NCJ Number
183972
Date Published
2000
Length
33 pages
Annotation
The General Accounting Office (GAO) assessed the District of Columbia's response to recommendations on a contract prison facility in Youngstown, Ohio, and on issues related to closure of facilities in Lorton, Virginia, that house felon inmates from the District of Columbia and the transfer of these inmates to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Abstract
In a November 1998 report on problems at the Youngstown facility, the Corrections Trustee for the D.C. Department of Corrections made recommendations to deal with the problems. As of March 2000, the DOC had partially implemented five of the nine recommendations and had fully implemented the remaining four recommendations. Partially implemented were recommendations to hold Youngstown more accountable, to temporarily reduce the inmate population until there were significant additional work and educational opportunities for inmates, to supplement the full-time monitor at Youngstown with additional professional and clerical assistance, to adopt BOP's inmate classification system, and to define criteria for transferring inmates from DOC facilities to contract facilities. Fully implemented were recommendations dealing with new contract facilities, inmate screening and classification, and the establishment of a contract monitoring unit at DOC headquarters. The GAO assessment found the BOP did not comply on schedule with the housing of inmates transferred from Lorton, such that a revised closure plan had to be issued. Additional information on DOC responses to Corrections Trustee recommendations is appended. 4 tables