I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 979
To ensure that services related to the operation of a correctional facility
and the incarceration of inmates are not provided by private contractors
or vendors and that persons convicted of any offenses against the United
States shall be housed in facilities managed and maintained by Federal
employees.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 4, 1999
Mr. STRICKLAND (for himself, Mr. KING, Mr. SWEENEY, Mr. HOLDEN, Ms.
SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Mr.
WALSH, and Mr. COYNE) introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To ensure that services related to the operation of a correc-
tional facility and the incarceration of inmates are not
provided by private contractors or vendors and that per-
sons convicted of any offenses against the United States
shall be housed in facilities managed and maintained
by Federal employees.
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 ‘‘Public Safety Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The issues of safety, liability, accountability,
and cost are the paramount issues in running cor-
rections facilities.
(2) In recent years, the privatization of persons
previously incarcerated by governmental entities has
resulted in frequent escapes by violent criminals,
riots resulting in extensive damage, prisoner on pris-
oner violence, and incidents of prisoner abuse by
staff.
(3) In some instances, the courts have prohib-
ited the transfer of additional convicts to private
prisons because of the danger to prisoners and the
community.
(4) Frequent escapes and riots at private facili-
ties impose expensive law enforcement operations on
State and local governments.
(5) The need to make profits creates incentives
for private contractors to underfund mechanisms
that provide for the security of the facility and the
safety of the inmates, corrections staff, and neigh-
boring community.
(6) The 1997 Supreme Court ruling in Richard-
son v. McKnight that the qualified immunity that
shields State and local correctional officers does not
apply to private prison personnel, and therefor ex-
poses State and local governments to liability for the
actions of private corporations.
(7) Additional liability issues arise when in-
mates are transferred outside the jurisdiction of the
contracting State.
(8) Studies on private correctional facilities
have been unable to demonstrate any significant cost
savings in the privatization of corrections facilities.
(9) The imposition of punishment on errant
citizens through incarceration requires State and
local governments to exercise their coercive police
powers over individuals. These powers, including the
authority to use force over a private citizen, should
not be delegated to another private party.
SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a grant
under subtitle A of title II of the Violent Crime Control
and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a grantee that receives
funds under such subtitle may not contract with a private
contractor or vendor to provide services related to the op-
eration of a correctional facility or the incarceration of in-
mates.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall apply to
grant funds received after the date of the enactment of
this Act.
SEC. 4. ENHANCING PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY IN THE
DUTIES OF THE BUREAU OF PRISONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 4042(a) of title 18,
United States Code, is amended—
(1) by redesignating paragraph (5) as para-
graph (7);
(2) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph
(4); and
(3) by inserting after paragraph (4) the follow-
ing:
‘‘(5) provide that any penal or correctional fa-
cility or institution except for community correc-
tional confinement such as halfway houses, confining
any person convicted of offenses against the United
States shall be under the direction of the director of
the Bureau of Prisons and shall be managed and
maintained by employees of the United States as de-
fined in section 2105 of title 5; and
‘‘(6) provide that the housing, safeguarding,
care, subsistence, protection, instructing, and dis-
ciplining of any person charged with or convicted of
any offense against the United States, except such