Introduction of the District of Columbia Returning Citizens Coordination Act of 2019

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia Returning Citizens Coordination Act of 2019. This bill would allow the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA) to share information with the District of Columbia government to help ensure the District has services ready, in coordination with BOP and CSOSA, for returning citizens.

D.C. inmates face significant hurdles in preparing to return to society because most are spread across the country in BOP facilities hundreds or even thousands of miles from the District, their families and their loved ones. Because they are frequently housed so far away from the District, coordinating returning citizens' reentry into society is difficult. This bill would make the coordination efforts between the BOP, CSOSA and District agencies less burdensome and more efficient.

Under this bill, District agencies would be better able to determine what physical and mental health and other needs returning citizens may have before they are even released from prison. Because D.C. Code felons are the only local inmates housed by the BOP, this bill is especially important for District residents.

Currently, BOP is allowed to share information regarding returning citizens with CSOSA, since it is also a federal agency, but not with D.C. agencies. This bill would allow BOP and CSOSA to treat agencies of the D.C. government as they do other federal agencies for the purposes of--but only for the purposes of--federal privacy laws, such as the Privacy Act, so that the District agencies that assist individuals during their return can more easily obtain the necessary information to provide appropriate services.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source