SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATE IN SENATE DOCUMENT 107

Salaries and expenses, Bureau of Prisons

This proposed supplemental appropriation is necessary because of increases in prisoner population considerably beyond those anticipated at the time the budget was prepared. It now appears likely that average inmate population during fiscal year 1955 will be in excess of 19,700 prisoners compared to the previous estimate of 18,700, necessitating increased funds for their care. In addition, this unprecedented increase in inmate population is severely overcrowding existing penal institutions and aggravating custodial problems. To relieve this situation and to provide another institution on the west coast where present facilities are grossly inadequate, the Department of the Navy has agreed to make available to the Department of Justice penal facilities at Terminal Island, Calif., which had been in use by the Bureau of Prisons until 1942. This proposed supplemental appropriation also includes an amount for the activation and operation of this Terminal Island facility beginning on or about October 1, 1954.

This proposed supplemental appropriation was not included in the budget because the sharp increases in prisoner population were unforeseeable at the time the budget was prepared.

JUSTIFICATION OF AMENDMENT TO 1955 ESTIMATES
Salaries and expenses, Bureau of Prisons, 1955

$26, 850, 000 918, 000

27, 768, 000

4, 115

71

3,956

The purpose of this request is to provide funds to take care of an increased prisoner population considerably beyond that anticipated at the time the original estimates were submitted. The drastic increase in our population has brought about critical need for the activation of another prison having a capacity of 600, and makes necessary a revision of the estimated population for 1955 on which our estimates were originally based.

The items comprising the above total are therefore as follows: Additional prisoner population..

Activation and operation of Terminal Island prison.......

Total_

Detailed justifications are as follows:

$268, 000

650, 000

918, 000

Additional prisoner population, $268,000.-It is estimated that the 1955 population will average 19,700, or 1,000 above the 18,700 included in the original estimates. In the request for supplemental funds for 1954 the population for this year has been estimated at 19,200. The estimated increase for 1955 is therefore only 500 above the estimated average for the current year.

The average population for the first 8 months of this year was 18,979, an increase of 1,285 over the same period in 1953. The population on March 11, 1954, was 19,543, or 1,552 above the same time a year ago.

Our population has increased each year since 1949. Following is a table showing the increases, actual and estimated, for the fiscal years 1949-55:

The recent rapid increase in population is due primarily to three factors, a higher rate of commitments, longer sentences and a lower proportion of prisoners granted parole. During 1953, 1,321 more prisoners were committed to Federal institutions than in 1952. During the first 8 months of 1954, 1,015 more prisoners were committed than in the same months of 1953. The increase this year over last averages 127 per month.

The average length of sentence has increased from 23.2 months in 1949 to 25.5 months in 1953, an increase of 3,100 sentence years on the basis of 1953 commitments. The extent of the increase is even more significant when it is noted that the proportion of commitments with sentences of 2 years and over increased from 42.2 percent in 1949 to 55 percent in 1953.

The rate of parole grants has dropped from 40.2 percent last year to 34.5 percent this year, presumably because the offenders in Federal prisons are increasingly of the more serious type.

Under ordinary circumstances, it is estimated that the population in 1955 would exceed 19,700. However, because existing Federal prisons are becoming overcrowded, an increasing number of prisoners are being confined in local and State institutions.

The estimate is computed as 1,000 (increase in average population) 365 (days in year)×73.5 cents (per capita rate) = $268,275-rounded to $268,000.

Activation and operation of Terminal Island Prison, $650,000: The normal capacity of the Federal prisons now in operation, exclusive of 2 temporary camps, is 17,683. On March 11, 1954, the actual population of these prisons was 19,543. The population is continuing to increase and it is expected that by July we will reach a total in excess of 20,000 prisoners. The result is that present facilities are dangerously overcrowded and the situation is steadily becoming more aggravated and adding to the problem of maintaining control of the large population under adverse conditions.

To relieve this problem to some extent, and to provide another institution on the west coast where present facilities are grossly inadequate, we propose to reactivate the prison at Terminal Island, Calif., which was formerly owned and operated by the Federal Prison System. This prison was transferred to the Navy Department in 1942. After the war the Navy leased it to the State of California and it is presently being used by the State as a prison medical center. At our request, the Navy Department has issued notice to the present occupants to vacate the property by July 1, 1954, and in no event later than October 1, 1954, and we propose to occupy it as of the latter date.

It is estimated that funds in the above amount will be required in fiscal year 1955 to enable us to staff, equip, rehabilitate and operate the institution for the period October 1, 1954, tó June 30, 1955. The estimate is computed as follows:

Personnel (118 positions, including medical).

Transfer of personnel

Uniforms for personnel.

Equipment.

Rehabilitation of buildings and plant..

Initial inventories of supplies...

Operation of institution...

Transfer of prisoners..

$290, 000

50, 000

SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATE

Mr. BENNETT. Let me suggest so you will have the record straight before you, Senator, there is an amendment to our budget pending in Senate Document 107 before this committee that has been sent up since the House passed the bill of a total of $918,000. This is in addition to the amount that was originally estimated to the House.

JUSTIFICATION FOR AMENDMENT

Senator, I think without talking dollars for the moment, I can make our reasons for this increase clear to you by saying that our increase is entirely due to the increase in our population figures. Our population figure has been running beyond anyone's estimate, includmy own. We have today 1,542 more prisoners than we had a year Senator DIRKSEN. So people are not getting better very fast, are they?

ago this time.

The increase

First, as you Second, the has been an Then in addi

Mr. BENNETT. No, Senator, I do not think they are. in our population is, however, due to several factors. say, people perhaps are not getting better very fast. sentences of the courts have lengthened so that there increase in the average sentence of about 10 percent. tion to that, Senator, fewer men are going out of the institutions on parole because our board is not discharging quite as many as heretofore.

PRISON POPULATION ESTIMATE

Senator DIRKSEN. You estimate an average institutional population of 18,700 for 1955; is that right?

Mr. BENNETT. That is the amount approved originally, Senator. Our present estimate as pending before this committee is 1,000 more; namely, 19,700. Our actual population today is 19,544.

Senator DIRKSEN. You have a general statement here that contains the essential information with respect to the prison population and your personnel over the country?

Mr. BENNETT. That is correct, Senator.

Senator DIRKSEN. And generally the information that is necessary for that purpose. So we will insert it in the record at this point. (The statement referred to follows:)

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, with your permission, I shall be glad to give you a brief summary of our estimates for the fiscal year 1955 and tell you something about the problems with which we are faced in administering the Federal prison system.

To begin with, I am very happy to be able to report to you that we have experienced no serious disturbances in our prisons during the time since I last appeared before this committee in March of last year. This is not to say that we do not have our problems-we have many of them-the most serious at this time being the overcrowding in our prisons, shortage of personnel for handling the heavy increase in prisoner population, and lack of funds for the proper maintenance of our facilities and for maintaining a work program for our increased population.

POPULATION

Our original estimates for fiscal year 1955 contemplate an average population of 18,700, compared with an appropriation for the current year of 17,800. How

ever, our population for this year will average about 19,200. Our average for the first 8 months of the year was 18,979, an increase of 1,285 over the same period of last fiscal year. Assuming this rate of increase to maintain for the balance of the year our average would be 19,216. Incidentally, I regret to say that it is necessary to request a supplemental appropriation of $350,000 to meet the cost of caring for the heavy increase in our population. Our actual population at this time is 19,447, compared qith 17,905 a year ago, an increase of 1,542. Our request for this supplemental is now pending with the committee.

The increase in the number of prisoners represents only a part of the addition to our workload. From the chart at page 15 of our estimates you will note that the change in character of our population has created a very serious increase in our workload. For example, of the commitments received in 1941 only 32 percent were classified in the category of the more serious type requiring maximum custody. This percentage had increased to 37 percent by 1945 and in 1953 you will note that 55 percent of the total number of prisoners received were of this type.

PERSONNEL

At the same time that our workload has been increasing, both in terms of number of prisoners and types of offenders, we have been experiencing a continual reduction in the manpower available for carrying this load. To illustrate this

point from a numerical standpoint, I refer you to the chart at page 28 of our estimates. You will note that during the period 1947-54 there has been an increase in the prisoner population of 6.4 percent and a decrease in manpower of 6 percent. These figures, of course, do not take into account the change in character of population.

Our personnel is spread critically thin throughout the service and this situation is one of grave concern to me. I might cite several examples to illustrate our position in this matter. The prison camp at Florence, Ariz., has had a population for the past several months of 300 or over. This camp has a custodial personnel complement of 15, including the supervisors. From immediately following the evening meal until breakfast of the following day there is only one officer on duty at this camp. The time of this officer is taken up in the administrative responsibilities, telephone and personal contacts with the public, and in attempting to supervise a population of 300 or more prisoners spread through 5 different housing units.

The correctional institution at La Tuna, Tex., has a prisoner population which fluctuates between 740 and 820 men. It has a custodial complement of only 67 men, including 5 supervisors. The institution has 3 armed tower posts utilizing 15 of the 62 officers. Presently there are but seven officers on each of the night shifts. This includes 1 supervisor, 3 tower officers, 1 officer assigned to the control room to operate gates for security purposes, the taking of counts, reviewing of incoming and outgoing mail, and 2 officers assigned to supervision of the 13 housing units spread on 2 different floors and accommodating some 800 men. Conditions are so crowded that all housing units except a few single cells employ double-deck beds. On a recent visit 2 officers were observed working a detail of 96 men. To bring the custodial complement of this institution up to a minimum level would require 14 additional positions.

The population at the correctional institution at Milan, Mich., has been ranging between 650 and 700 men. On each of the 2 night watches there are but 5 officers on duty, 1 of these working a tower post, 1 a yard patrol, 1 assigned to the control room, 2 to the housing units, and 1 supervisor. Again, it is impossible for 2 officers to supervise 700 men scattered through the several housing units where crowded conditions necessitate the use of double-deck beds.

The Tallahassee correctional institution has a count running well over 500 men and presently a custodial complement of 48 officers, including 5 supervisors. During the night armed tower coverage is provided only by one post on the front side of the institution, leaving an easy escape route by the back of the institution for any inmate once out of his housing unit.

The situation at these four institutions is typical of our personnel shortage throughout the Service and is cited only to illustrate the general condition.

POSITIONS FOR Y. C. A. PROGRAM

Despite the acute personnel shortage which I have just outlined, our estimates for 1955 contemplate no additional positions except those required for the implementation of the provisions of the Youth Corrections Act of 1950, Public Law 865. We are requesting a total of 31 positions to enable us to get this program underway.

These positions consist of 4 medical officers, 3 psychologists, 9 clerks, 6 custodial officers, 7 classifications officers, a case reviewer, and an assistant supervisor for the juvenile section of the central office.

CONVERSION OF CPC POSITIONS

The appropriation for the current year provided an amount of $111,000, against a total requirement of $161,000, to convert the CPC positions in the Federal prison system to the GS schedule, in accordance with civil-service standards. The 1955 estimates include the additional amount of $50,000 to annualize this program. The conversions will have been completed by the end of the current year and the additional amount requested will be required in order to meet the increased cost in 1955.

RECLASSIFICATIONS

The Civil Service Commission is presently engaged in a classification audit of all positions in the Federal prison service. Surveys have been completed at eight institutions and these surveys have pointed out the inequitable grades of prison employees. The Commission's inspectors have called attention to the fact that the mechanic, the culinary officer, the farm employee, the industry foreman, and all other personnel in the Federal prison service not only meet the standards which are applicable to their work in other agencies and employment situations, but go well beyond that-they accomplish their workload through (a) vocational and on-the-job training of unskilled prisoners, (b) by functioning as supervisory foremen over prisoner workmen, (c) daily counseling with the prisoners in a program to achieve a modification of the prisoners' attitude and the cooperation of a frequently warped personality in order to prepare prisoners for ultimate release and an acceptance of social responsibility, and (d) maintaining the custodial security of individuals and facilities supervised.

The quality of performance required, the complexity of duties, and the variety and responsibility of tasks and contacts have been recognized in the civil service grade standards, which are established for the purpose of authorizing equal pay for equal work.

The Civil Service Commission has called attention to our violation of 5 United States Code 1102 (a) and has urged the upgrading of positions to comply with the grades prescribed in the classification standards. The estimates for 1955 include funds for this purpose.

REDUCTION IN LAPSES

As previously stated, our available manpower has continued to decline for the past several years. This decline has been brought about through the necessity for absorbing within-grade pay increases, an unrealistic reduction due to the application of a formula on the savings to accrue as a result of changes in the leave allowances about 2 years ago, and through the application of other cuts made in our estimates. The result of these reductions has been to increase our lapses to an unreasonable degree. To partially offset the increase in lapses and to provide additional man-years of employment, our estimates include an amount of $126,000 in 1955. This amount will provide for approximately 31 additional man-years at the average salary level.

MEDICAL SERVICE

Due partially to curtailment of funds and partially to unavailability of Public Health Service officers, we have had to reduce the number of medical officers, psychiatrists, and other commissioned grades during the last few years from the 111 positions originally authorized for our service to 70. This has been done despite the fact that there has been a steady increase in the number of prisoners and growing demand by the courts upon our service to observe and report upon prisoners committed to us from mental observation. During the past year 55 cases of suspected insanity have been committed to our institutions for periods from 30 to 90 days. Reports requiring many hours to prepare on each have been forwarded to the courts. At the time these reports are considered it is, of course, necessary for one of our psychiatrists to testify. Appearances in court requires the services of one of our senior psychiatrists practically full time.

Another important factor with which we are attempting to cope and still maintain our medical standards is the fact that our medical officers are called upon to cooperate with the National Institutes of Health in a number of research projects where prisoners are used as volunteer guinea pigs.