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’60 MINUTES’ PUTS BOP DIRECTOR ON THE HOT SEAT

The American public got a primer on the Federal Bureau of Prisons last night on “60 Minutes,” and what the public saw was sobering.

BOP Director Colette Peters walked 60 Minutes reporter Cecilia Vega around FCI Aliceville. She told CBS that she wanted “people to see the good stuff” going on in the BOP. Inmates were shown in UNICOR, at a “Life Connections” graduation, and in classes. CBS did not fall for the Potemkin village.

First, in a surprisingly candid interview between Vega and five or so inmates, the women freely admitted that CBS was seeing a dog-and-pony show. Director Peters admitted that things had been cleaned up but explained, “I’ve been doing this work for a long time– so I can see when things have been swept under the rug, if you will. I’m not naïve. And when anybody comes to your house you clean it up.”

Vega pressed Peters on the issue of short staffing and augmentation, asking how many more employees are needed.

Colette Peters: So we hope to have that real number for– you and the public– very soon.

Cecilia Vega: That seems like a critical number. How was that not on your desk when you s– took this job on day one, and– and still not there a year later?

More surprising than Peters’s non-answer was her assertion that the BOP would hire the employees needed to solve short staffing by October.

Shane Fausey, the recently retired national president of the Council of Prison Locals 33 and a former BOP lock and security specialist, was much more certain. He told Vega, “We’re short about 8,000 positions nationwide. ” He complained:

The[ BOP’s] buzz phrase is, “Everybody’s a correctional officer first.” That sounds good on paper. But if you take the teacher out of the classroom, and nobody’s teaching the offender the skills to go back out to society, we’re just back to warehousing people.

Vega also focused on sexual abuse of women inmates at FCI Dublin and in other facilities, most of which Peters inherited from years of prior BOP directors who found it convenient to ignore allegations that, after all, came from untrustworthy and unworthy inmates. Peters claimed that the BOP is cleaning up the “Rape Club” culture at Dublin.

Colette Peters:  We’ve done a tremendous job in the last year rebuilding that culture and creating– an institution that is more safe, where individuals feel comfortable coming forward and reporting claims

Cecilia Vega: You just used the phrase, “tremendous job” in Dublin. Eight inmates have filed a class action lawsuit, and they’ve got testimony from more than 40 current and former Dublin inmates who say that the abuse is ongoing.

Colette Peters: That means the– the process is working, that they have the ability to come forward. They have the right to bring that class action lawsuit together.

Vega noted that more than 45 women have filed suits against the BOP, some of which claim that abuse continues, and that female inmates claim continuing retaliation by staff against those who voice allegations. Peters was skeptical:

Cecilia Vega: It’s one thing for you to say that retaliation is not tolerated, but it sounds like it’s actually still happening.

Colette Peters: Again, I would say those are allegations. I would like to be more grounded in fact around proven retaliation.

CBS 60 Minutes, Inside the Bureau of Prisons, a federal agency plagued by understaffing, abuse, disrepair (January 28, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root