FLEOA Expresses Concerns of US Pretrial and Probation Officers with Smarter Sentencing and Pretrial Release Act
September 13, 2020
Honorable Dick Durbin
United States Senate
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Honorable Mike Lee
United States Senate
361A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Honorable Chris Coons
United States Senate
218 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Durbin, Senator Lee and Senator Coons,
We write to you today to address some concerns with your introduction of the Smarter
Pretrial Detention for Drug Charges Act. While the goals of this act are appreciated, the
unanticipated collateral impact on the judicial system, especially for U.S. Pretrial and
Probation Officers, must also be appreciated and addressed.
Since the Sentencing Commission began reworking federal sentencing guidelines, there has
been a movement to minimize and use methods other than incarceration prior to and after an
individual is sentenced. This movement was accelerated with the passage of the FIRST STEP
Act which reworked and reduced longstanding drug offense sentencing guidelines and allowed
thousands of convicted federal drug offenders the ability to reduce their sentences. As our
nation confronted the COVID-19 pandemic, the judicial system again allowed individuals
identified as high risk to also petition and receive reduced sentences or earlier releases from
federal prison. Additionally, U.S. Courts have been very diligent during the pandemic to use
home monitoring instead of pretrial confinement for almost all except the most egregious new
criminal cases.
In total, these efforts have added thousands of federal offenders to the streets of America,
many who are still on some form of supervised released or federal probation. Unfortunately,
as we have notified Congress several times over the past two years, the requisite funding for
staffing, overtime, and technology for U.S. Pretrial and Probation Officers has not
materialized. This has multiplied the workload on these federal law enforcement officers, in
some cases by 100 fold. Due to the high risk and dangerous individuals these officers are
tasked to monitor, the net effect has been an overworked workforce who can barely sustain the
supervision of those under their charge. To make matters worse, these officers are working
thousands of hours of uncompensated overtime just to keep up due to their ineligibility for
compensatory time, standard overtime, or inclusion in the Law Enforcement Availability Pay
(LEAP) pay system.
As a nation, we can’t in good conscious continue to allow pretrial and post-conviction
individuals onto the streets of America without ensuring those tasked to monitor them are
appropriately resourced and compensated. This is why we have asked the Congress and
sought for years to increase funding for equipment, technology, staffing, and pay for U.S.
Pretrial and Probation Officers. When FIRST Step was passed into law, the federal Bureau of
Prisons received an enormous amount of funding. Despite our requests, U.S. Pre-Trial and
Probation Officers were left out.
Recently the House passed its FY21 FSGG bill and added language to study the overtime issue
for U.S. Pre-Trial and Probation Officers. We would like to see that study language converted
to a directive to implement LEAP for all U.S. Pretrial and Probation Officers. We’d also like
to see an appropriations package passed for U.S. Pretrial and Probation Officers that includes a
directive to hire more of these federal law enforcement officers and equip them with the tools
necessary to perform their job.
If we allow more individuals to be out of the streets of America pre or post conviction without
the ability to properly monitor them, then we are being malfeasant in our protection of the
American people and the mandate to ensure those that are released on properly monitored and
supported.
Thus, we would like to strongly recommend that prior to allowing any more individuals that
are involved in the federal justice system to be placed on the streets of America, we work to
ensure U.S. Pretrial and Probation Officers and funded and supported.
FLEOA appreciates your efforts on this legislation and we look forward to working with you
to ensure our federal justice system is efficient and effective. If we can be of any additional
assistance, feel free to contact us at fleoa@fleoa.org.
Sincerely,
Larry Cosme
National President
Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association
Cc: Senate Judiciary members