Bill aims to support federal prison officers with new mental health grant programs

Supporters hope a new bill will expand access to mental health resources for Bureau of Prisons officers, a workforce that has experienced stressful working conditions paired with staffing shortages. 

The Officer Blake Schwarz Suicide Prevention Act of 2024 (HR 9929) would specifically require the Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons to establish grant programs to enable mental health screenings for corrections officers at federal prisons and jails, as well as detention facilities that are under contract to a federal law enforcement agency, and refer them to mental health care providers. 

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, introduced the legislation on Oct. 4, named for a correctional officer at Thomson Federal Prison in Illinois who in 2023 died by suicide, as her district borders the prison where Schwarz worked. The proposal would authorize $300 million in grants over five fiscal years for the screenings.

The American Federation of Government Employees has endorsed the bill, with National President Everett Kelley pointing to the heightened risk that the workforce often contends with.

“Federal correctional officers work in some of the most dangerous and violent places imaginable and, as a result, are at increased risk for developing depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidality as compared to those in other professions,” Kelley said in a statement. “Many of our members employed by the federal Bureau of Prisons are military veterans, a group that has experienced staggering rates of PTSD and depression in recent years.”

Based on various studies, the Vera Institute of Justice reported that “[corrections] officers suffer from PTSD and commit suicide at rates much higher than law enforcement staff in other agencies and those in the military.” The criminal justice research nonprofit also found that corrections officers experience depression, PTSD and suicide at higher rates than the general public. 

When the Government Accountability Office in 2023 added management of the federal prison system to its high-risk list in 2023, it noted that staffing has been a longstanding issue with “vacancies and the growing use of overtime to help address them [continuing] to present a serious threat to inmate and staff safety.” 

The legislation has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.