Norton Hearing on How to Get D.C. Inmates Closer to Home, Families, & Services (5/4/2010)

Norton Gets Hearing on How to Get D.C. Inmates Closer to Home, Families and Services

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), in an attempt to get D.C. inmates, now housed by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in prisons throughout the country, closer to home, asked the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia to hold a hearing on Wednesday, May 5, Rayburn House Office Building, room 2154, 2 p.m., entitled "Housing D.C. Code Felons Far Away from Home: Effects on Crime, Recidivism, and Reentry." Norton said, "In transferring state felons to federal custody for the first time in U.S. history, Congress has challenged the BOP to accommodate state inmates sentenced under the D.C. local law within a federal prison."

The hearing will focus on the rehabilitation, reintegration, and family contact challenges experienced by D.C. code felons as a result of being imprisoned far from their homes and support networks. The hearing will feature testimony from federal officials, experts, and former D.C. code offenders. Scheduled witnesses include Nancy LaVigne, Director, Urban Institute Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute; Philip Fornaci, Director, DC Prisoner's Project; The Honorable Harley G. Lappin, Director, BOP; Adrienne Poteat, Deputy Director of Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency; and Louis Sawyer and Andrew Cook, previously incarcerated in the Bureau of Prisons.

"This challenge means moving D.C. inmates closer to the District," Norton said. "In the meantime, more must be done to reduce the hardship on D.C. Code inmates and their families and to better ensure public safety in the District of Columbia."