Congress's 2017 Hearing on Halfway House Cuts Brought Few Answers

On Wednesday, December 13, 2017, the House Oversight Committee held a two-and-a-half-hour hearing on the federal prison system. Many prisoners and families hoped it would hold the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) accountable for cutting or canceling halfway house time. Instead, the hearing was mostly soundbites and soft questions for the new BOP Director, Mark Inch.

The Committee's website said the hearing would:

• Examine BOP policies on its Release Preparation Program and its use of Residential Reentry Centers (halfway houses), including reviews by the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
• Discuss "The Fair Chance Act."

Very little of the hearing dealt with the reentry problems prisoners were facing right then.

What the BOP Director said

Several members asked Director Inch about the halfway house cuts. He said the BOP was "absolutely not" cutting back on reentry and had not closed any halfway houses. Instead, he said, it chose not to renew contracts with 16 that were underused, which made up only 1% of the BOP's reentry beds.

Inch called the change part of the "efficiencies of the system." He said many halfway houses had been over capacity, and the change brought the others back within their contract limits.

Congresswoman Norton asked why the BOP takes 25% of a person's pay while they are in a halfway house. Inch said the fee teaches "real life budgeting," so people learn to plan for housing and food costs after release. Norton did not seem satisfied. She suggested the money would be better spent on the person's family and children.

Inch also confirmed that some prisons were so understaffed that staff and prisoners could be at risk. He promised to address staffing in the coming months.

What the Inspector General said

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said the BOP was underusing home confinement for people convicted of white collar crimes. Some of them are actually harmed by halfway house placement, he said, because it exposes them to more hardened offenders. In his view, halfway houses should be used for the people who really need them.

"Ban the box"

Other witnesses spoke about the Fair Chance Act, a federal "ban the box" bill. "Ban the box" laws stop employers from asking job applicants about criminal records on the application.

Surprisingly, Jennifer Doleac, then a professor at the University of Virginia, testified that research showed employment of people with records declined in states that adopted "ban the box." Other witnesses disagreed, but offered only stories, not data.

The takeaway

Members from both parties said they were committed to reentry reform. Committee Chair Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said, "Paying your debt to society pays the debt. We are a nation of second chances. We love redemption stories. It would be nice if our criminal justice system produced more of them."

For more on the cuts, see our posts on federal halfway house placement and the 2017 halfway house closings.

Hearing testimony

Testimony of BOP Director Mark Inch

Testimony of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz and of Diana Maurer of the U.S. Government Accountability Office: see the Committee's hearing page.

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