Chairman Ossoff, Ranking Member Johnson and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to this hearing. Today I focus my testimony on the unacceptable conditions of confinement for clients who are detained pretrial, awaiting trial and presumed innocent at USP Atlanta. Defenders see firsthand how USP Atlanta subjects people to inhumane and substandard conditions and limits their access to attorneys, which in turn interferes with their sixth amendment right to counsel. The result is deplorable and punitive conditions which courts defenders and our clients have observed for decades. I want to begin by sharing a clear picture of what life inside is like. One client and I will call him Jacob, for the purpose of this hearing, described his experience and a 2019 affidavit that I've submitted as Exhibit B. Jacob was held in an overcrowded pod where he was locked into his cell for 24 hours a day, three to four days at a time. He was one of three people squeezed into a two person cell. When Jacob was allowed outside of his cell, it was for less than an hour every few days. The pod only had six showers and three phones that had to be shared by about 100 people, making it impossible for everyone to shower and make phone calls. When out of his cell, Jacob had to choose whether to call his family or to call his attorney but he could not do both. Even worse, Jacob cell was infested with roaches, and when he asked for cleaning supplies, the guards merely laughed. I'm sorry to say that Jacob's experience is not at all unique for Atlanta pretrial detainees. During my eight years as a defender, I have seen clients routinely locked down and allowed out of their cells for extremely limited periods of time, such as only 15 to 30 minutes three to four times a week or only an hour each day. And these lockdowns persist for months. Clients are treated as though they are in solitary confinement, not because of their behavior, but because of their misfortune and being placed at USP Atlanta. lock downs mean that my clients cannot meet their basic human needs, cannot communicate with their families cannot visit visit with clergy and cannot participate in productive programming. Jacob also described receiving substandard food and hygiene at USP Atlanta. His dinner was routinely slices of bread and packages of expired deli meat, and he could not supplement his diet with commissary because it was limited to only instant coffee and potato chips. Again, Jacobs experience is not unique. Our clients go months at a time with only sack lunches provided for every meal served in their cells. Sometimes they find bugs in their food, and we see the impact as our clients lose weight and become emaciated. Given these fundamental failures of care, it should come as no surprise that USP Atlanta routinely denies our clients access to mental health treatment, including medication, therapy, and access to mental health professionals. AsChairman Ossoff referenced earlier, one pretrial- one person on pretrial detention was held for a week on suicide watch without access to treatment or medication provided only a paper gown and paper blankets.
I want to turn to a different topic next, which is how USP Atlanta interferes with the Sixth Amendment guarantee of effective assistance of counsel. USP Atlanta's practices and policies do not allow us to fulfill our constitutional and ethical obligations of zealous advocacy. First, there are scheduling delays and difficulties as USP Atlanta staff members failed to respond to requests for legal meetings, often for several days and despite repeated requests. It is not unusual for the date of the expected meeting to pass and for there to still be no response from staff members. And scheduling a meeting does not mean that the meeting will actually happen because of the facilities chaos and disorganization. When we do get to meet with our clients, it is often after hours of waiting. And while we wait we are on the clock along with the experts and interpreters that often come along with us. So taxpayers are bearing the cost of USP Atlanta's incompetence. Clients access to the their discovery the government's evidence against them is also limited because clients do not have enough access to the Law Library due to the lock downs and have no ability to review electronic discovery with their attorneys. Even when a court has intervened and ordered USP Atlanta to allow law library access, the facility has failed to comply. The circumstances that we detailed today are inhumane and unjust but they are avoidable and they should not be the norm. Unfortunately, the problems at USP Atlanta are part of a larger story of systemic dysfunction. my written statement includes several recommendations for ways this body could address this unconscionable state of affairs. Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify today and I welcome any questions you may have.
