Norton to Travel to North Carolina Monday to Begin First Oversight of 7,000 D.C. Inmates (8/10/07)

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will travel Monday, August 13, 2007 to Rivers Correctional Institute, a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) privately-run facility housing D.C. inmates, to tour the facility and have discussions with D.C. prisoners there and with prison officials. There has been no oversight of D.C. inmates in federal prisons, where most have been housed since the Revitalization Act transferred responsibility for D.C. prisoners to the federal government. "Inadequate congressional oversight and funding has led to unequal treatment of D.C. prisoners, who receive far fewer services than inmates of BOP-run prisons," Norton said. Staff from Norton's office and from the committee that will hold hearings will travel with her at 7 a.m. from the Rayburn House Office Building Horseshoe on South Capital Street on Monday.

D.C. inmates and foreign-born residents are the only federal prisoners housed in private, federally-contracted facilities with few services, the result of congressional appropriations ten years ago. Norton is particularly concerned about D.C.'s reported 65% recidivism rate. "If we are serious about reducing crime in this town, we need far more congressional and local attention to our reentry population while they are incarcerated and after," Norton said. "These residents are separated by 500 miles from their relatives and the city to which they will return. Distance and federal rather than local jurisdiction have left them and their families with few advocates and little visibility, yet many return with problems that D.C. alone must face." Now that there is a new majority in Congress, the Congresswoman is asserting the necessary jurisdiction to find the needed assistance not only for the inmates and their families, but also for the District, which is receiving men and women from prison who have not had access to appropriate reentry services.

About 1,000 D.C. inmates are at Rivers, the highest concentration of D.C. prisoners at any institution. A full set of mandated services are available at BOP facilities, but not at privately run institutions. Norton is most concerned about the absence of substance abuse services, which almost guarantees problems for the inmates and for the city when they return, and about health services at Rivers, which has resulted in a pending lawsuit brought by the Washington Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs' D.C. Prisoners' Project. Unlike D.C.'s federal prisoners, most federal inmates are housed in federally funded BOP facilities with services provided by federal employees. Norton is particularly concerned that 5,000 others are scattered across the country in other facilities, and will endeavor to bring them closer to home as well.

The first elected official to visit Rivers, Norton will tour the entire facility, including sleeping quarters, health unit, and recreational facilities. The Congresswoman will speak directly with inmates, the Rivers warden, other personnel and BOP officials. She will be particularly interested in the few programs available at Rivers, and intends to seek more funding to provide additional programs and services to D.C. residents incarcerated there.