'Do You Think Pres. Trump Should Continue With The Status Quo?': Tom Tiffany Discusses Prison Policy

Forbes Breaking News

At Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) questioned Cody Wilde, Senior Vice President of Correctional Programs at Prison Fellowship, about prison policy.

Transcript

00:00with questions, and I'm going to recognize the gentleman from the great state of Wisconsin,

00:05Mr. Tiffany. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Wild, what has the response been both federally and

00:13states that you've worked in with faith-based organizations like yourself? Tell us the response

00:19that you get. So one of the things that I know about corrections is that people tend to be very

00:26pragmatic. Does this work? And what we've seen is a large expansion of our programs, our warden

00:33exchange program. Like I said, we just had our largest cohort ever. 149 correctional leaders are

00:40going through it right now. Our prison fellowship academies, our grows, our angel tree program have

00:45continued to expand. As I mentioned, we're in all 50 states, and so I'd say the response has been very

00:50good. Where you find governments that are not as welcoming, what do you hear from them?

01:01So we operate in states as diverse as Washington and Oregon to Texas, Florida, North Dakota,

01:07Nebraska, California, all of them. And as I said, they tend to be very pragmatic and ask the question,

01:13is it voluntary? The answer is yes. Does it work? It does. And so we're allowed to operate. And

01:19over time, you know, we're able to really affect the prison culture, which we hear both from the

01:26staff as well as leadership. Are there any changes needed by Congress to help you further your mission?

01:36Thus far, we have not been able to operate our in-prison programs, our academies, or our grows within the

01:41Bureau prisons. And we think that both of those programs, as well as our warden exchange program

01:46that helps assist correctional leaders at no cost to the state, can be a tremendous asset and a force

01:53multiplier to help solve some of these problems facing the Bureau. Mr. Pertil, we heard earlier

01:59from the ranking member, do you, in regards to President Trump as failing, do you agree President

02:05Trump does not care about prisons? That's what we heard, is that he does not care about prisons

02:10by one of the members up here. Do you agree with that? I do not. Respectfully, sir, do not agree

02:16with that. We worked extremely closely with the first Trump administration on crafting the First

02:22Step Act. And I can tell you that they were very involved, very concerned. It would not have happened

02:26without Mr. Trump's personal leadership. So it simply doesn't comport with what I've experienced.

02:31Do you think President Trump should continue with the status quo? Because that's, that's what I'm

02:37hearing is that he doesn't care about prisons. We should leave things as is. Do you think we should

02:42leave the status quo? No, sir. I think there's, there's much here as, as this committee well knows

02:46that there's much here that under the Bureau of Prisons that needs to be addressed. And I think it

02:50can be addressed in terms of what Mr. Trump tried to do in his first, first administration. And then I

02:57have every reason to believe he's going to try to continue in his second. Give me something that's

03:01primary in your mind that could be a good change for federal prisons. Well, I think to go back to

03:08what I did to my testimony, I do think that focusing federal prisons, federal prisons are in a unique

03:14position in terms of corrections facilities across the country. I think they are best equipped to deal

03:20with some of the prisoners that are really most dangerous, most likely to commit new crimes to

03:26recidivate. And that's really a friend of mine at the Heritage Foundation, John Malcolm, likes to say

03:31prison beds are some of the most expensive hotel rooms in the country. I want to reserve them for

03:35the people who are most dangerous to society. So I think getting, doing all that we can to make sure

03:41that that is the population within federal prisons, because they are most, they're just better equipped

03:45to deal with it, I think, than, than any other system in the country. In my home state of Wisconsin,

03:50back when I was in the state legislature, we had a youth correctional facility that the ACLU came in

03:57and sued to prevent them, the staff, they restricted the staff from using certain measures that they

04:03had used for a long, long time. And the day that the judge accepted the ACLU's brief and said,

04:12we're going to accept the policies that you're suggesting for us, the young people in the correctional

04:19facility went on the roof of this facility and taunted the guards, saying, you can't touch us.

04:25Is it surprising to you that a couple years later that a staff youth counselor was killed in that

04:31facility? Oh, in all honesty, sir, I couldn't, I couldn't address that. I don't know anything about

04:36the, the facts of the situation. Have you seen instances where the, an organization like the ACLU

04:42has sued and prevented staff from being able to do their jobs with using the proper restraints? Have you

04:49seen that nationally? I think that there's a lot of questions in that, in that issue. I think that

04:56ensuring it's BOP's job to ensure both the safety and that the safety of the staff as well as the

05:03inmates. And I think limiting them in order to be able to do that is always dangerous. Undermining the

05:09respect that law enforcement should be, should be given, I think leads to, it leads to kind of the

05:17sense of, you know, the idea that people are taunting guards and things like that. I think

05:21that that also undermines security. But I also think that we have to remember that when people

05:27are within our custody, we have to do everything to make sure that we're, that we're remembering to

05:32treat them as people and remembering to, that they still have rights while they're in there.

05:36So I think it's a very difficult challenge that BOP has to make sure that they're balancing both of

05:42those sides. Yeah, I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Next, we will hear from the...

Category

Transcript

Recommended