Policy change

What ought to be a simple matter of implementing a new policy has become an example of government inefficiency and incompetence.

The federal Bureau of Prisons says it will take seven more years to put in place a policy change first proposed in 2003 — that's 14 years to fix a problem with how it handles furloughs of inmates.

Currently, no one notifies victims and witnesses when an inmate is furloughed for medical treatment, to attend a funeral or to visit a dying relative or participate in educational, religious or work-related functions. The agency first proposed a policy to provide notification in 2003, but it recently told the Justice Department's inspector general's office that it does not expect to have a solution in place until December 2017.

In a recent report, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, called the delay "excessive and unacceptable."

Bureau officials blamed the delay on union contract requirements to negotiate changes that could affect conditions of employment. But it seems the furlough notification policy is just one of 50 matters awaiting negotiation, according to a New York Times report. And they can take some time since the union and agency representatives meet just three days a month to discuss the issues, one at a time in the order they have been filed.

Bureau officials did not know just where in the line the furlough policy was, but they expected it to be "a very long time" before reaching the head of the line. "This will be completed by Dec. 17, 2017," the agency said.

Union leaders disputed the bureau's claims, saying they were willing to move the issue to the front of the line if they had been asked.

Whatever the reason, 14 years to implement a policy is inexcusable.