Letter to the Donald J. Trump, President of the United States and Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget - Reconsider Federal Prison Budget Cuts

Letter

Dear President Trump and Director Mulvaney:

I am writing today to express my deep concerns with the proposed cuts to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) budget. I urge you to reconsider this decision. Instead, I strongly recommend that you provide robust funding to the BOP in your Fiscal Year 2019 budget in order to ensure proper support to our federal law enforcement officers and protect public safety. If these proposed cuts are enacted, it would represent a dangerous shift away from supporting our federal law enforcement and public safety officers.

Given the Department of Justice's (DOJ) announcement to return to tougher sentencing policies--which is a misguided decision in itself--cutting staff from our already understaffed prisons would put correctional officers at increased risk. As of now, federal prisons are operating below recommended staffing levels. The Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in California currently has 74 vacancies and a 12 percent BOP proposed reduction would lead to 62 positions to be eliminated. The FCI in Lompoc, California is an already understaffed facility. Just last summer on June 22, 2017 a fight between inmates resulted in nine inmates being injured and three prison staff members sustaining minor non-life threatening injures. Any further staffing cuts unnecessarily risk the safety and well-being of our public safety officers.

We need to do better to ensure the safety of our federal law enforcement officers whose mission is to protect public safety by ensuring we are providing enough funding to the BOP. I ask that you take these concerns into consideration as you continue to develop a budget for FY 2019.

Sincerely,

Source