Review: Prisoner flights are expensive
WASHINGTON --Pricey contracts and empty seats plague government flights that move U.S. prisoners to new jails and deport illegal immigrants, a Justice Department review concluded Tuesday.
Additionally, the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transport System does not always have large enough crews to subdue onboard security threats, Justice Department Inspector General Glen A. Fine found.
"Given the variety of transportation needs and the nature of the individuals being transported, inherent risks exist in managing a transportation system like JPATS," Fine concluded, using the acronym for the air transit system.
The U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Prisons, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement use and pay for the flights. More than 305,000 prisoners and illegal aliens flew on them last year, costing an estimated $87 million.
The program makes sure prisoners and illegal immigrants make their court appointments, are transferred efficiently and are deported quickly.
But the review found several flaws, including that:
--The government pays far more to lease large jets under multiple-year contracts than it would by buying the aircraft outright. For example, the 30-year cost of leasing a used
--Poor planning led to empty seats on the flights, some of which were only half-full during an audit between 2004 and the last three months of 2005.
--Only 13 percent of 1,028 flights audited had a larger security crew aboard than required. The review did not disclose the required crew-to-passenger ratio, but inspectors said the shortage exposes the flights "to potential security threats when transporting prisoners or aliens."
The flights program is managed by the U.S. Marshals Service. In a Sept. 6 letter responding to a draft of the review, Marshals Director John F. Clark agreed with all 15 of Fine's recommendations for improvement.
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On the Net:
Justice Department Office of Inspector General: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/index.html
