We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

YOU CAN’T FIND WHAT YOU DON’T LOOK FOR

The BOP’s official COVID numbers as of last night stood at 512 sick inmates (up 7% from a week before) and 490 staff (up 24%). COVID is present at 110 out of 122 facilities.

The BOP’s official count is not without controversy. Joe Gulley, union president at USP Leavenworth, told Business Insider the number of staff who had had COVID was at least 20 times higher than officially reported. “The Warden lied because he wanted his bosses and the public to think he was doing a good job,” Gulley said in a statement. “His only concern was that everyone outside of USP Leavenworth believed he was controlling Covid and keeping everyone safe so he could get his next promotion.”

The BOP said it tested an average of 33 inmates a day for COVID over the last 10 days. That’s only 64% of the number of COVID-positive inmates the BOP reports. In fact, it is only 10% of the testing the BOP was doing in a similar period last December. You have to wonder how the BOP found 512 COVID-infected inmates when only ran 328 tests during the 10-day period it typically carries an inmate as being sick. (The BOP habitually declares everyone as “recovered” after 10 days – including a number of them who subsequently die of the COVID from which they’ve “recovered,” but that’s a story for another day).

One cannot find what one does not look for.

As of last Friday, 58.2% of inmates were vaccinated, up 1.4 points from last week. Staff still lags at 53.1%, up only 0.2 points from the week before. The Food and Drug Administration gave regular approval to the Pfizer vaccine last week, and the military has already ordered its personnel to be vaccinated. BOP staff may soon lack the right to refuse the vaccine.

Government Executive reported that “a chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees representing BOP staff at FDC Miami picketed last week to protest “unsafe working conditions stemming from an outbreak of COVID-19 infections among inmates, a rise in inmate assaults on employees, and chronic understaffing of the administrative security facility.” A union press release alleged, “These conditions endanger the lives of inmates, prison employees and the general community.”

Government Executive, Coronavirus Roundup: FDA Grants First Full Approval for COVID-19 Vaccine; Pentagon Announces Vaccine Mandate (August 23, 2021)

Business Insider, Unrest at the big house: federal prison workers are fed up, burned out, and heading for the exits (August 25, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root