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Attorney General Eric Holder

Correctional Officer Jose Rivera was stabbed to death in a federal prison in Atwater, California in June, 2008, while locking inmates into their cells by himself. He should not have been alone. But in the understaffed Bureau of Prisons, where correctional officers are often outnumbered by inmates by 150 -1, prison violence is rising at an alarming rate. On April 23 of this year, an officer at a prison in Terra Haute, Indiana was stabbed seven times by an inmate. A week later in Tucson, Arizona, another officer was attacked. Similar incidents are now reported regularly system-wide.

The repeated refusal of the Bureau of Prisons management to address understaffing and underfunding within the system threatens the safety of correctional officers, inmates and our communities. Ironically, Congress attempted to address this problem by increasing total funding for the Bureau's salaries and expenses in 2009 by $545 million - with a significant portion of this increase intended for hiring new correctional officers. However, BOP management is now unilaterally saying that none of the $545 million increase will be used to hire more correctional officers.

We, the undersigned, have lost all faith in the Bureau of Prisons management. In order to insure the safety of correctional officers, inmates and our communities, we call upon Attorney General Eric Holder to take the following actions:

(a) Mandate that all funds appropriated for BOP staffing to be used for staffing

(b) Call for the resignation of BOP Director Harley Lappin who has led the BOP down a dangerous, misguided path for the past 8 years

(c) Hire 9,000 additional correctional officers in order to return the Bureau of Prisons to the same level of staffing as in 1997.

Time is of the essence. Lives depend on immediate action.

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