Lawmakers push for federal prison oversight after reports of inadequate medical care

Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on the federal prison system to address its staffing crisis. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Two key senators on the committee tasked with overseeing the nation's federal prisons are now urging the Bureau of Prisons to fix a medical care system that has allowed people in its care to die preventable deaths.

Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, were responding to reporting from NPR showing that federal prisoners die from treatable conditions that are not diagnosed or treated in a timely way within the prison system.