ATLANTA — In a bipartisan push for federal prison reform, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff announced the introduction of a new bill related to how families are notified when a loved one is ill, injured or dies while in custody of the federal prison system.
According to the announcement, Ossoff, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana and Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California are working to improve how the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as state and local prisons and institutions, provide family notifications.
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The bill, called the Family Notification of Death, Injury, or Illness in Custody Act, would require timely and compassionate notifications to family in the event of the death, illness or injury of a loved one in custody.
The legislation would make the U.S. Department of Justice create a set of best practices for the notification process.
Ossoff’s announcement on his co-sponsorship of the bill cited several Georgia examples for why the legislation was needed, including a Clayton County Jail inmate’s daughter who did not learn her mother had died after being injured while in custody until their boyfriend had tried to visit her in jail.
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“Her daughter only received notice of her death once the mother’s longtime boyfriend attempted to visit the jail and was told that she was no longer there. The jail did not provide the boyfriend nor the daughter with additional information on the mother’s death,” Ossoff’s office said in a statement.
Another example from Georgia was when a woman only learned her father had died while at the Valdosta State Prison when a letter sent to him was returned with the stamp “Return to sender: inmate dead.” Ossoff’s office said the woman was unable to get more information about her father’s death from prison officials.
“Too often, the families of those incarcerated never find out about a serious illness, a life-threatening injury, or even the death of a loved one behind bars. That’s why we are introducing this bipartisan reform legislation,” Ossoff said in a statement.
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