We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
WHITEY BULGER MURDER INTENSIFIES CONGRESSIONAL FOCUS ON USP HAZELTON
The murder of James “Whitey” Bulger last week at USP Hazelton, a day after his transfer to that facility, was not the first this year at the high-security institution.
Hazelton, known by inmates as “Misery Mountain”, has a history of violence. The New York Times reported earlier this year that 2017 saw 257 violent incidents at Hazelton, a 15% increase from 2016. Two other inmates were murdered in 2018 prior to Bulger’s appointment with a lock-in-a-sock.
Union officials have raised a flurry of concerns over the past year about acute understaffing and lethal violence at the prison, which is categorized as a high-security lockup. There are more than 3,000 inmates at the prison complex. “We’re short of 42 correctional officers,” Richard Heldreth, president of Local 420 of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800 employees at the U.S.P. Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia. “It affects the security of the prison.”
Prisons across the nation have dealt with extreme shortfalls in correctional officers since the Trump administration imposed a hiring freeze in January 2017 and the Bureau of Prisons stopped filling vacant positions. At the beginning of this year, the agency eliminated 6,000 positions nationwide, a 14% reduction in staffing levels. The cuts included 127 jobs at Hazelton.
Nearly two weeks before Bulger’s death, Washington, D.C., Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton asked the Dept. of Justice Inspector General to “open a formal investigation into the alleged appalling conditions inmates are facing at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) Hazelton facility… Two inmates from the District of Columbia have died at Hazelton during violent altercations during this past year alone amid reports of brutal treatment of others… Based on the evidence presented to my office, I believe that the federal employees serving in this facility have likely received inadequate training, are under-supported, and are being compelled to perform duties outside the scope of their positions and their training, which is leading to these horrific and entirely unacceptable outcomes.”
Last Tuesday, Norton doubled down on her demand, saying in a news release, “Today’s reports of another inmate death at Hazelton heighten the need for an IG investigation into the operations and prisoner conditions at this federal prison. The two other killings at Hazelton earlier this year were of inmates from the District. Based on reports from my constituents who are housed at Hazelton and their relatives, there appears to be a serious shortage of staffing and other resources, leaving prisoners and guards vulnerable to attacks.”
It may have just been coincidence that the day Bulger was killed, FAMM sent a letter to President Trump urging immediate appointment of a permanent BOP Director, to replace Mark Inch, who resigned last April. FAMM President Kevin Ring wrote, “The BOP has been without a permanent director since General Mark Inch’s resignation from the post in May of this year. The void in consistent leadership has caused and exacerbated numerous problems throughout the federal prison system, for both staff and those in custody.”
Washington Examiner, ‘Misery Mountain’: The jail where ‘Whitey’ Bulger was slain has history of murder and violence (Oct. 30, 2018)
The New York Times, Safety Concerns Grow as Inmates Are Guarded by Teachers and Secretaries (June 18, 2018)
Los Angeles Times, Mafia hit man is suspected in former mob boss ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s beating death in prison (Oct. 31, 2018)
Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Norton Demands IG Investigation of Appalling Prisoner Conditions Reported at BOP Hazelton Facility After Two D.C. Inmates Killed This Year (Oct. 18, 2018)
FAMM, Letter to President Trump Re BOP Director (Oct. 29, 2018)
– Thomas L. Root
