Source: United States Senator John Kennedy (Louisiana)
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today wrote to Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Michael Carvajal demanding answers about staffing shortages in Federal Correction Complexes (FCC) in Pollock and Oakdale, La. FCC Pollock and FCC Oakdale have experienced staffing shortages that have been exasperated by COVID-19, and the BOP director has failed to respond to Kennedy’s formal questions (QFRs) about the shortages.
“As of the date of this letter, I have not received a response from you. In other words, QFRs have remained unanswered for eight months. This is unacceptable. . . . Federal agencies must respond to congressional inquiries in a timely way. As a result of your failure to respond, the staffing crisis at FCC Oakdale has actually gone from bad to worse since the Judiciary Committee held the BOP oversight hearing earlier this year,” Kennedy wrote.
“Our men and women in law enforcement, including those working some of the most dangerous jobs in our federal prisons, must have every resource available to them to ensure their safety. Sufficient staffing levels are crucial to that safety. To that end, I ask that you respond to this letter by December 31, 2021, with the date that the BOP will restore FCC Oakdale to its 2016 staffing levels, per the direction of Congress,” Kennedy concluded.
To meet custody requirements in the wake of staffing shortages, these facilities have had to pay increased overtime and siphon personnel from other departments to increase the number of guards on duty.
The BOP has also ordered FCC Oakdale to reduce existing staff levels to 93 percent of current levels, even though it has lost personnel because of President Biden’s vaccine mandate. If this reduction occurs, the facility will have approximately 120 fewer personnel than it did in 2016, which is the level Congress has funded and required the facility to maintain.
Text of the letter is available here.