We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
BOP BLUES
A lot’s going on in the BOP, and little of it can be lifting spirits at Central Office.
Carvajal’s Out: Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal announced yesterday that he’s resigning, six weeks after the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland deliver his head on a platter.
Carvajal, appointed during the Trump administration, has “been at the center of myriad crises within the federal prison system,” according to the Associated Press. The BOP characterized the decision as a “retirement,” which – after 30 years as a BOP employee – Carvajal is certainly entitled to do.
The BOP said he will stay on for an interim period until a successor is named. It is unclear how long that process would take.
The beginning of the end for Carvajal came in November, when the AP reported that more than 100 Bureau of Prisons workers have been arrested, convicted, or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019, including a warden charged with sexually abusing an inmate. The AP stories apparently prompted Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illnois), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to call for Carvajal’s removal.
Carvajal took office just as COVID-19 took off, and included “a failed response to the pandemic, dozens of escapes, deaths and critically low staffing levels that have hampered responses to emergencies,” the AP said.
“We are very appreciative of Director Carvajal’s service to the department over the last three decades,” DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement. “His operational experience and intimate knowledge of the Bureau of Prisons — the department’s largest component — helped steer it during critical times, including during this historic pandemic.”
Atlanta: Last week, Forbes magazine got its hands on an internal BOP memorandum from 2020 revealing just how much of a mess USP Atlanta was a year before the Bureau took the extraordinary step of shipping out 1,100 inmates and shuttering the facility for an extensive rehabilitation.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2017 about the “Wild West” atmosphere that defined USP Atlanta and its satellite minimum prison camp. According to an August 31, 2020 memorandum to the Southeast Region of the BOP, “USP Atlanta presents significant security concern for the Southeast Region … [which] requires immediate corrective action.”
Forbes reported the memo resulted from a Security Assessment performed just months after USP Atlanta passed its Program Review with a “Good” score. Program Reviews examine the adequacy of controls, efficiency of operations, and effectiveness in achieving program results. Institutions receiving a grade of “Good” qualify for a break of three years before another such review. Forbes reported that some have questioned whether the reviewers and facilities managers “have become too chummy because members who conduct those reviews consist of BOP management from peer institutions.”
Forbes said, “These are unprecedented times for the BOP. MCC New York closed earlier this year because the building had fallen into disrepair, staff corruption cases abounded and the widely reported suicide of Jeffrey Epstein. FCI Estill (South Carolina)… was hit by a tornado that ripped up the fence, tore off parts of the roof and caused heavy damage to the facility. Within days of the incident, hundreds of inmates were transferred to a prison hundreds of miles away in Pennsylvania. The remaining camp level… inmates now live in deplorable conditions at the damaged institution. As USP Atlanta’s problems continue to mount, it is just one more blow to an agency that appears to be in free-fall.
A BOP employee who works at another institution and who also reviewed the memorandum told Forbes, “The items listed are not a surprise. If they did this same type of assessment at other USPs they would get the same result, or close to it.”
Hazelton: The correctional officer who is president of AFGE Local 420 AFGE last week blamed increasing violence at USP Hazelton – contraband weapons, a “massive” fight in a housing, and a stabbing on Christmas Eve – on a lack of leadership from the warden, Richard Hudgins.
“Over the last few weeks there has been an immense amount of violence heightened at the prison due to the lack of leadership from our warden who is retiring this month,” Union President Justin Tarovisky said.
The BOP declined to comment to the Morgantown Dominion-Post on “anecdotal allegations,” but issued a statement that “We can assure you there are qualified management staff at the institution to ensure FCC Hazelton operates in a safe and secure manner and provides the programs that are critical for successful prisoner reform.”
FMC Carswell: A Southern Illinois federal judge last week issued a 61-page opinion ordering the BOP to evaluate ther request of a transgender inmate – now held at FMC Carswell – for gender confirmation surgery.
Chief Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel ruled that the BOP’s Transgender Executive Council must evaluate the inmate, who is a biological male seeking surgery to transition to female, within a month. The Judge issued several pages of specific instructions and timelines for the BOP to meet, depending on whether it recommends or refuses to recommend the inmate for surgery.
The opinion, which has gotten media attention due to its holding that the BOP’s failure to address transgender matters as an 8th Amendment violation, is also noteworthy for the judge’s scathing dismissal of BOP excuses for not acting before, inasmuch as the inmate has served almost 30 years in BOP custody and always claimed gender dysphoria. “Administrative convenience and cost may be, in appropriate circumstances, permissible factors for correctional systems to consider in making treatment decisions,” the judge wrote. However, “the Constitution is violated when they are considered to the exclusion of reasonable medical judgment about inmate health.”
You Just Had the Wrong Prosecutor: Last week, as Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking offenses for assisting Jeffrey Epstein in procuring and grooming underage girls, the US Attorney in Manhattan quietly dismissed all charges against the two BOP correctional officers accused of felonies for falsifying reports connected to the 2019 Epstein suicide at MCC New York.
Prosecutors had said the COs napped, caught up on the news, and shopped for motorcycles and furniture instead of doing their rounds at the MCC. Epstein was held there while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and sexual-abuse charges. Last May, the COs entered into a deferred prosecution agreement where prosecutors agreed not to bring their case to trial until after they finished cooperating with an investigation by the DOJ Inspector General. The OIG has yet to release a report in connection with the investigation.
The conservative publication American Thinker said, “The message being sent by the light punishment for the prison guards whose negligence enabled Epstein’s death is pretty clear. If Maxwell were to “commit suicide” or “have an accident,” any guards implicated in negligence permitting such a death may face minimal consequences.”
Associated Press, US prisons director resigning after crises-filled tenure and scrutiny over his leadership (January 5, 2022)
Forbes, A Review of the Federal Prison In Atlanta Shows an Agency in Crisis (December 31, 2021)
BOP, BOP Director Announces Plans to Retire (January 5, 2022)
Morgantown Dominion-Post, Hazelton union concerned about mounting violence in prison (December 28, 2021)
Law and Crime, ‘She Is Running Out of Time’: Judge Orders Gender Confirmation Surgery Review for Federal Prison Inmate (December 28, 2021)
Iglesias v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 245517 (S.D.Ill. Dec. 27, 2021)
Business Insider, Federal prosecutors quietly dropped their case against Jeffrey Epstein’s jail guards in the middle of Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial (December 30, 2021)
American Thinker, Coincidental or not, dropping criminal charges against Epstein’s prison guards sends a message to Ghislaine Maxwell the day after her conviction (January 1, 2022)
– Thomas L. Root