member imprisoned in South 
Carolina used a contraband cell phone to order the murder of Captain 
Robert Johnson. Captain Johnson was then mercilessly shot six times in 
the chest and stomach in his own house. Remarkably, he survived the 
attack, and he is now a leading advocate for taking action against 
contraband cell phones.
  Regrettably, the use of contraband cell phones shows no sign of 
slowing. On the contrary, they are becoming ubiquitous weapons inside 
of our prisons. While available technologies can be helpful, it is also 
increasingly clear they are not capable of solving the problem alone. 
So that is why I will soon be reintroducing my Cell Phone Jamming 
Reform Act. This bill would empower State prisons to install jamming 
technology and turn contraband cell phones into nothing but useless 
paper weights. This easy and commonsense step will honor the hard work 
of correctional officers to clean up our streets and to keep our Nation 
safe.
  The men and women of this country--law-abiding citizens and those who 
serve their time alike--owe a debt to our Nation's correctional 
officers. So I, once again, want to thank them for their courageous and 
diligent service. And I hope they took time last week to celebrate 
National Correctional Officers and Employees Week because they 
certainly deserved it.