Nancy Boyda: “when most of us think about law enforcement, we imagine police patrolling the streets, or we think of lawyers and judges…”

“when most of us think about law enforcement, we imagine police patrolling the streets, or we think of lawyers and judges in a courtroom. But there's another chapter to the law enforcement story. Once a criminal has been caught, tried, and convicted in federal court, the U.S. prison system is charged with detaining him--sometimes for the rest of his life. Just as Congress talks about supporting police and protecting judges, we need to talk about supporting our prisons. In recent years we have seen the Federal inmate population grow without a corresponding increase in the number of corrections officers. This is a dangerous situation that we cannot allow to continue. Since 1980, the population of inmates in Federal prisons has increased from 24,000 to almost 200,000--an 830 percent increase. Unfortunately, funding hasn't increased nearly that fast, and too many facilities are facing staffing shortages. Right now, Federal prisons are overcrowded by about 37 percent. Frankly, that isn't right. We can't claim to be tough on crime and neglect our prisons. Congress has to provide enough funding to the Bureau of Prisoners to ensure the safety of our guards and the quality of our prisons. As a member of the House Corrections Caucus, last month I authored a letter to the House Appropriations Committee requesting increased funding for the Bureau of Prisons.”