South Gwinnett News

A bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) that mandates federal prisons to upgrade faulty security camera systems has been signed into law, a recent FOX 5 Atlanta report said.

The new legislation went into effect just before the start of the new year and requires the Federal Bureau of Prisons to now ensure that all facilities have the coverage necessary to protect the safety of their detainees and staff.

"I’ve led multiple investigations of crime and corruption in Federal prisons, and broken prison camera systems are enabling corruption, misconduct, and abuse," Ossoff told FOX 5 Atlanta.

The senator first introduced the Prison Camera Reform Act in 2021 while also calling attention to his hope that a new system would generate transparency and accountability and improve safety for everyone involved in the federal prison system, the FOX 5 report said.

Ossoff recently went public with his findings from an 8-month bipartisan investigation into the sexual abuse of women in federal prisons, which he said showed the Federal Bureau of Prisons failed to prevent, detect and stop recurring abuse by its own employees.

At that time, sexual abuse survivors testified they had been assaulted by employees in areas where they knew there was no camera coverage; the FOX 5 report said.