The subcommittee will come to order. Today the subcommittee continues our bipartisan work investigating prisons and jails across United States. In july, we found corruption and abuse in the Justice System and questioned former director of the bureau of prisons. Despite a clear charge from congress, to determine who is dying and jails across the country, where they are dying and why they are dying. The Department Justice is failing to do so. This failure undermines efforts to address the urgent humanitarian crisis on behind bars across the country. Our investigation has revealed that last year alone according to gao analysis our request that the department of justice failed to reveal nearly 1000 deaths across the country. The true number is likely much higher. We will hear today from those whose loved ones died preventively while in custody. In both cases, sons and brothers died while they were pretrial detainees having been convicted of no crime. We will hear their grief and anger. Grief and anger shared by many thousands of americans whose loved ones needlessly suffered and died while incarcerated. We will hear from professor armstrong to understand why and how doj failure to oversee prisons and jails undermines americas civil rights. We will hear from dr. Gretta goodwin. From a legislative Branch Agency that provides services to congress that analyzed at my request the death and custody data and who will publicly report those findings today for the first time. We will question the Deputy Assistant attorney general about the departments failure since 2019 to implement the death and custody reporting act, a failure that has undermined oversight and therefore undermined americans humor and and Constitutional Rights. Members of congress where to support in defend the constitution of the United States, to defend the Constitutional Rights of all americans in my state and in every state including the rights of those who are incarcerated. We are here today because what the United States is allowing to happen on our watch and Detention Centers nationwide is a moral disgrace. As federal legislators, it is our obligation to investigate the federal governments complicity in this disgrace. It is our obligation to ask what tools the department of justice is using to protect the Constitutional Rights of the incarcerated. The hold doj accountable when it fails to use those tools and to furnish better more powerful tools with which the department can defend civil rights and civil liberties. There are some bright spots. For example, i was encouraged when the assistant attorney general announced doj investigation of conditions in georges horrific state prisons almost one year ago today. It has become clear in the course of this investigation that the department is failing in its responsibility to implement the death and custody reporting act. The department is failing to determine who is dying behind bars, where they are dying, and why they are dying. Therefore, failing to determine where and which interventions are most urgently needed to save lives in 2000 and again in 2014, Congress Passed the death and custody reporting act. Tasking doj with collection and analysis of custodial death data nationwide. The doj describes this as an opportunity to improve understanding of why deaths occur in custody and develop solutions to prevent avoidable deaths. For nearly 20 years, doj collected and published this data, an invaluable resource for the department, congress, and the public. Then abruptly, the publication stopped. Our investigation followed. We found that in recent years, over multiple administrations, the department supplementation of this law has failed despite clear internal warnings from dojs own Inspector General and dojs bureau of justice statistics. In the First Quarter of fiscal year 20, the department did not capture any state prison death in 11 states for any jail deaths in 12 states and the district of columbia. Fy 21, the department failed to identify nearly 1000 deaths. In my assessment, the true number is likely much higher. Of those recorded, 70 of the records were incomplete and 40 of records failed to capture the circumstances of death. The department of justice is failed to provide complete and accurate data for the past two years and failed to report to congress how data about deaths in custody can be used to save lives, report required by law that is now six years past due. We recently learned is not expected to be produced for another two years. The investigation also found the department has no plans to make state and local death date data public again. Todays hearing may dive at times into arcane discussions of administrative regulations or the close parsing of rig a slave legislative test. They are relevant. If the department has concluded in 2022 eight years after this law was reauthorized that it is incapable of successfully implementing it, i am surely willing to work with them to help fix that. This hearing is about something more fundamental. Americans are needlessly dying and being killed while in the custody of their own government. In our july hearing, focused on the american prison system, we revealed that detainees have been denied proper nutrition, hygiene, and medical care. They had rats and roaches infesting their cells. We revealed that federal inmates killed themselves while the basic practices of Suicide Prevention and wellness checks were neglected. Abusive and unconstitutional practices of the federal government that likely lead to loss of life in federal facilities. We revealed that the bureau of prisons was warned for years by its own investigators of corruption and misconduct in its own facility and of a lack of regard for human life by its own personnel. Today we will hear about the experiences of americans in state and local prisons and jails. Americans entitled to Constitutional Rights no matter where they are incarcerated. No matter whether they are incarcerated. We will hear about americans who died in custody, many of whose deaths and causes of deaths are not being counted by the federal government as the federal government is bound. The same federal government obligated to defend their Constitutional Rights. Before i yield to the raking, and with permission, we going to listen to an audio. Of the last phone call that she shared with her son while he was jailed. A pretrial detainee who was never convicted of any crime. I want to warn those who are tuned in across the country that this is a disturbing clip. While this audio plays, ask that we imagine how we might feel to be on either end of this call. Please play the audio. I have found out everything i can. Im having lawyers and sheriff and all of this other kind of to make it so i can come see you. Come trying to get you out of there. I know you are. Im doing everything i can to get you out so i can see you. Hello . They are doing everything they can. You. Hello . Yes. My feet are swollen. They hurt. I know, matthew. I know whats wrong with you. I told you theyre gonna cut us off matthew, i love. You i love you too. Im going to die in here the crisis in americas prisons, jails, and Detention Centers is ongoing and unconscionable. The department of justice and the Congress Must treat this as the emergency for Constitutional Rights that it is. Senator johnson, i yield to you. Thank you, mister chairman. You are correct, thats very difficult to listen to. Ms. Maley, miss , our sincere condolences for the loss of your loved ones. I cant imagine how hard it is for you to listen to that. First of all let me just enter my opening remarks into the record. Much i the repeat of what the chairman has laid out. I think many people might question what equity does the federal government have in how state and local governments run their prisons. I think we just heard the equity right there. As the chairman laid out, there is civil rights, and basic civil liberties. The presumption of innocence. The right to a fair trial. A speedy trial. The rights to be given proper care when in custody. I just want to commend the chairman for doggedly pursuing the truth here. I think what you are certainly experiencing the frustrating simply having the departments and the agencies people ignore the American People deserve the truth here. The American People deserve to understand whats happening in federal government agencies. I dont know whether these things could be prevented from more rigorous federal government oversight, congressional oversight, exposure. But its just the right thing to do. So again, mister chairman, i appreciate your pursuit of jeez truths i appreciate the fact that youve been able to work specifically in terms of this issue right here. I think it is interesting, the original as in the year 2000 40 some pages long here. Its chock full of information. I know it expired, but the department of justice kept fighting this information to inform congress and the american public. Then congress changed the law, the updated the law, and put funding attached to it with penalties and something went haywire. You are talking about exact legislative text. Which agency can collect the data versus one that cant. Its all bureaucratic bs if you ask me, but it happened. So we lost the transparency. And it doesnt look like the department of justice is particularly interested in providing that transparency now, and thats a serious issue. I dont understand it. But listen, im going to continue to cooperate with you to try to get those answers because i think, ms. Fano, ms. Maley, i think you deserve those answers. And hopefully, some of this congressional oversight can do more then assist us in this passing new laws. Hopefully it can save lives. I wish that could have been the case with your loved ones. But thank you, mister chairman. To thank you, Ranking Member johnson. The subcommittees findings, which formed the basis for todays hearings, are laid out in a bipartisan staff report. I ask unanimous consent that this report be entered into the record. We will now call our first panel of witnesses for this afternoons hearing. To miss vanessa fanos the sister of Jonathan Fano misses Belinda Maley its a brother of Andrea Armstrong is a professor of law at Loyola University, new Orleans College of law. The subcommittee is deeply grateful for your presence, testimony, and courage in appearing today. We look forward to your testimony the hearing record will remain open for 15 days for additional comments or questions by members of the subcommittee. The rules of the subcommittee require all witnesses to be sworn in. So at this time, i would ask you to please stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear that the testimony youre about to give before this subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Thank you, the record will reflect that all witnesses answered in the informative. Please be seated. Your written testimonies will be printed for the record in their entirety. We ask that you try to limit your remarks to around five minutes. Ms. Fano, we will hear from you first, and you are recognized for your opening remarks. Of kind reminder please make sure your microphones are on as indicated by the red light. Thank you, ms. Fano. Thank you, chairman ossoff and Ranking Member johnson and thank you for the committee stuff, made my appearance no amount of time can truly heal what i share with you today. Jonathan luis fanos my brother. He was so kind. He felt guilty so much is killing a bug. He wants took the bus downtown just to babysit our cousins kids, even though it was his own birthday. Jonathan would spend hours upon hours listening to my problems and would do anything to support me. But at the time, he needed the same support, no one responsible for his care, custody, and control gave it to him. Jonathan suffered from bipolar disorder and depression, for which he sought professional help and support from his family. He was never any type of threat or danger to us or to others. In october 2016, jonathan was arrested and baton rouge, louisiana, while having a mental breakdown, and taken to East Baton Rouge Parish prison. In his ten weeks in pretrial detention, jonathan never received a mental evaluation. After cutting his wrists, he was placed in isolation. Despite our frequent phone calls, our family was repeatedly told that jonathan did not want to speak to us. It was only on christmas that we heard from him. Jonathan told us he wasnt allowed to call us. During that phone call, we learned about jonathans attempt on his own life. We could not get the details before the for profit phone system cut off our call. Even though we provided more funds, we werent able to continue the call. E we trusted the system. My family trusted the system when it provided us Jonathans Court date. My family flew across the country only to discover we were provided the wrong date. We trusted his public defender would be advocating for jonathans Mental Health, care, and release, and the advice to which is a little longer in custody to resolve the case. We trusted the Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office who confirmed jonathan was receiving the care he needed in detention. On february 2nd, 2017, jonathan hanged himself with a bedsheet in his cell. When we finally saw his lifeless body, the first time in ten weeks, he was handcuffed to an intensive care unit bed. It was only then we realized how wrong we were to place our trust in the system, which told us there was no fault after their own internal investigation of jonathans death. It is only through our own insistence over the past five years that we have come to learn how hard jonathan tried to receive help. How belittled he was. How no one believed him how so many other people have died in the same jail, under the same conditions. Each time i tell jonathans story, he feels farther away. I worry for the day where i cant distinctly remember his voice or his or even his face. I tell you jonathans story for every family who has experienced the same. And i hope in doing so we can improve our beloved nation and prevent this from happening to another family again. Please except my respectful request to enter further written testimony into the record. Thank you. Thank you, ms. Fano, and the rest of your testimony will be so entered without objection. Ms. Maley, dont feel bound by the precise time on the clock you are recognized for your opening statement. Thank you, senator ossoff and Ranking Member johnson, for the opportunity to testify before you today. And thank you to committee staff, whose work made my appearance here today possible. Mothers and sons have a special bond, a bond no one should be able to break tragically, in my case, that bond was broken. It was broken by a for profit medical provider that brought a painful death on my only son, my only child. My son matthew was scared and alone in the Chatham CountyGeorgia Detention Center on a nonviolent drug offense. Matthew was suffering from cardiomyopathy, which the for profit medical provider ignored. Studies show that the prognosis claude for people with untreated cardiomyopathy is bleak. And matthew was never given any treatment. The forprofit medical provider had no intentions of treating him, because cardiology appointments outside of the jail would cut into their profit margin one of his jailers called his pain and anguish, quote, unquote, fussy. Matthew knew he was dying. He told me many times by phone and in a single jail visit that, quote, i needed to get him out of here, and that he didnt want to die here. The pure horror of matthews voice made me feel as though i was dying as well. Matthew died a slow painful death over the course of weeks. He was too sick to take phone calls or visits. After the one time i got to see him in jail, i never got to hold him, to tell him how much i loved him, or pray with him. Then the next time i got to see matthew, he had already suffered braid injuries after being resuscitated three times by the jail staff. My last visit with him was to take him off of life support. He was still handcuffed to an icu bed and under 24 7 supervision by a corrections officer. After 32 years of life with my only son, our bond was broken. No and no one, not the health provider, not the infirmary staff, the sheriffs office, or the district attorney, was willing to help. They did take time to enact one last indignity upon matthew before his death. They issued him a personal recognizance bond after he was brain did. So his death would not count as and in custody death. Not a day goes by that i dont think about what matthew went through. This in closing, matthews story might not be over i will continue to spread awareness of this problem for as long as i am able with over 2 Million People in our prisons and jails, there are more millions of mothers, fathers, siblings and friends who are in the same or worse situations. This should not be ignored. This is why enforcement of the death in custody act is so important. It could be a tool to hold the forprofit jail and prison medical providers accountable for unnecessary deaths like matthews and others. I ask respectively to enter further written testimony into the record. Thank you. Thank you, ms. Maley. Without objection, your testimony will be so entered into the record. Thank you for sharing your difficult, deeply personal stories with the subcommittee, ms. Maley and ms. Fano. Professor armstrong . You are now recognized for five minutes to present your opening statement. Chairman ossoff, Ranking Member johnson, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for holding this hearing, and for the opportunity to