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Washington, D.C. (May 6, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight, delivered opening remarks at a joint subcommittee hearing with the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance on oversight of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

Below are Ranking Member Crockett’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today’s hearing.

WATCH  Ranking Member Crockett’s opening statement.

Ranking Member Jasmine Crockett
Subcommittee on Oversight
Joint Hearing on “Federal Corrections in Focus: Oversight of the Bureau of Prisons”
May 6, 2025

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today’s hearing could not come at a timelier moment, with this being National Correctional Officers Week.

Today, approximately 35,000 correctional officers and staff are under the control of the Bureau of Prisons.

And during the last 100-plus days of this Administration, we’ve seen just how little Trump cares about the BOP staff’s ability to do their job overseeing and protecting the roughly 155,000 incarcerated people in our federal prison system.

Having been a former public defender and a civil rights attorney, I’ve actually been inside prisons to see clients.

I’ve seen the conditions these individuals are living in. I’ve seen the conditions that staff are working under. And based on my experience, I can tell you correctional officers’ staff have one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs. And these jobs are now only getting harder.

Just two and half months ago, Ms. Kathleen Toomey, the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, testified before Congress that the Bureau had over 4,000 vacant positions that need to be filled.

Yet, rather than do anything to ensure adequate staffing and protect officers and inmates, Trump’s Justice Department terminated the Bureau’s incentive pay plan—effectively cutting Bureau officers’ and other employees’ pay by between 10% to 25%. This plan, of course, helped to retain and recruit people for jobs within BOP.

Then, on March 27, 2025, Trump issued an executive order eliminating BOP’s labor union, which is comprised of roughly 30,000 officers and staff.

All this comes after GAO added BOP on its 2025 High Risk List in January due to all of the problems BOP is facing. As GAO highlighted, BOP’s “longstanding staffing challenges represent a serious threat to the safety of staff and incarcerated people. BOP also faces challenges with aging and deteriorating infrastructure, which likewise affects safety.

It also needs improvements in planning for programs to prepare incarcerated people for release. Better monitoring and evaluation are needed to improve management of the federal prison system.”

So, does Trump take these issues and threats to safety seriously? Absolutely not. Instead, he made the deranged, delusional decision over the weekend to open up Alcatraz—a prison that was literally was shut down because it was too expense and too impractical to run! Honestly, y’all can’t make this stuff up.

Please tell me how any of this makes sense? Stripping Bureau employees of their collective bargaining rights. Cutting pay and benefits at a time where the Bureau was ranked the worst place to work among all federal subagencies and offices—more than 450 offices. Having staff like prison teachers, cooks, nurses, and monitors be forced to serve as correctional officers because BOP has too few officers to actually do the job. Wanting to place even more of a strain on the system by trying to house migrants and children in Bureau facilities.

It’s absolutely ridiculous!

Let me be clear. This isn’t just a staff issue—it’s a life-or-death issue.

Reports by the Justice Department’s Inspector General detailed how in over a third of the inmate suicides that occurred between Fiscal Years 2014 to 2021, BOP staff didn’t sufficiently conduct the required inmate rounds or counts to check on the inmates.

This is completely unacceptable and who knows how many lives could have been saved.

And while all of this is bad on its own, let’s not forget about the fact that in all of the 120 correctional institutions under the Bureau’s control, each needs some kind of repair at any given time. Like, Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution in Texas, for example, which is close to my district. 6 of the 8 buildings housing inmates had broken air conditioning units during the summer, where temperatures in Texas facilities can reach up to 110 degrees, and at least one unit topping 149 degrees.

We need to get to the bottom of this and fix this organization before more and more deaths occur.

Today’s hearing is one of the few moments where actually I believe we can do some good in Congress and I hope we do today.

Because at the end of the day, this is about doing what’s right.

It’s about protecting employees. It’s about protecting lives. It’s about ensuring we give people a second chance at life.

So, I want to thank the witnesses for being here today and I look forward to participating in this important discussion.

Thank you Mr. Chairman and I yield back.