Washington D.C., Nov 19, 2019 / 16:00 pm
More funding for prisons is essential to properly implement criminal justice reform, the director of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) told senators on Tuesday.
"We have never had adequate resources to provide all of the programs for all of the inmates," Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, BOP director, told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at a hearing on the oversight of federal prisons.
Referencing a 2018 criminal justice reform bill, Sawyer told the senators that "since you all support the First Step Act, I'm hoping the resources will come along with that."
Sawyer faced tough questions from committee members on the racial disparity in the prison system, education and drug treatment for inmates to prevent their return to crime once they are released, and implementation of the First Step Act, signed into law by President Trump late last year.