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BOP WALKS INTO BAD PRESS BUZZSAW
BOP Acting Director Hugh J. Hurwitz probably felt more like the dinner than the diner by the time Thanksgiving rolled around a week ago, after the beating his agency took in the media in the preceding days.
First, the New York Times published a long story detailing the sexual harassment suffered by female BOP staff. “For women who work in federal prisons, where they are vastly outnumbered by male colleagues and male inmates,” the Times wrote, “concealing every trace of their femininity is both necessary and, ultimately, futile… Some inmates… stare… grope, threaten and expose themselves. But what is worse, according to testimony, court documents, and interviews with female prison workers, male colleagues can and do encourage such behavior, undermining the authority of female officers and jeopardizing their safety. Other male employees join in the harassment themselves.”
The Times found that women who reported harassment “face retaliation, professional sabotage and even termination,” while the careers of many male BOP harassers and those who protect them flourish. The Times named names.
But The Gray Lady wasn’t done with the BOP. Two days later, the paper ran a detailed piece questioning how Whitey Bulger ended up at Hazleton general population, where he was promptly murdered. The Times reported, “Several prison workers questioned why so many people at Coleman and in the Texas office would have approved a transfer of Mr. Bulger to Hazelton, a facility that houses some inmates tied to organized crime and that has a reputation for being dangerous for snitches. The workers also questioned why staff members at Hazelton would have approved placing Mr. Bulger in the prison’s general population. Mr. Bulger was the third inmate to be killed at Hazelton this year.”
The paper quoted one unnamed worker who said, “That was a monumental failure and a death sentence for Whitey.”
The Times said the BOP issued a statement saying that Bulger’s transfer to Hazelton was made in accordance with its policy, including a review of whether inmates there were known to be a threat to him.
Meanwhile, The Marshall Project suggested that the BOP’s 2014 policy that promised better care and oversight for inmates with mental-health issues was a fraud. “Data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that instead of expanding treatment, the bureau has lowered the number of inmates designated for higher care levels by more than 35 percent.” TMP says prison staff are determining that prisoners—some with long histories of psychiatric problems—don’t require any routine care at all. As of last February, the BOP classified just 3% of inmates as having a mental illness serious enough to require regular treatment. By comparison, more than 30% of California state prisoners receive care for a “serious mental disorder.” In New York, its 21%, and In Texas, it’s about 20%.
TMP says that when BOP changed its rules, “officials did not add the resources needed to implement them, creating an incentive for employees to downgrade inmates to lower care levels.”
The New York Times, Hazing, Humiliation, Terror: Working While Female in Federal Prison (Nov. 17, 2018)
The New York Times, The Whitey Bulger Murder Mystery: Two Assailants and a Prison Full of Suspects (Nov. 19, 2018)
The Marshall Project, Treatment Denied: The Mental Health Crisis in Federal Prisons (Nov. 20, 2018)
– Thomas L. Root