The permanent subcommittee on investigations will come to order. Today, the subcommittee continues our bipartisan work investigating conditions in prisons, jails, and Detention Centers across the United States. I thank the Ranking Member for his cooperation. In july, we released the findings of corruption, abuse, and misconduct in the federal prison system, and questioned the now former director of the federal bureau of prisons. Today, after a ten month my partisan investigation, we can reveal that despite a clear charge from congress to determine who is dying in prisons and jails across the country, where they are dying, and why they are dying, and the department of justice is failing to do so. This failure undermines efforts to address the urgent humanitarian crisis ongoing behind bars across the country. Our investigation has revealed that last year alone, according to g. A. O. Announces i requested, the department of justice failed to identify at least 998 deaths in custody, nearly 1000 uncounted deaths. The true number is likely much higher. We will hear today from belinda mainly, and vanessa whose loved ones died preventively while in custody. In both cases, sons and brothers who died while they were pretrial detainees having been convicted of no crime. We will hear their grief and anger, a grief and anger shared by many thousands of americans whose loved ones needlessly suffered and died while incarcerated. We will hear from professor Andrea Armstrong at Loyola University to understand why and how dojs failure to oversee prisons and jails undermines americans civil rights. We will hear from dr. Goodwin of the Investigative Services to congress which analyzed in my request and the doj collected in 2021. And who will publicly report those findings today for the first time. We will question miss Deputy Assistant attorney general, about the departments failure since 2019 to implement the death and custody reporting act, a failure that has undermined federal oversight of conditions and prisons in jails nationwide. Therefore undermining americans human Constitutional Rights. Members of congress or to support and defend the constitution of the United States, to defend the Constitutional Rights of all americans. In my state and every state. Including the rights of those incarcerated. We are here today because what the United States is allowing to happen on our watch in prisons, jails, and Detention Centers nationwide is a moral disgrace. As federal legislators serving on the nations preeminent investigative panel, it is our obligation to investigate the federal governments complicity in this disgrace. Therefore, it is our obligation to ask what tools the department of justice is using to protect the Constitutional Rights of the incarcerated. To hold doj accountable when it fails to use those tools, and to furnish better, more powerful tools, with which the department cant defend the civil rights and civil liberties. There are some bright spots. For example, i was encouraged when assistant attorney general Kristen Clark announced a doj investigation of conditions in georgias 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 that death in custody reporting act. That is the department is failing to determine who is dying behind bars, where they are dying, and why they are dying. And therefore failing to determine where and which interventions are most urgently needed to save lives. In 2000, then again in 2014, Congress Passed the death in custody reporting act, also known as tasking doj with the custodial death data nationwide. Your day itself describes this law as, quote, an opportunity to improve understanding of why deaths occur in custody and develop solutions to prevent avoidable deaths. But for nearly 20 years, doj collected and published this data, an invaluable resource for the department, for the congress, and the public. Then, abruptly, the publication stopped. Our investigation followed. We found that in recent years, and over multiple administrations, the departments implementation of this law has failed. Despite clear internal warnings from dojs own Inspector General, and dojs bureau of statistics, for example, in the First Quarter fiscal year 20, the department did not capture any state prison deaths in 11 states, or any jail deaths in 12 states, the district of columbia. In fy 21 alone, according to g. A. O. With the department failed to identify nearly 1000 deaths. In my assessment, the true number is much higher. Of those recorded, 70 of the records were incomplete. 40 of records failed to capture the circumstances of death. The department of justice has failed to collect a complete or accurate state and local death data for the past two years and fail to report to congress have data about deaths in custody can be used to save lives. A report required by law that is now six year passed duke. We recently learned its not expected to be produced for another two years. Pieces investigation also found the department has no plans to make state and local death data public again, despite the obvious Public Interest in this transparency. Todays hearing may dive at times into arcane discussions of administrative regulations or the close parsing of legislative text. Those discussions are relevant. They are relevant. If the department has concluded in 2020 28 years after this law was reauthorized, that it is incapable of successfully implementing it, im surely willing to work with them to help fix that. But this hearing is about something more fundamental. Americans are needlessly dying, and are being killed, while in the custody of their own government. In our july hearing focused on the federal prison system, we revealed that federal pretrial detainees have been denied proper nutrition, hygiene, and medical care, endured months of lockdown with limited or no access to outdoors or rats and roaches investing their cells. We reveal that federal inmates killed themselves wild basic practices of suicide wellness checks were neglected. A abusive and unconstitutional practices by the federal government that likely led to loss of life in wheat 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, quote, 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 americans entitled to Constitutional Rights no matter where they are incarcerated, whether they are incarcerated, and we will hear about americans who died in custody, many of whose deaths and causes of death are not being counted by the federal government, as the federal government is bound to count them. The same federal government obligated to defend their Constitutional Rights. Before i yield to the Ranking Member, and with mailing permission, we will listen to an audio clip 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 from as that we imagine how we might feel to be on either end of this call. Please play the audio. Okay, listen, i found out everything i can. Im having lawyers trying to make it im trying to get you out of there. I want to go to the hospital. Im one im going to die in here. I know you are. Im doing everything i can to get you out. So i can see 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, si