We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
Incoming BOP Director Colette Peters will have her choice of fires to put out after today’s swearing in. What she will not have is much of a honeymoon in which to do so.
At last week’s hearings, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said that with Carvajal departing, and a new director coming in, change at the Bureau of Prison needs to happen and it needs to happen now.
With a fall COVID surge anticipated, she might want to look first at the BOP’s COVID management. Others certainly are. At last week’s Subcommittee hearings, Sen Alex Padilla (D-CA) said his office has received reports that FCI Mendota had not been following COVID-19 protocols, leading to frequent outbreaks at the facility.
Padilla and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sent the Dept of Justice a letter in April asking about the lack of COVID-19 safety precautions, but did not receive an adequate response. In response to Carvajal’s assurance that the BOP “takes these allegations seriously,” Padilla said, “We sent you a letter saying that we’re hearing that protocols are not being followed. We communicated to you months ago that we understand they aren’t being followed.”
Fourteen other senators last week demanded that the BOP explain its scant use of Covid-19 therapeutics.
The letter is based on press reports that the BOP used just a fraction of the COVID-19 drugs allotted by the federal government. It urges Bureau leadership to revamp its approach toward Covid-19 testing to catch more infections that could benefit from these drugs (which need to be given early in a person’s illness).
“The experience of the pandemic for the federally incarcerated population remains starkly worse than for non-incarcerated individuals,” the letter said. “This discrepancy can only be addressed through affirmative, comprehensive changes from the Bureau of Prisons … to improve the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and therapeutics. We write to urge you to make those improvements as soon as possible.”
The Dept of Health and Human Services has reported that BOP consistently declines additional COVID-19 drugs. “We have… reached out multiple times to BOP asking them why they do not want their allocations offered by HHS. They consistently say they have enough to meet demand/their demand is low,” DHHS wrote in a May 4 email to Congress. Last week’s letter demands information from the BOP by Sep 9, including data on the turnaround time for Covid-19 tests and the policies governing when incarcerated people are tested.
As of yesterday, BOP COVID numbers – which are stunningly untrustworthy most of the time – reported 479 inmates and 509 staff with COVID, with COVID in 115 facilities (the most since March 1st). The total number of COVID tests performed on inmates fluctuates inexplicably but suggests no testing being done since January 25th. Peters might want to start by requiring BOP COVID stats to be meaningful.
Florida Phoenix, ‘Stunning, long-term failures’ found in probe of Atlanta penitentiary (July 26, 2022)
Stat, Senators demand answers about federal prisons’ scant use of Covid therapeutics (July 26, 2022)
Letter to Michael Carvajal from Sen Benjamin Cardin (July 25, 2022)
– Thomas L. Root