At Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) tore into President Trump's federal prisons policies.
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00:00I is the ranking member of the committee, Ms. Crockett from Texas.
00:05And Mr. Chair, before I begin, I've got two UCs.
00:08Video shows masked ICE agents detained two outside Douglas County Courthouse.
00:14Without objection.
00:15And ICE agents and ski masks snatched migrant out of lawyer's car.
00:19Without objection.
00:20Thank you so much.
00:21Mr. Chairman, I have a UC.
00:23Without objection.
00:23Yeah, Department of Justice statement by Colette S. Peters, Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons, into this committee, July 23rd, 2024.
00:33Without objection.
00:35I now recognize Ms. Crockett.
00:37Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
00:39Okay, I don't really know where to begin.
00:40We've got a lot of ground to cover in about five minutes, so let's go.
00:44I've got three statements that I want to know if you agree or disagree with, and I want to just go down the row.
00:52Yes or no.
00:52Does cutting pay typically assist in recruiting a workforce?
00:57Yes or no?
00:57No.
01:00No.
01:02Generally, no.
01:03No.
01:05It sounds like a low IQ implementation to me, so let's go to the next one.
01:10Does poor working conditions assist with recruitment?
01:13Yes or no?
01:14No.
01:15No.
01:17No.
01:17No.
01:18Sounds like another low IQ implementation to me.
01:22And finally, I'm going to start with Mr. Potter, because I don't know how this is going to go.
01:27Does union busting help with recruitment?
01:30No.
01:32I know nothing about unions whatsoever.
01:34Okay.
01:34I'm sorry.
01:35I don't know anything about unions either.
01:37Okay.
01:38No.
01:38Okay.
01:39So, again, another low IQ implementation.
01:42I just want to be clear that the American people should know that these are all Trump 2.0 policies.
01:47So, when we say that he's failed, let me tell you, we got receipts, and those are some of the receipts.
01:53So, when we start talking about this pay, I think that we've talked about the fact that there was a 25 percent, up to a 25 percent cut in recruitment bonuses or retention bonuses.
02:07But I want to make sure that people understand the numbers.
02:10I want y'all to know what the numbers are.
02:12It looks like, on average, in 2023, the average CO for the BOP made $57,000.
02:21So, now we're talking about potentially up to a 25 percent cut in debt.
02:26Now, let's transpose that with what they don't want to talk about is what we did last week, which was reconciliation, where in their bill, they decided that they wanted to add this big number as an increase for bonuses for ICE agents.
02:43What that translated to was bonuses of approximately $44,000 for each ICE agent.
02:50So, we're talking about ICE agents getting an additional $44,000 per person, while, on average, when we talk about our COs at the BOP only making $57,000 and talking about cutting up to 25 percent of that.
03:07That is why we're outraged.
03:08That is why we say that this is a joke, because you can't sit here and continuously underfund an agency and then expect it to overperform.
03:17So, let's talk about the underfunding.
03:20We have talked about immigration for a reason, not because we think that it makes sense to just talk about immigration all day, every day.
03:29It seems like our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to do it, but it is relevant to this conversation.
03:35You know why?
03:36Because according to this particular document from The Guardian, it says,
03:42As it relates to a partnership between BOP and ICE, two agencies that have generally operated separately means people accused of civil immigration violations are being imprisoned in harsh environments of the federal penitentiaries run by prison guards.
03:57Right now, I believe that the number was the most recent number that I had was that they had approximately 700 persons that were being held for ICE within the Bureau of Prisons.
04:12And guess what?
04:12Do you think they gave the BOP any extra dollars to be able to take care of those folks?
04:19They didn't.
04:20I'll help you.
04:20It says, Congress provided no increase to the BOP's salaries and expenses account in fiscal year 2024, despite the staffing crisis that has been linked to prisoner deaths and a cascade of operational problems at the agency.
04:37So, we talked about rape, so let me get to rape.
04:43It seems like it's a bit of hypocrisy, but that's not anything new to say that you want to protect victims of rape and sexual assault and then allow Trump to gut funding for the Prison Rape Elimination Act Resource Center,
04:56a center that trains prison sexual assault auditors, tracks the results of the Prison Rape Elimination Act investigations, and provides resources to imprisoned sexual abuse survivors.
05:10So, my question is, and I ask everyone if you can answer, can we all agree that rape and assault of prisoners is vile and completely unacceptable?
05:20I agree.
05:21I agree.
05:23Of course.
05:24Absolutely.
05:25Thank you so much.
05:26And the last thing that I'll say is that according to the BOP, there have been a total of two individuals that have received gender-affirming surgery while in BOP custody.
05:37There have been a total of four that were referred, four others that were referred and were determined to be medically ineligible.
05:45So, we're going to have all this talk and all these fights about trans folk, and we're talking about literally two surgeries.
05:52I'll yield.
05:55General Lady Yields.
05:57I will recognize the gentleman from the great state of North Carolina.