[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 27, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S994-S995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Thomson Special Management Unit

  Mr. President, I want to raise another topic in the jurisdiction of 
the committee. In December of 2021, Bobby Everson was killed while he 
was in the care and custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, allegedly 
by a cellmate.

  At the time of his death, he was housed at the Federal prison in 
Thomson, IL, in a special management unit, a unit notorious for poor 
management, harsh conditions, even before the Bureau of Prisons moved 
into Thomson from USP Lewisburg in 2018.
  After an investigation by the Marshall Project and NPR found that 
Thomson had become one of the Nation's deadliest prisons, I asked the 
Inspector General Michael Horowitz to examine Thomson as part of an 
investigation into the hundreds of deaths at Bureau of Prisons 
facilities.

[[Page S995]]

  One year ago, the special management unit at Thomson was finally 
closed for good, and now we have the findings of the inspector 
general's investigation. The inspector general found things that are 
truly disturbing about our American prison system.
  He reports that operational and managerial deficiencies within the 
prison system have created unsafe conditions and presented critical 
threats to incarcerated individuals. Significant recurring issues like 
the failure to comply with policy, understaffing, insufficient mental 
health and substance abuse treatment have increased the risk and 
contributed to more and more deaths that are preventable. A prison 
sentence should not be a death sentence in America.
  The inspector general's report also highlights that over half of the 
deaths in its scope were suicides, and almost half of the suicides 
occurred in restricted housing, otherwise known as solitary 
confinement.
  Earlier this month, the GAO released a compelling report on the BOP's 
use of solitary confinement. The findings were extremely troubling. As 
of October 2023, the Bureau of Prisons housed almost 8 percent of its 
prison population in solitary--almost 8 percent.
  In many cases, people were confined in their cells for 23 hours a 
day. We know that the overuse of solitary confinement causes lasting, 
irreparable mental harm to incarcerated people. That is why I will soon 
reintroduce the Solitary Confinement Reform Act--legislation that would 
greatly limit the use of solitary confinement in our Nation's prison 
system.
  Depriving incarcerated adults of basic human rights and endangering 
their lives is no way to achieve justice. The Bureau of Prisons must do 
more to create safer and more humane conditions.
  As chairman of the Senate Judiciary, I am going to establish the 
practice of holding annual oversight hearings for the Bureau of 
Prisons. Tomorrow, we will hear from Bureau of Prisons' Colette Peters 
and the IG Michael Horowitz to discuss this IG report and examine what 
led to these deadly failures. The goal of our criminal justice system 
must be to rehabilitate offenders and prepare them to successfully 
reenter our society. Solitary confinement is not the avenue to pursue 
for assimilating these people back into society.
  It is long past time for the BOP to achieve this goal, and it will 
only do so through transparency, accountability, and reform.
  It has been years now since I read an article in Atlantic Magazine by 
Atul Gawande, a physician in the Boston area who is now working in the 
Biden administration for USAID. I think he is an extraordinary observer 
of the human scene, and he wrote an entire article about the impact on 
the human mind of isolation and confinement.
  He started talking about prisoners of war--like John McCain, a 
national hero, and the impact 5 years-plus of incarceration had on him 
and his attitude toward life--and he went on to say that the 
incarceration in our penal facilities is really not the right 
preparation for individuals who, most ultimately, will be released into 
society.
  I held two public hearings on solitary confinement and brought in one 
man who had been on death row in Texas for 10 years. He was an 
emotional basket case. He will never have a normal life as long as he 
lives. Another man who was in a similar circumstance in another State 
seemed to have assimilated well. He is now an over-the-road truck 
driver in the Midwest.
  They each told about what it meant each day to have 23 hours of 
isolation and then one hour where they knew there was another human 
being on earth. That sort of treatment is inhumane at its heart.
  Sometimes it is absolutely necessary to maintain order in the 
situation, I understand that; but it should never be encouraged.
  Unfortunately, I am sad to say that, despite my interest in this 
issue, I have not made an appreciable difference in the number of 
people who are in solitary confinement in our prisons. We can do 
better; we must do better. The hearing in which we will be hearing from 
the inspector general gives us the guidelines to follow to improve this 
situation.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Republican whip.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, also, I would ask unanimous consent that I 
be allowed to complete my remarks prior to the scheduled rollcall 
votes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.