(BOP) - On March 9, 2016, President Barack Obama signed into law the Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act of 2015. The bill gives the Director of the Bureau of Prisons authorization to issue oleoresin capsicum spray (pepper spray) to correctional officers and other employees at all federal prisons except minimum and low security.
The bill is named after Correctional Officer Eric Williams, who was murdered by an inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in Waymart, Pennsylvania on February 25, 2013. This new law makes permanent the Bureau’s pilot program authorizing the issuance of pepper spray.