Sec. 4. Oversight
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Chapter 301 of title 18, United States Code, as amended by section 3 of this Act, is further amended by adding at the end the following: Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Attorney General, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights of the Department of Justice, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Department of Homeland Security, and Director of the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services, shall establish a community monitoring body that shall operate independently of the Attorney General and of any other unit or division within the Department of Justice or any other Federal agency.
The Attorney General, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights of the Department of Justice, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Department of Homeland Security, and Director of the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services, and after obtaining input and recommendations from community organizations that provide educational services and legal support to incarcerated persons or otherwise advocate for the rights of incarcerated people and an end to solitary confinement, shall appoint not less than 15 people to serve as members of the community monitoring body.
Each member of the community monitoring body shall be an individual who— has survived solitary confinement— has had loved ones who have experienced solitary confinement or lost loved ones because of solitary confinement; is a faith leader, medical or mental health professional; or is a civil rights or human rights advocate. Each member of the community monitoring body shall have experience engaging in advocacy, service provision, or program operation aimed at enhancing the rights and treatment of incarcerated persons.
The community monitoring body shall include members with the following experience: Not less than 1/2 of the members of the community monitoring body shall be individuals who were incarcerated or have had family members incarcerated. Not fewer than 2 members of the community monitoring body shall have experience working with children from a trauma-sensitive approach. Not fewer than 2 members of the community monitoring body shall have personal or professional experience with immigration detention.
Not fewer than 2 members of the community monitoring body shall have personal or professional experience with incarceration in adult prisons or jails. Only members of the community monitoring body with expertise in working with children in a trauma-sensitive manner shall interview children in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Each member of the community monitoring body shall be appointed for a term of 5 years, with the possibility of 1 reappointment by the Attorney General for a total of 10 years.
Each member shall be reimbursed by the Department of Justice for any per diem expenses of the member in connection with service on the community monitoring body. The community monitoring body shall have the ability to designate any person to assist the work of the community monitoring body. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the community monitoring body and its designees shall have the ability to make unannounced visits to Federal agencies and Federal facilities, and have access to every area of every Federal facility and all nonclassified, nonprivileged data from every Federal agency.
The community monitoring body and its designees shall have the ability to conduct in-person interviews and correspond and communicate with incarcerated persons and Federal agency and Federal facility staff freely, privately, and confidentially, upon consent of the incarcerated person or staff, respectively. All applicable laws, regulations, rules and other protections regarding a person providing free, voluntary, and informed consent, including for children, incarcerated persons, and more generally, and including protections related to the need for parental consent or consent of counsel, shall apply to consent to being interviewed by the community monitoring body.
With respect to persons in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the community monitoring body shall only interview such a person if the person, the person’s appointed child advocate, if the person has a child advocate, and the person’s attorney, if the person has an attorney, consent to the interview. Nothing in this paragraph shall be used by a Federal agency to impede the ability of the community monitoring body to conduct any interview with an incarcerated person who consents to such an interview.
Members of the community monitoring body shall consult with community experts on trauma-sensitive engagement with detained children and adults to develop protocols for how the members of the community monitoring body will conduct monitoring activities in a manner that— is trauma-sensitive; provides the greatest protection possible for the safety and psychological well-being of people in custody; offers options for people in custody coping with any distress or re-traumatization resulting from monitoring activities; provides people in custody with a sense of agency in the monitoring process; and accounts for related considerations.
The community monitoring body shall— develop the protocols described in subparagraph
(A)based on the existing body of literature relating to trauma-sensitive engagement; and have experts and the general public review and provide feedback on the protocols described in subparagraph
(A)before the protocols are finalized. All notes, recordings, and records of any interviews conducted by the community monitoring body shall be used solely for the purposes of the community monitoring body. No information contained in notes, recordings, and records of any interviews conducted by the community monitoring body identifying a specific person who was interviewed by the community monitoring body may ever be— disclosed under any circumstance without the free, voluntary, and informed consent of that person for purposes of seeking immediate relief for that person; or used in any form of proceeding involving the immigration status of that person, a credibility determination or criminal prosecution or appeal relating to that person, or any other related type of proceeding. Administrators of each Federal agency and Federal facility shall meet privately with the community monitoring body or its designees upon request. All persons incarcerated in Federal facilities shall have the right and access to confidentially communicate with the community monitoring body and its designees, including while the community monitoring body or its designees are at a Federal facility and through free phone calls, free mail correspondence, and free email correspondence. Communications described in paragraph
(1)shall be afforded the same levels of protection, confidentiality, and privilege as attorney-client correspondence. No person shall face any form of retaliation or adverse impact for having contact with, or being perceived to have had contact with, the community monitoring body or its designees. An incarcerated person shall not be required to raise a complaint with the community monitoring body before seeking other remedies in connection with that complaint. The community monitoring body and its designees shall have the right to bring and use electronic equipment in any Federal facility, including video cameras, photographic cameras, audio recording devices, mobile telephones, computers, and tablets, for the purposes of recording, documentation, administration of surveys, and other related purposes. The community monitoring body and its designees shall have the right to receive, access, inspect, and copy all relevant non-classified, non-privileged information, records, and documents in the possession or control of any Federal facility, Federal agency, or employee of any Federal facility or Federal agency. The community monitoring body and its designees shall receive any records requested under paragraph
(1)not later than 7 days after the date of request to the head of a Federal facility or Federal agency. In a situation in which the records requested under paragraph
(1)by the community monitoring body or its designees pertain to a death of an incarcerated person, threats of bodily harm including sexual or physical assaults, or the denial of necessary medical treatment, the records shall be provided not later than 48 hours after the date of the request unless members of the community monitoring body or their designees consent to an extension of the deadline. The community monitoring body may make periodic recommendations to any Federal agency or Federal facility, as well as to the President, Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and other Government entities. For any recommendations made by the community monitoring body to each Federal agency or Federal facility, such agency or facility shall— report to the community monitoring body not later than 90 days after receipt of the recommendations as to whether the agency or facility has designed and implemented a remedial action plan to address the recommendations; and transmit any such remedial action plan to the community monitoring body. The community monitoring body may publish its findings and recommendations on its website that the community monitoring body shall establish. Representatives of the news media, public defenders, representatives of the Legal Orientation Program of the Department of Justice, elected Federal, State, and local representatives, and their designees, shall have the ability to— make unannounced visits to Federal agencies and Federal facilities and access every area of every Federal facility, except that— access to enter the cell of a person incarcerated in the Federal facility shall only be granted with the consent of the person housed in that cell; and access to enter a bathroom or shower area shall only be allowed when such area is unoccupied by persons incarcerated in the Federal facility; receive in a timely manner, pursuant to section 552 of title 5, or any successor thereto, all requested data from every Federal agency that has persons in its care or custody; and correspond with and interview, with the ability to take notes and use electronic and other recording devices, incarcerated persons freely, privately, and confidentially upon the consent of the incarcerated persons. Nothing in this section shall be construed to modify, supersede, or otherwise affect the authority of any Inspector General to access all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations, or other materials, as authorized by law. . The table of contents for chapter 301 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 4015, as added by section 3 of this Act, the following: 4016. Oversight. . Section 413 of title 5, United States Code, as amended by section 2 of the Federal Prison Oversight Act (Pub. L. 118–71; 138 Stat. 1492), is amended by adding at the end the following: In this subsection, the terms appropriate congressional committees and Inspector General have the meanings given those terms in subsection (e). The Inspector General shall— establish an advisory body of stakeholders focused on overseeing implementation of section 4015 of title 18; and consult the advisory body for purposes of developing the inspection regime for overseeing such implementation and developing the recommendations included in the annual report of the Inspector General required under paragraph (3). The advisory body established under subparagraph
(A)shall consist solely of individuals who— have survived solitary confinement; have had loved ones in solitary confinement or have lost loved ones due to exposure to solitary confinement; or are faith leaders, medical or mental healthcare professionals, or civil rights or human rights advocates with experience engaging in advocacy or program operation related to reducing or ending the use of solitary confinement. The Inspector General shall consult with the advisory body established under subparagraph
(A)regarding all aspects of overseeing implementation of section 4015 of title 18. For all aspects of oversight of all provisions of section 4015 of title 18 involving the provision of mental health care, the Inspector General shall consult with members of the advisory body who are mental healthcare professionals, as well as individuals who have survived solitary confinement or have had loved ones in solitary confinement or have lost loved ones due to exposure to solitary confinement. Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the End Solitary Confinement Act , and each year thereafter, the Inspector General shall submit to the Attorney General, the appropriate congressional committees, and the public an annual report in accordance with the requirements of clauses
(i)and
(ii)of subsection (e)(2)(D) assessing the implementation of all components of section 4015 of title 18. . The amendments made by paragraph
(1)shall take effect on the date that is 90 days after the date on which appropriations are made available to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and the Department of Justice for the specific purpose of carrying out the Federal Prison Oversight Act (Pub. L. 118–71; 138 Stat. 1492).
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- 138 Stat. 1492
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