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

BOP: CRIME’S UP, INCENTIVES ARE DOWN

Instances of Federal Bureau of Prisons employees running afoul of the law continue along with staff shortages, even as the agency finds ways to provide additional disincentives to employees’ desire to work.

Former BOP Correctional Officer Quandelle Joseph pled guilty last week in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York to receiving bribes in exchange for providing phones and drugs to prisoners at MDC Brooklyn. The government said Joseph, who began working at MDC in May 2020, “accepted tens of thousands of dollars from inmates in exchange for smuggling narcotics, cigarettes, and cell phones into the MDC… He also warned inmates about upcoming contraband searches at the MDC.”

Last Friday, a former BOP CO at FCI Aliceville (AL) pled guilty to one count of sexual abuse of a ward. In February 2019, the indictment alleged, Smith had sex with a female inmate. He also admitted engaging in a sexual act with another female inmate under his control.

The Marshall Project reported a week ago on the continuing short-staffing at BOP facilities, noting that FCI Florence (CO) was short at least 188 staff members. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet told BOP Director Colette Peters a year ago that “fatigue, exhaustion, and low morale have reduced staff productivity and led to more sick leave, retirements, and resignations.” The Marshall Project called the situation “a downward spiral.”

The BOP had been offering retention pay incentives for employees at prisons hard hit by staffing shortages, but those programs are ending. A week ago, the BOP terminated incentives at USP Thomson (Illinois), and last week announced that officers at USP Canaan (Pennsylvania) will soon see similar cuts.

The American Federation of Government Employees is urging the BOP to reverse course at USP Canaan, which is about to open more units and bring in more inmates, according to AFGE. Without the incentive, the union says, officers may leave their jobs.

The real cost of the staffing shortfall to prisoners? Obviously, the frequent and repeated facility lockdowns – because confining inmates to their housing units requires fewer BOP employees than normal operations – is the most visible. But last week, I heard from a prisoner who willingly transferred to an institution hundreds of miles farther from his home to enroll in the faith-based Life Connections program. He told me that upon arrival, he found that the Life Connections Program was not running due to shortness of staff and government funding, and no one had any idea when that would change: “I have made the choice to seek change while incarcerated,” he wrote, “signing up for this program. It’s not my fault that they have no staff to run the program and lack the funds to pay outside contractors to facilitate the classes for the purpose of education.”

US Attorney EDNY, Ex-Federal Correction Officer Pleads Guilty to Taking Bribes in Exchange for Smuggling Contraband into Federal Jail in Brooklyn (January 11, 2024)

Trussville AL Tribune, Former Federal Bureau of Prisons Corrections Officer pleads guilty to sexually abusing inmate in his custody (January 12, 2024)

Federal News Network, More Bureau of Prisons pay incentives get death penalty (January 10, 2024)

The Marshall Project, Federal Prisons Are Over Capacity — Yet Efforts to Ease Overcrowding Are Ending (January 6, 2024)

Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper, Letter to Colette Peters (December 5, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root