“We urge the BOP not to renew its ACA accreditation contract when it expires next month.”
“The ACA’s accreditation system is ineffective at best, and at worst misleads the public to believe that a failing facility’s operations are adequate.”
Washington (February 29, 2024) - Senators Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent a letter to Colette Peters, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Attorney General Merrick Garland, expressing concerns with the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) reliance on the American Correctional Association (ACA) for accreditation and re-accreditation services for BOP prisons, and urging the BOP to end its contract with the ACA when it expires next month.
The lawmakers warned that the ACA’s accreditation system is “largely toothless and is marred by conflicts of interest,” and the ACA has accredited prisons that have forced inmates to live in unsafe and violent conditions — such as a facility that “served spoiled, insect- and rodent-infested food and failed to repair broken toilets.” The association accredits virtually every facility that pays the accreditation fee, and its audit processes are virtually impossible to fail.
“(W)hen an in-person audit is conducted, the ACA helps facilities prepare by giving them three months’ notice before an audit, providing checklists and audit evaluation forms, and offering opportunities for ‘mock audits,’” the lawmakers wrote. “In essence, the ACA ‘provid(es) the answers to the test in advance.’ Furthermore, facilities can be accredited even if they fail the audit, and being accredited by the ACA seems to have little correlation with actual facility conditions or practices.”
The letter also highlights the inherent conflicts of interest in the ACA’s accreditation system. The ACA serves as the primaryadvocate and lobbying group for the prison industry, while also being given responsibility for overseeing conditions at prison facilities — a difficult conflict of interest to reconcile. “These competing roles make it impossible for the ACA to retain credibility as a third party charged with ensuring appropriate conditions in prisons and jails,” the lawmakers argue.
The lawmakers also call attention to findings by the DOJ Inspector General (IG), which revealed that the ACA audits do not even involve independent reviews. According to the IG, “(i)nstead of conducting its own review of the BOP’s facilities or documentation, the ACA would renew accreditations simply based on the BOP’s self-assessment.”
In addition to urging the non-renewal of the BOP-ACA contract, the lawmakers also request answers about current ACA contracts with the DOJ, the ACA accreditation process, and potential alternatives to the ACA.
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