We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
BOP HAS A BAD WEEK
Last week was a trial by fire for new BOP Director Michael Carvajal. But as an old custody hand, the Director probably found the issues were hardly new.
First, the Dept. of Justice Inspector General issued a report last Tuesday criticizing the BOP for failing to adopt policies to safeguard against serving potentially contaminated food to inmates, a problem that led the agency to buy substandard products (like $1 million worth of adulterated meat, including whole cow hearts that were labeled “ground beef”). The IG faulted the BOP for not having “a protocol in place to ensure its food supply is safe” and failing to “properly document or communicate food vendor quality issues.”
“The BOP should develop a quality assurance plan… to mitigate the risk that a vendor could deliver a substandard product,” the IG wrote.
Two days later, a shakedown at MDC New York – the prison already on the ropes for letting Jeffrey Epstein kill himself last summer – turned up vast quantities of contraband, including a loaded gun, inside the facility.
The Associated Press reported that the discovery “marked a massive breach of protocol and raised serious questions about the security practices in place at the Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for more than 175,000 federal inmates, and specifically at the jail, which had been billed as one of the most secure in America.” Three BOP officials told the AP that the US Attorney has opened a criminal investigation into potential misconduct by COs, focusing on the flow of contraband into the lockup uncovered during the search for the gun.
DOJ Inspector General, Management Advisory Memorandum of Concerns Identified with the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Procurement of Food Products (Mar. 3)
Reuters, Poor controls led U.S. prisons to buy whole cow hearts disguised as ground beef: watchdog (Mar. 3)
Associated Press, AP Exclusive: Gun found inside Epstein jail during lockdown (Mar. 5)
– Thomas L. Root