I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3019 
To establish an inspections regime for the Bureau of Prisons, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 28, 2023 
Mrs. MCBATH (for herself and Mr. ARMSTRONG) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 
A BILL 
To establish an inspections regime for the Bureau of Prisons, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Prison Over-
sight Act’’. 
SEC. 2. CREATION OF AN INSPECTIONS REGIME FOR THE 
BUREAU OF PRISONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 413 of title 5, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
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‘‘(e) INSPECTIONS REGIME.— 
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 
‘‘(A) BUREAU.—The term ‘Bureau’ means 
the Bureau of Prisons. 
‘‘(B) COVERED FACILITY.—The term ‘cov-
ered facility’— 
‘‘(i) means a correctional facility oper-
ated by the Bureau; and 
‘‘(ii) does not include a State, local, 
Tribal, or territorial facility. 
‘‘(C) FAMILY MEMBER.—The term ‘family 
member’ includes a grandparent, parent, sib-
ling, spouse or domestic partner, child, aunt, 
uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, grandchild, or any 
other person related to an individual by blood, 
adoption, marriage, civil union, or a romantic 
or fostering relationship. 
‘‘(D) INSPECTOR
GENERAL.—The term 
‘Inspector General’ means the Inspector Gen-
eral of the Department of Justice. 
‘‘(E) OMBUDSMAN.—The term ‘Ombuds-
man’ means the Ombudsman established under 
paragraph (3)(A). 
‘‘(F) REPRESENTATIVE OF AN INCARCER-
ATED PERSON.—The term ‘representative of an 
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incarcerated person’ includes paid or unpaid 
legal counsel or any other person or entity cho-
sen by an incarcerated person to represent the 
interests of the incarcerated person. 
‘‘(G) SEXUAL ABUSE.—The term ‘sexual 
abuse’ has the meaning given that term in sec-
tion 115.6 of title 28, Code of Federal Regula-
tions (or any successor thereto). 
‘‘(H) STAFF.—The term ‘staff’ means em-
ployees and contractors of the Bureau. 
‘‘(2) INSPECTIONS OF COVERED FACILITIES BY 
THE INSPECTOR GENERAL.— 
‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT
OF
INSPECTIONS 
REGIME.— 
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—The Inspector 
General shall conduct periodic inspections 
of covered facilities pursuant to the re-
quirements of this subsection. 
‘‘(ii) ACCESS
TO
COVERED
FACILI-
TIES.—The Attorney General shall ensure 
that the Inspector General has access to 
any covered facility, including the incarcer-
ated people, detainees, staff, bargaining 
unit representative organization, and any 
other information that the Inspector Gen-
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eral determines is necessary to carry out 
the provisions of this subsection. 
‘‘(iii) NOTICE OF INSPECTIONS.—An 
inspection of a covered facility under this 
subsection may be announced or unan-
nounced. 
‘‘(iv) COMMUNITY
INPUT.—In devel-
oping the inspections regime under this 
subsection, the Inspector General is en-
couraged to consult formerly incarcerated 
people, family or representatives of incar-
cerated people, and community advocates. 
‘‘(B) INSPECTION
CRITERIA.—An inspec-
tion of a covered facility under this subsection 
may include an assessment of the following: 
‘‘(i) The policies, procedures, and ad-
ministrative guidance of the facility. 
‘‘(ii) The conditions of confinement. 
‘‘(iii) Working conditions for staff. 
‘‘(iv) The availability of evidence- 
based recidivism reduction programs and 
productive activities, as such terms are de-
fined in section 3635 of title 18, and the 
application of earned time credits pursuant 
to section 3632 of title 18. 
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‘‘(v) The policies and procedures re-
lating to visitation. 
‘‘(vi) The policies and practices relat-
ing to classification and housing. 
‘‘(vii) The policies and practices relat-
ing to the use of single-cell confinement, 
administrative 
segregation, 
and 
other 
forms of restrictive housing. 
‘‘(viii) The medical facilities and med-
ical and mental health care, programs, pro-
cedures, and policies, including the number 
and qualifications of medical and mental 
health staff and the availability of gender- 
appropriate and trauma-responsive care for 
incarcerated people. 
‘‘(ix) Medical services and mental 
health resources for staff. 
‘‘(x) Lockdowns at the facility. 
‘‘(xi) Credible allegations of incidents 
involving excessive use of force, completed, 
attempted, or threatened violence, includ-
ing sexual abuse, or misconduct committed 
against incarcerated people. 
‘‘(xii) Credible allegations of incidents 
involving completed, attempted, or threat-
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ened violence, including sexual violence or 
sexual abuse, committed against staff. 
‘‘(xiii) Adequacy of staffing at the 
covered facility, including the number and 
job assignments of staff, the ratio of staff 
to inmates at the facility, the staff position 
vacancy rate at the facility, and the use of 
overtime, mandatory overtime, and aug-
mentation. 
‘‘(xiv) Deaths or serious injuries of in-
carcerated people or staff that occurred at 
the facility. 
‘‘(xv) The existence of contraband 
that jeopardizes the health or safety of in-
carcerated people or staff, including inci-
dent reports, referrals for criminal pros-
ecution, and confirmed prosecutions. 
‘‘(xvi) Access of incarcerated people 
to— 
‘‘(I) legal counsel, including con-
fidential meetings and communica-
tions; 
‘‘(II) discovery and other case-re-
lated legal materials; and 
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‘‘(III) the law library at the cov-
ered facility. 
‘‘(xvii) Any aspect of the operation of 
the covered facility that the Inspector Gen-
eral determines to be necessary over the 
course of an inspection. 
‘‘(C) INSPECTION SCHEDULE.—An inspec-
tion of a covered facility under this subsection 
shall be conducted on a schedule based on the 
combined risk score of the covered facility as 
described in subparagraph (E) and the fol-
lowing considerations: 
‘‘(i) Higher risk facilities shall receive 
more frequent inspections. 
‘‘(ii) The Inspector General shall re-
evaluate the combined risk score method-
ology and inspection schedule periodically 
and may alter 1 or both to ensure that 
higher risk facilities are identified and re-
ceiving the appropriate frequency of in-
spection. 
‘‘(iii) A determination by the Inspec-
tor General that 1 or more of the criteria 
listed in subparagraph (B) should be in-
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spected, with regard to a covered facility or 
group of covered facilities. 
‘‘(D) REPORT.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Upon completion 
of an inspection of a covered facility under 
this subsection, or a group of inspections 
that assess the same or similar issues at 
more than 1 facility, the Inspector General 
shall produce a report to be made available 
to the Attorney General, the Committee on 
the Judiciary of the Senate, the Committee 
on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-
resentatives, employee representative orga-
nizations, and the public, that addresses 1 
or more of the following topics: 
‘‘(I) A characterization of the 
conditions of confinement and work-
ing conditions, including a summary 
of the inspection criteria reviewed 
under clauses (ii) and (iii) of subpara-
graph (B). 
‘‘(II) Recommendations made to 
the covered facility to improve safety 
and conditions within the facility, in-
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cluding recommendations regarding 
staffing. 
‘‘(III) A recommended timeline 
for the next inspection and assess-
ment, which shall not limit the au-
thority of the Inspector General to 
perform additional inspections and as-
sessments, 
announced 
or 
unan-
nounced. 
‘‘(IV) Any other issues or mat-
ters identified during the inspection of 
the facility or facilities. 
‘‘(ii) CONSULTATION
WITH
STAKE-
HOLDERS.—In 
developing 
the 
rec-
ommendations described in clause (i), the 
Inspector General may consult with stake-
holders, including employee representative 
organizations. 
‘‘(E) RISK
SCORE.—Not later than 18 
months after the date of enactment of the Fed-
eral Prison Oversight Act, the Inspector Gen-
eral shall establish methodology and protocols 
for determining the combined risk score of a 
covered facility, which— 
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‘‘(i) shall be delivered to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary of the Senate and 
the Committee on the Judiciary of the 
House of Representatives; and 
‘‘(ii) may be based on— 
‘‘(I) frequency and duration of 
lockdowns; 
‘‘(II) availability of program-
ming; 
‘‘(III) staffing levels; 
‘‘(IV) access to adequate physical 
and mental health resources; 
‘‘(V) incidences of physical as-
sault, neglect, or sexual abuse; 
‘‘(VI) opportunity to maintain 
family ties through phone calls, video 
calls, mail, email, and visitation; 
‘‘(VII) adequacy of the nutrition 
provided; 
‘‘(VIII) amount or frequency of 
staff discipline cases; 
‘‘(IX) amount or frequency of 
misconduct by people incarcerated at 
the covered facility; 
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‘‘(X) access of incarcerated peo-
ple to— 
‘‘(aa) legal counsel, includ-
ing confidential meetings and 
communications; 
‘‘(bb) discovery and other 
case-related legal materials; and 
‘‘(cc) the law library at the 
covered facility; and 
‘‘(XI) other factors as deter-
mined by the Inspector General. 
‘‘(F) BUREAU RESPONSE TO REPORT.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 
days after the date on which the Inspector 
General issues a report under subpara-
graph (D), the Bureau shall respond in 
writing to the inspection report, which 
shall include a corrective action plan. 
‘‘(ii) PUBLIC
AVAILABILITY.—Each 
response and action plan described in 
clause (i) shall be made available to the 
public on the website of the Inspector Gen-
eral. 
‘‘(iii) COMPLIANCE WITH CORRECTIVE 
ACTION
PLAN.—The Inspector General 
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may conduct additional inspections or in-
vestigations, announced or unannounced, 
to monitor the compliance of the Bureau 
with a corrective action plan described in 
clause (i). 
‘‘(G) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—The au-
thority in this paragraph is consistent with and 
does not supersede, conflict with, or otherwise 
alter the authority provided to the Inspector 
General under section 406. 
‘‘(3) OMBUDSMAN.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of the Federal Pris-
on Oversight Act, the Attorney General shall es-
tablish in the Department of Justice an Om-
budsman who may— 
‘‘(i) receive a complaint from an in-
carcerated person, a family member, a rep-
resentative of an incarcerated person, staff, 
or others regarding issues that may ad-
versely affect the health, safety, welfare, or 
rights of incarcerated people or staff, in-
cluding— 
‘‘(I) abuse or neglect; 
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