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IANUS DOESN’T LIKE THE VIEW ON BOP – IN EITHER DIRECTION

You no doubt recall from high school Latin class that the Roman god Ianus (“Janus” if you don’t like classic Latinspeak) had two faces, one looking forward into the future while the other gazes into the past. It’s where we derived “January” for the first month of the new year.

Ianus would not be happy at what his backward-looking face sees in the Bureau of Prisons’ 2022 record:

•  sex abuse-related convictions at FCI Dublin in California, FCI Marianna in Florida, FMC Carswell in Texas and FMC Lexington in Kentucky;

•  Dept of Justice Inspector General reports ripping the BOP for $2 billion in past-due maintenance, for cooking its books on the number of inmates with COVID, and for subjecting inmates at FCI Tallahassee to living conditions that the IG himself said were “something you should never have to deal with;” and

• NPR reporting that the BOP has misrepresented the accreditation of its healthcare facilities while compiling a record of ignoring or delaying medical treatment – especially in cancer care – leading to needless inmate disability and death.

Ianus’s forward-looking face isn’t so happy, either. Last week, NPR reported that while the “CDC says natural deaths happen either solely or almost entirely because of disease or old age,” 70% of the inmates who died in BOP custody over the past 13 years were under the age of 65.” NPR found that “potential issues such as medical neglect, poor prison conditions and a lack of health care resources were left unexplained once a ‘natural” death designation ended hopes of an investigation. Meanwhile, family members were left with little information about their loved one’s death.”

The BOP stonewalled NPR, failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for all mortality review reports generated since 2009 and refusing to provide any official to be interviewed on the report. However, the BOP assured NPR that it has “detailed procedures to notify family members after an inmate’s death.”

That makes us all feel much better.

Not NPR. It remained skeptical, citing the case of Celia Wilson. Celia, sister of Leonard Wilson – who died last April – heard from an inmate that he had collapsed on the walking track and had been taken to the hospital. The first call she got from the BOP came two days later from her brother’s case manager. “He said that my brother is communicating and we think he’s going to be just fine,” Wilson said. “We were so relieved at that point.” But the records his lawyer got from the BOP after he died told a different story. “Celia would say they think that there’s signs of life and maybe vitals are getting better,” Lenny’s lawyer told NPR. “And then we would ask for those medical records and they wouldn’t actually say that.”

Meanwhile, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York last week found that conditions at MDC Brooklyn were not just bad: they were “exceptional[ly] bad,” “dreadful” and an “ongoing tragedy.”

Defendant Gustavo Chavez, age 70, entered a guilty plea to drug offenses. After a guilty plea in a case like his, 18 USC § 3143 requires that a defendant be detained unless “exceptional circumstances” within the meaning of 18 USC § 3145 are found by the court.

Judge Mark Furman held that the “near-perpetual lockdowns (no longer explained by COVID-19), dreadful conditions, and lengthy delays in getting medical care” at MDC Brooklyn constituted “exceptional circumstances.” The judge’s 19-page opinion provided a litany of horrors at MDC Brooklyn, including

[c]ontraband — from drugs to cell phones — is widespread. At least four inmates have died by suicide in the past three years. It has gotten to the point that it is routine for judges in both this District and the Eastern District to give reduced sentences to defendants based on the conditions of confinement in the MDC. Prosecutors no longer even put up a fight, let alone dispute that the state of affairs is unacceptable.

In a class action suit against the BOP by female inmates over sexual abuse, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers began a three-day evidentiary hearing last week in Oakland, California. The plaintiffs claim they endured abuse and sexual assault by BOP staff, including voyeurism, drugging and abuse during medical exams, and rape. Despite being aware of the violence and harassment for decades, the plaintiffs contend, the BOP failed to take action.

Witnesses for the government admitted that “abuse and misconduct… so “rampant” at FCI Dublin that new officials struggled to implement reforms.”

An FCI Dublin deputy corrections captain said before she took the job in 2022, “here was a lot of misconduct rampant within the institution.” She admitted that before she took the job, multiple prisoners were placed in the SHU (locked up in the special housing unit) after reporting they had been assaulted.

“You say it’s not punitive, but the inmates don’t agree with that,” Judge Rogers said. “If these things were already happening, and you have the same process, how is it any different?”

“I guess we’ve improved as far as what we’ve required,” the BOP captain responded, citing regular meetings and new systems for identifying issues at the prison. She took a tissue to wipe away tears, according to a Courthouse News Service report, saying she wanted to ensure the BOP changed. Of incarcerated women, she said, “They really just want to be heard, they want somebody to listen.”

From cooking the books over inmate deaths to running facilities that mimic the Black Hole of Calcutta to letting rape and sexual abuse run “rampant” in women’s prisons, the BOP is hardly listening to anyone.

NPR, There is little scrutiny of ‘natural’ deaths behind bars (January 2, 2024)

United States v. Chavez, Case No. 22-CR-303, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1525  (S.D.N.Y., January 4, 2024)

New York Daily News, Judge says conditions “too dreadful” at Brooklyn fed jail to lock up 70-year-old defendant (January 4, 2024)

Courthouse News Service, Misconduct ‘rampant’ at California women’s prison, deputy corrections captain testifies (January 3, 2024)

California Coalition for Women Prisoners v. BOP, Case No. 4:23-cv-4155 (ND Cal, filed Aug 16, 2023)

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– Thomas L. Root