Jon Ossoff

I think we need to understand how this tool can be so ineffective that at Dublin, for example--and here is the 2017 Dublin audit--it was found that the facility met the standard of 'zero tolerance of sexual abuse and sexual harassment.'

What we found in the course of this investigation is that in two-thirds of the Federal prisons that have housed women in the last 10 years, there has been sexual abuse of female prisoners by BOP employees.

I have been genuinely encouraged by the tone of your tenure thus far.

I want to respectfully tell you that I believe your tenure will be judged by whether you succeed in eliminating the sexual abuse of those who are in your custody.

I find that that situation is absolutely egregious, and it is about the systemic change.

I believe in good government, I believe in transparency, and I know we cannot do this work alone.

I think it sends a powerful message to the Department that there is strong bipartisan will to address this crisis.

I want to encourage you again to embrace the possibility that you can turn this agency around.

I would note, as a point of personal privilege, Senator Lankford, that Senator Grassley and I have the Prison Camera Reform Act. It has passed the Senate unanimously.

The buck now stops with you.

Do you think it would be helpful to have more women working in facilities that incarcerate women?

Access and proximity to your family. How did they play a role in your fear of retaliation and the retaliation that you experienced?

It is not a pleasant responsibility. But it also the responsibility of government to make sure when we do incarcerate individuals that they are safe.

What kind of retaliation did you fear?

We cannot turn our face from it. We have to face this. We have to do everything we can to eliminate it.

I cannot think of much of anything worse than this, unnecessary surgeries performed on prisoners. Give me a break. It is an abject failure, Dr. Smith. It is a disgrace to the Federal Government.

Your testimony is that it is entirely the responsibility of IHSC to assess the propriety of the proposed intervention.

What does that review consist of?

This is worse than disheartening.

Let me reiterate our bipartisan findings. Excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures.

Thank you, Dr. Smith.

Those, I think, would have at least been warning signs to watch a little more carefully.

You were not aware. Were you aware, from 2017 to 2020--that is the relevant period here--that despite only seeing 6.5 percent of all OB/GYN patients, he was performing 95 percent of all laparoscopies and dilation and curettage surgeries?

These are bipartisan findings of the U.S. Senate's preeminent investigative subcommittee that women ICE detainees were subject consistently to unnecessary, invasive, and often non-consensual gynecological surgical procedures.

Why do LaSalle personnel undertake that review?