Tag Archives: BOP

SIS Lieutenant Meets the Enemy… In the Mirror – Update for July 7, 2026

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

THE UNTOUCHABLES

The poet Juvenal once asked, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”  Who will guard the guards themselves?

Inside the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the answer is the agency’s Special Investigation Service (SIS). SIS investigates both inmates and staff for everything from violations of the rules to criminal misconduct.

But that answer begs the next question. Who will guard the guards who are guarding the guards?

Prisoners tire of ever-increasing limitations on visitors, changes in mail delivery, more frequent shakedowns, all in the name of cutting down on contraband drugs, tobacco, cellphones and the like in the facility. Largely, they don’t think that contraband should be allowed but rather they bridle because the restrictive measures are punitive while ignoring the 9,000-lb elephant in the room, that is, the flow of contraband into prisons by staff.

Recently, the Denver Post reported that SIS Lt. Michael Popma, who works at FCC Florence, has been indicted on charges of conspiracy, bribery, providing contraband in prison and unlawful interception of oral communication. Lt. Popma, whom the Post said “was still employed as a lieutenant” as of last week, is accused of being paid more than $15,000 by an inmate’s family to “smuggle 123 cell phones, 415 electronic nicotine vaporizers and 274 bottles of alcohol into the prison,” according to the indictment.

Popma was hired at Florence in 2014 as a correctional officer and became a lieutenant in 2021. A BOP spokesman told the Post that while the agency “does not discuss potential allegations of staff misconduct or comment on matters that are the subject of legal proceedings… we generally can tell you that the Bureau of Prisons takes our duty seriously to protect the individuals entrusted to our custody as well as maintain the safety of correctional staff and the community.”

Popma, of course, is legally presumed innocent until proven otherwise, just as everyone who is now an inmate once was.

Denver Post, Colorado federal prison employee accused of smuggling cellphones, vapes into facility (June 23, 2026)

Indictment, United States v. Popma, Case No. 26-cr-130 (Doc. 1) (D.Colo, June 2, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

Federal Prisons to Close! (Well, Only Some of Them) – Update for July 2, 2026

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

BOP RETRENCHMENT ANNOUNCED

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said yesterday that it will close at least six prisons, citing “extreme staffing challenges” and crumbling facilities (leaving something like 113 still running in the system).

The announcement represents the most ambitious plan yet to address both the staffing crisis and the need to clean up years of maintenance neglect. The New York Times calls the closure “the most expansive effort to shut down or consolidate federal prisons in response to funding shortages.” Ironically, BOP Director William K. Marshall III announced the plan three days short of the first anniversary of the signing of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last July 4th, which gave the BOP a $5 billion one-time infusion to add to staff and fix prisons that are falling apart.

The prisons being closed are low-security facilities FCI Beaumont Low (and adjacent minimum-security camp), FCI Big Spring, and FCI La Tuna (all in Texas); FCI Petersburg Low (Virginia); and the already-shuttered FCI Taft, in the California desert north of Los Angeles (closed almost seven years ago). Additionally, the BOP will decommission the minimum-security satellite camp at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. The highest-population facility affected by the closure announcement is FCI Beaumont Low, with 1,651 inmates in the low-security prison and another 514 in the adjacent camp.

The Agency also said it would change FPC Duluth and FCI Morgantown (both minimum-security facilities) to low-security facilities.

Staff freed from duties at the closed facilities in Beaumont, Petersburg and Lexington will be transferred to other co-located facilities. Some from Big Spring and La Tuna – each at least 250 miles from the next-closest BOP facility – will lose their jobs.

According to an unidentified official at the Council of Prison Locals, which served as the BOP employees’ union until the BOP cut ties with it about a year ago, the union had not been aware of the plan to close the facilities until yesterday’s announcement.

The BOP population swelled nearly tenfold between 1980 (about 25,000 prisoners) and over 219,000 in 2013. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, mandatory minimum sentencing laws, and the abolition of federal parole left the system severely overcrowded.

Due in large part to Attorney General Eric Holder’s Smart on Crime Initiative, a policy that reserved the harshest federal penalties for the most serious offenders while reducing the prosecution of some low-level, nonviolent drug cases and later to Trump’s First Step Act, the BOP population has fallen by 30 percent since then.

BOP inmates at the affected institutions only learned that they would be relocated soon to locations not disclosed to them. The closure of these facilities will require the transfer of nearly 4,000 inmates to institutions across the federal system.

Congress observed in the First Step Act that placing prisoners close to their families was not only humane but contributed to rehabilitation. Thus, 18 USC 3621(b) provides that the BOP

shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment, and shall, subject to bed availability, the prisoner’s security designation, the prisoner’s programmatic needs, the prisoner’s mental and medical health needs, any request made by the prisoner related to faith-based needs, recommendations of the sentencing court, and other security concerns of the Bureau of Prisons, place the prisoner in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence, and to the extent practicable, in a facility within 500 driving miles of that residence…

Sadly, that provision has more holes than a Swiss cheese factory. Any minimally competent BOP facility designator can easily find an excuse – bed availability, population management, education or medical needs, and the undefined but expansive “other security concerns” – to place a Hawaiian in New Hampshire or a Floridian in California.

To top it off, § 3621(b) provides that “notwithstanding any other provision of law, a designation of a place of imprisonment under this subsection is not reviewable by any court.”

In other words, the provision is utterly toothless.

Writing in Forbes, Walter Pavlo observes that “[d]ecades of correctional research have consistently shown that maintaining family connections is one of the strongest predictors of successful reentry and lower rates of recidivism.”  Good luck with that. Pavlo notes that “[f]or thousands of inmates and their families, a prison closure is not just a change in address. It is a significant disruption to the stability they have worked to build while incarcerated.”

To be sure, Marshall has an unenviable task before him. The BOP has a potful of money for repairs over the next few years, but even that is insufficient for the more than $4 billion in maintenance needed. In announcing the closures, Marshall said, “We are a Bureau that acts. These actions are necessary to address longstanding infrastructure and staffing challenges while ensuring the Bureau remains focused on its core mission of operating safe, secure, and efficient correctional facilities. We will support our workforce throughout this transition and responsibly position the agency for the future.”

BOP, Federal Bureau of Prisons Announces Facility Closures and Operational Changes (July 1, 2026)

The New York Times, Bureau of Prisons Will Close Facilities Housing Thousands of Inmates (July 1, 2026)

Forbes, Bureau of Prisons Announces Multiple Facility Closings Citing Budget (July 1, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

Shocking News: BOP Grievance Procedure Deck is Stacked – Update for June 22, 2026

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

BOP ADMIN REMEDY PROCEDURE – THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS

A study by The Marshall Project and NPR published last week reported that the BOP’s grievance system – the BP-9, BP-10 and BP-11 – has inmate failure baked in.

I have not been this shocked by a revelation since learning that professional wrestling is fixed.

Reviewing BOP remedy filings for 2023, the latest year for which data are available, the study found that out of about 40,000 grievances filed in Fiscal Year 2023, 75% were rejected for being inconsistent with the BOP’s arcane procedural rules (too few copies of attachments provided, failure to enclose a copy of a lower-level denial, late filing). Of the 10,000 or so that made the procedural cut, only about 700 were granted.

Overall, the BOP’s grant rate is somewhere under 2% of the remedies filed. Like shooting craps with the house winning 49 out of 50 times.

The TMP/NPR report noted that the grievance process has gotten much worse in the past 20 years. The rate at which the Bureau granted grievances has fallen from just under 7% in 2000 to its current rate, a decline of 70% in 20 years.

“The program is intended to solve problems and be responsive to issues raised by inmates,” Randilee Giamusso, a BOP representative, wrote in an email to TMP/NPR, “and does not prevent inmates from pursuing litigation.”

Of course it doesn’t. And vandals are wrecking President Trump’s perfect beautification of the Reflecting Pool.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act, passed in 1995, requires prisoners to complete all available administrative remedies as a condition of bringing suit. Other litigation, such as a petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, requires exhaustion (but excuses it in rare cases where exhaustion would be futile, something that the BOP’s 2% approval rate should be considered to be “all the time”).

Contrary to Ms. Giamusso’s assurance, in Fiscal Year 2025 alone, over 1,770 federal court cases grappled with failure-to-exhaust-remedies claims raised by the government. In other words, the government uses failure-to-exhaust as a bludgeon to get inmate lawsuits dismissed on a regular basis.

The TMP/NPR study followed the medical travails of inmate Terri Mollica, whose serious condition was identified by physicians but needed surgery was withheld, and whose BP-9 was not answered for over 6 months. Mollica’s final level internal remedy to the BOP Central Office was never logged as received, leading to her lawsuit against the BOP being thrown out. The Circuit’s dry recitation of Terri’s history of trying to get the BOP to “solve problems and be responsive to issues raised by inmates” (as Ms. Giamusso so chirpily puts it) tells the story:

•   On October 31, 2019, McGuire-Mollica filed an informal resolution form with the prison. She requested to “see a specialist/surgeon to determine the best course of action, within the next 30 days.” The next day, prison officials returned her form as unresolved.

•   On December 4, 2019, McGuire-Mollica submitted a request for administrative remedy using a BP-9 form. She explained that she “ha[d] not received any treatment or additional consults for this problem” and renewed her request for “an outside specialist or surgeon.” On June 23, 2020, the acting warden responded to her request by confirming that she had a “scheduled appointment with an OB/GYN specialist.”

•   On June 26, 2020, McGuire-Mollica filed an appeal using a BP-10 form. She continued to demand to see a surgeon. On December 21, 2020, the regional director denied her request because there was “no evidence of a May 2017 diagnosis of a malignant uterine growth” in her medical records and “[s]urgical intervention was not recommended.”

•   On October 1, 2020, McGuire-Mollica mailed an appeal using a BP-11 form. McGuire-Mollica mailed this appeal before receiving the regional director’s response to her BP-10 form, but the regional director’s time to respond had already expired, which allowed the prisoner to “consider the absence of a response to be a denial.” She signed the BP-11 form and listed a certified mail tracking number on it. But prison officials contend that they never received the form, as the SENTRY database that tracks the status of all administrative grievances has no record of the BP-11 form being filed.

•   On October 27, 2020, 26 days after she submitted the BP-11 form, McGuire-Mollica filed pro se a complaint in the district court. She alleged that the Bureau of Prisons and its officials had violated her rights under the Federal Tort Claims Act and the Eighth Amendment. And she attached exhibits to substantiate her claims, including copies of her administrative grievance filings and an affidavit alleging that “the officers/staff at this prison ha[ve] been tampering with [her] legal mail and denying [her] access to the Courts.”

•   On July 1, 2022, McGuire-Mollica filed—still pro se—an amended complaint. She listed several prison staff and officials as defendants and described their involvement in the denial of her request.

•   On October 19, 2023, the prison staff moved to dismiss the amended complaint. They contended that McGuire-Mollica failed to exhaust her administrative remedies… They argued that she did not complete the final step of the process of “appeal[ing] the response from the Regional Office to the General Counsel level.” McGuire-Mollica responded that she filed the BP-11 form when she submitted it to prison officials for mailing. And she explained that she “ha[d] done all administrative remedies that were available to her” because she could not “control the mail, whether the [Bureau]’s employees actually process or respond to the form, or even when or if the remedy is logged into the [Bureau] system.”

•   On March 8, 2024, the magistrate judge granted the motion to dismiss. She explained that ‘[g]iven the clear conflict between the parties’ allegations, the court must accept as true McGuire-Mollica’s version of events—that she mailed her final appeal to the General Counsel.’ But… ‘although McGuire-Mollica properly completed and mailed her final appeal, it was never ‘logged into the Administrative Remedy Index as received’ and ‘[b]ecause her appeal was never received and logged into the Administrative Remedy Index, it was never considered ‘filed.’ She also dismissed the amended complaint because ‘when McGuire-Mollica filed her [original] complaint, the General Counsel’s time to respond had not expired’ such that ‘the administrative remedy process had not been completed.

So the BOP’s non-resolution of Terri’s problem only took a year.  Seldom has a ‘no’ been delivered with such alacrity.

See how well it works, Ms. Giamusso?

The 11th Circuit reinstated the case after attorneys for the MacArthur Justice Center proved that she had tried to follow every step, but officials had failed to record her final appeal.

The report noted that the BOP’s approval rate “appears to be far below that of many state corrections departments, the news organizations found, though departments track such data in different ways. In California, officials granted roughly 15% of grievances and appeals in 2023… In Georgia, nearly 13% of cases were “granted, partially granted or resolved” that year, according to the department. In Texas state prisons, over 4% of complaints and appeals processed that year were “resolved in inmate favor” — a very small portion, but about twice the BOP’s rate.

Ms. Giamusso told TMP/NPR that the agency is working on “updates and additional guidance” on the remedy procedure. However, nothing to that effect has been proposed in the Federal Register, suggesting that a fix – if one is being planned at all – is years away.

NPR,  ‘Rejected’: How federal prisons stonewall grievances and deny care for years (June 17, 2026)

McGuire-Mollica v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, 146 F.4th 1308, 1312-13 (11th Cir. 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root

Going Home? First, a Little Minicamp… – Update for June 11, 2026

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RE-ENTRY MINICAMP

Pro teams conduct preseason “mini-camps.”  Why not the BOP?

On May 28, the Bureau announced that it would begin transferring “eligible individuals” to minimum-security camps once the inmates have received a halfway house or home confinement placement date.

The announcement confusingly states that “[t]hese transfers must be completed in accordance with Program Statement 5100.08 CN-3, Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification. It also provides that “[w]hile the initiative applies to approved individuals across security levels, initial implementation will prioritize those currently housed in low-security facilities who are appropriate for camp placement.”

The BOP said in a press release that intermediate placement in a minimum-security camp can provide a more community-like setting while preserving structure, oversight and accountability. The Bureau contended that this kind of step-down placement better prepares individuals for release than a direct transition from higher-security institutions.

The confusion is this: If transfers are completed according to PS 5100.08 CN-3, then the people being transferred must already qualify for camp placement. Then, one must wonder, why haven’t they been transferred already? Puzzling…

Correctional News reported, “The BOP also cast the move as an operational and fiscal decision. By relying on existing camp infrastructure — much of which the agency said has historically been underutilized — the bureau said it can reduce reliance on higher-cost placements, lower operating costs and use available capacity more efficiently.”

The BOP said camp placement will not be available to sex offenders, deportable aliens, Disruptive Group members, domestic or international terrorists, inmates who require heightened monitoring, inmates with recent serious misconduct, or cases in which placement would pose an identifiable public-safety risk. That should give the agency ample wiggle room to exclude anyone it deems unacceptable for such placement.

None of this makes the decision a bad one. A “step-down” program like this might make acclimation to halfway house or home confinement much easier. To be sure, it’s some “outside the box” thinking that has not been a BOP brand in the past, and for that, the agency should be commended.

BOP, Strategic Expansion of Minimum-Security Camp Utilization (May 28, 2026)

Correctional News, BOP Expands Minimum-Security Camp Use for Reentry (June 2, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

Hopemonger Peddles RDAP Misinformation – Update for June 1, 2026

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HE KNOWS EVERYTHING, BUT EVERYTHING HE KNOWS IS WRONG

Over the past 10 years of writing a newsletter, I have often railed at hopemongers, people who call themselves a “prison consultant” and dispense news and advice to federal prisoners intended to get families to part with money for spurious reasons.

Customarily, I have avoided naming names (except once, for “Oaks of Justice”). I am now naming another, chiefly because TikTok and the widespread availability of cellphones in prisons have combined to give this guy a platform that offers unparalleled opportunity to badly advise inmates.

Last week, I watched a new video panic from Kyle Sandler (who runs a website called Federal Prison Tips), in which he claimed that the Bureau of Prisons has “changed” 18 USC § 3621(e). There’s “a new 10-year lookback for crimes that can preclude you from taking the RDAP program,” Kyle announced breathlessly as “breaking news” that only he had uncovered.

“3621E, it’s changed because it used to be just dependent on the instant offense!” an eye-patched Kyle exclaimed. “The other significant change is that inmates that have shorter sentences will no longer be eligible for the full year off!”

Oh, the humanity!

Kyle manages to pack more error and misinformation into two and a half minutes than most people can spew in an hour.  He’s not just wrong, he’s spectacularly wrong. Let’s try to clean this mess up:

The BOP issued a Program Statement in March (P.S. 5162.06) that updated its list of offenses it deems to be crimes of violence for BOP programming and designation purposes. A few were added, but notably, 18 USC § 922(g) – the statutory list of all those people prohibited from possessing a gun – was dropped.

Early last month, the BOP issued a change to its 8-year-old Program Statement regarding the award of early release credit for successful completion of the Residential Drug Abuse Program. The Program Statement highlights its changes in yellow for easy reading and simple comprehension.

Easy to comprehend, unless, of course, you’re Kyle.

The only change in the whole Program Statement is this: “For current US Code offenses, DSCC legal staff will refer to the Program Statement Categorization of Offenses to determine whether an offense precludes early release under § 3621(e). For current D.C. Code offenses, DSCC legal staff will refer to D.C. Code 23-1331(4).”

That’s it. There’s no “new” 10-year look-back. The BOP has “looked back” at prior offenses for at least a decade. Read the old Program Statement if you doubt this. It’s a cinch that Kyle should have before spewing his “advice.” And while I’m on it, there’s no change in 18 USC § 3621(e). This is because, as anyone who didn’t snooze through high school government class knows (and I’m talking to you, Kyle), the BOP has no ability to change § 3621(e), which is a federal statute. The BOP is just an agency. Only Congress has the power to change a statute.

As well, there’s no applying the Categorization of Offenses list to any prior offense at all. The few prior offenses that are disqualifying had to occur in the past 10 years, and they are set out (like they always have been) in 28 CFR 550.55. They include such undeniably violent crimes as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault… that kind of thing.  The Categorization of Offenses list has nothing to do with those.

Staying with us on this, Kyle?

Finally, Kyle’s other “significant change” that he pitches as earth-shattering: inmates with shorter sentences “will no longer be eligible for the full year off.”  That sliding scale of decreasing time off for the under-30-month set has been in the Early Release Procedures Program Statement since at least 2016. It did not change in the new Program Statement.

Kyle, meet Dennis Steven Wright… As for the rest of you, don’t panic. Do your own research. It can’t be any worse than Kyle’s, and it probably will be a lot better.

Federal Prison Tips, RDAP Program Change (May 28, 2026)

Bureau of Prisons, P.S. 5162.06, Categorization of Offenses (March 19, 2026)

Bureau of Prisons, P.S. 5221.02 CN-3, Early Release Procedures Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e) (May 7, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

USP Canaan Is Not the Promised Land, Inspector General Finds – Update for May 26, 2026

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DOJ INSPECTOR GENERAL SLAMS LOCKDOWNS, HEALTHCARE, RESTRAINTS AT USP CANAAN

Biblically, the phrase “land flowing with milk and honey” describes Canaan, roughly the area encompassed by Israel, Jordan, most of Lebanon and Syria. The phrase symbolized agricultural prosperity, abundance, and God’s provision.

According to a report issued by the Dept of Justice Office of Inspector General last week, USP Canaan (Waymart, PA) is nowhere close to being the Promised Land.

The Inspector General’s report identified several “serious issues” with treatment of inmates, contraband and employee practices at USP Canaan found during a June 2025 inspection.

The OIG criticized improper use of 4-point restraints on inmates, too-frequent use of institution-wide lockdowns, the prison’s ability to provide healthcare to inmates, and inappropriate imagery and demeaning language in employee spaces.

The OIG found that USP Canaan frequently restricted the movement of general population inmates when the SHU was full. When inmates who would normally be assigned to the Special Housing Unit had to remain in general population housing units because the SHU was over capacity, the Report found, “USP Canaan significantly limited inmate movement in those units to maintain security. On about two-thirds of days in a 4-month period we examined, inmates housed in regular, non-SHU housing units were confined to their cells for all or most of the day. These frequent restrictions disrupted institution-wide functions and activities of general population inmates.”

As for the facility’s enthusiastic use of four-point restraints in the SHU, Deputy Inspector Bill Blier said, “Multiple USP Canaan employees told us they had seen [the] restraints applied too tightly, which caused the hands of restrained inmates to swell and become discolored. While BOP policy allows for use of restraints in certain situations, it is impermissible to cause physical pain or extreme discomfort.”

The Report found that as of the June 2025 inspection, Canaan had been without an on-site, full-time physician for 2.5 years. Several Health Services Department employees told OIG that “the lack of an on-site physician contributed to delays in conducting required examinations for inmates arriving at the institution. BOP policy requires inmates with chronic conditions or mental health concerns to be seen by a mid-level provider or physician within 14 days of arrival. However, 61 such appointments were past the BOP’s required timeframe for completion as of January 2025. By January 2026, the number had increased to 94 overdue appointments.

The inspection also found inconsistencies with delivering medication, expired medical supplies and delays in providing healthcare and lab testing.

“We also observed unsafe practices in dental services, specifically sharp dental surgical tools and chloroform stored in unlocked cabinets near inmates,” OIG reported.

Blier said inspectors observed prison employees using “inappropriate and demeaning language” toward inmates and other employees, as well as inappropriate imagery in employee areas.

The report makes nine recommendations to correct the issues. The BOP agreed with all of them, and in the appendices of the report, outlined the steps that have been taken over the past year to rectify each situation.

Previously, the OIG has conducted similar inspections on FCI Waseca, FCI Tallahassee, FMC Devens, FCI Sheridan and FDC SeaTac.

OIG, Inspection of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ US Penitentiary Canaan (Report No. 26-055, May 21, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

FCI Dublin, Perfect Place To Abuse ICE Detainees – Update for May 15, 2026

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PRISON FOR SALE

The BOP has issued an environmental assessment of the now-closed FCI Dublin, marking the first step in transferring it to the General Services Administration, a federal agency that manages government-owned assets, spurring concern by advocates that GSA may give the prison to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a detention facility.

The GSA will make a final determination on what to do with the Dublin site — including whether to hand it over to another interested federal agency.

Dublin’s City Council and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors have also both passed resolutions opposing reopening or repurposing the site for any detention or correctional use in the future, citing staff misconduct and dangerous infrastructure issues.

“There can be no doubt about the will of the people. We do not want an ICE detention facility in our community,” said the Rev. Kelly Miller-Sanchez, the pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Dublin. “FCI Dublin is a site where horrific human rights abuses occurred. It is stained with the blood of its survivors, and it is a blot upon the history of our beautiful city. Turning this site into an ICE detention facility would compound the injuries, both physical and moral, that this site has already caused.”

Former FCI Dublin prisoner Aimee Chavera was one of the plaintiffs who got $116 million from the BOP in a suit over their treatment at the “Dublin Rape Club,” as the prison was known among staff. She told KQED that when she worked in the prison safety department, staff forced her and others to paint over mold and rust before inspections. She also worked in Health Services mopping up blood and washing the rags in the same machines as clothing for the other women, with no bleach or disinfectant. She recalled women trying to kill themselves, saying, “It went through my mind. Why? Because you cannot live under these conditions.”

“I’m a U.S. citizen and my rights were violated and I was abused,” Chavira said. “What does it tell you? That these immigrants are going to be abused, which is not right.”

KQED, Advocates Urge Demolition of FCI Dublin, Raising Worries It Could Become ICE Jail (May 5, 2026)

American Prospect, ICE Wants to Reopen the Crumbling Federal Prison Dubbed ‘Rape Club’ (May 7, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

GAO Says ‘Heinous Crimes Haunting Federal Prisons’ – Update for May 11, 2026

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

SEX, LIES AND LOUSY VIDEOTAPE

Sexual abuse complaints against Bureau of Prisons staff and inmates remain largely unresolved because of BOP investigative deficiencies, the Government Accountability Office found in a report issued last week.

Allegations of rape and sexual misconduct against BOP employees and inmates have spiked in recent years, with 2,956 Prison Rape Elimination Act complaints from 2020 through 2024 with the inmate as the perpetrator and 3,029 complaints naming a BOP staffer as the perp. The GAO found that the Bureau is in many ways failing to implement v “in the way Congress intended,” Government Executive reported.

From 2014 through 2022 (the period studied), investigations of 77% of staff-on-inmate complaints were inconclusive. Only 9% of those were substantiated by BOP. The staff suspect was cleared in just six cases, or about 1/10 of 1%. 

A similar trend emerged from sexual abuse allegedly committed by incarcerated individuals, with 81% of those cases reaching inconclusive findings.

BOP correctional officers faced around 3,000 allegations of sexual abuse from 2020 through 2024, a doubling from prior years. From 2014 through 2022, BOP averaged 433 allegations against its staff per year. In 2023 and 2024, that spiked to 857 per year.

The champion facility, unsurprisingly, was the now-closed FCI Dublin, with 260 complaints from 2020 through 2024. Next highest were USP Lee (94), USP Thomson (88) and USP Canaan (79). At the other end, Mendota, Lompoc and Victorville each had only one complaint during the 5-year period.

BOP employee misconduct complaints proceed through the system at a snail’s pace, the GAO found. BOP’s Office of Internal Affairs had 12,153 open employee misconduct allegations last year (although most were not PREA complaints). Over a third of the cases had been open for at least three years.

“The number of abuse allegations may seem startling,” GAO said in a companion blog. “But they only show the reported sexual abuses. Some abuse may be going unreported. We spoke with incarcerated people about obstacles they’ve encountered when trying to report sexual abuse allegations… Some people told us they were unaware of options that do not require reporting abuse directly to a prison employee. Some people told us they feared retaliation from prison employees. There was also fear of being stigmatized by fellow incarcerated people. Because of the lack of privacy in prisons, it’s often difficult to report abuse without others finding out.”

Under BOP Director William K. Marshall III, the BOP has increased OIA resources over the last year to address the backlog, including by sending teams of investigators to focus on facilities with particularly large caseloads. Still, the GAO reported that BOP employees complained of insufficient staffing to respond to PREA complaints.  The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR 1), passed last summer, included $3 billion for BOP staffing, but a year ago, DOJ “abruptly canceled” an estimated $16 million in funding, “decimating” infrastructure intended to help prisons comply with PREA, according to a Brennan Center report.

GAO reported that some enforcement problems lie with clever abusers. Perpetrators lie. Others deceive. The video evidence stinks. “Most of the corrections officers with whom GAO spoke said abusers know where they can go to evade cameras, and some said the video quality is poor or not retained for a sufficient amount of time,” Government Executive reported. “Employees also said investigations against staff can take time, often years, to complete. Corrections officers told GAO that false allegations of sexual abuse are prevalent and waste resources and tarnish the credibility of those reporting real incidents. Incarcerated individuals told the auditors that their fellow inmates make false accusations against prison staff as a form of retribution.”

PREA sought to establish a “zero-tolerance policy” for rape in U.S. prisons while tasking the Justice Department with instituting national standards for preventing, investigating and tracking such incidents. GAO noted sexual abuse “remains a significant problem” in federal prisons despite some progress under the law.

GAO, Federal Prisons: Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse (May 5, 2026)

Brennan Center, Federal Funding Cuts Target Efforts to Reduce Sexual Abuse in Prisons (January 26, 2026)

GAO Watchblog, The Heinous Crimes Haunting Federal Prisons—Rape and Sexual Abuse (May 6, 2026)

Government Executive, More than 3-in-4 allegations of sexual assault against federal prison staff are going unresolved (May 6, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

What was Happening Last Week – Update for May 5, 2026

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NOTES FROM ALL OVER

Just a Change of Uniform: Federal inmates have long said that many Bureau of Prisons correctional officers are only a uniform change away from becoming inmates.

The hyperbole contains a grain of truth for Jeffrey Wilson.

Wilson, a BOP correctional officer/medic convicted of sexually abusing a female inmate at the now-closed FCI Dublin, was sentenced last Friday to 52 months in prison by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (Northern District of California).

Jeffrey Wilson, 34, of Eureka, pled guilty last August to five counts of sexual abuse of a ward and one count of making a false statement to investigators. He is the ninth officer to be convicted at trial as part of “Dublin Rape Club” investigation into sexual abuse of inmates at the facility.

Wilson was employed from July 2021 to September 2022 as a CO responsible for providing emergency assessment and medical care to inmates. He admitted to having sexually abused an inmate who needed anti-seizure medication and to giving her a prepaid credit card and cellphone.

“Many of these women were emotionally damaged,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers said to the defendant at his sentencing. “And yet men like you take advantage of that. I find that offensive and illegal.”

Wilson told the Judge that he had made a “terrible decision” and he’ll have to “atone” for what he did “every single day.” Nevertheless, he still described the relationship with the victim as “mutual.”

While this prosecution was not the most high-profile in the scandal, Wilson’s case is significant as the last to be adjudicated, according to the California Post.

San Jose Mercury News, Ex-FCI Dublin guard sentenced to 52 months in prison (May 1, 2026)

California Post, Women’s prison officer learns fate for role in ‘rape club’ in biggest sex abuse scandal in US history (May 4, 2026)

FBI Reduces Numbers Investigating Crime:  In the first nine months of President Trump’s second term, the FBI increased by 23 times the number of its personnel assigned to immigration enforcement. The agency now devotes about 25% of its workforce to to immigration enforcement, The Intercept reported last week.

There were 279 FBI personnel working on “immigration-related matters” before Trump took office in January 2025, according to FBI records. In eight months, the number had ballooned to more than 6,500.

“That’s a striking diversion of resources away from public safety,” Bier said. “We’re talking about the FBI diverting people away from criminal investigations and ongoing criminal activity and into civil immigration enforcement. This is showing the extent to which the resources of the FBI were put at the disposal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement contrary to the intent of Congress, and the abuse of the funds that Congress grants the FBI to accomplish its mission.”

The Intercept, FBI Redirected A Quarter of Staff to Target Immigrants Under Trump’s Deportation Push (May 1, 2026)

Nothing Succeeds Like Success: The group that owns a St. Louis halfway house where eight people fatally overdosed on fentanyl in 2½ is expanding operations with subsidiary companies.

At least 14 LLCs established in Missouri from 2023 to 2025 list Dismas House of St. Louis CEO Kevin Walk as the organizer, Missouri state filings show. Thirteen of the LLCs don’t include Dismas House in the name, but documents show their assets are directly tied to the parent nonprofit.

St. Louis Medical Examiner data showed eight men residing at the Dismas House of St. Louis, the region’s only federal halfway house, were found inside the facility after overdosing on fentanyl, or fentanyl and a combination of other drugs. The deaths happened from 2021 to 2023 and were not previously known.

A year after the last known fentanyl death at Dismas House, the BOP re-upped its contract for more than $60 million, records show.

KMOV-TV, After string of overdose deaths, Dismas House of St. Louis is expanding  (April 29, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

Loper Bright May Be Coming for BOP Time Credit Rules – Update for April 28, 2026

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

LOPER BRIGHT TO THE RESCUE ON FSA RULES?

Raahshjeem Benson (we’ll just call him ‘George’) was sentenced in December 2020. But he was not transferred to his designated Bureau of Prisons facility for 15 months after that, instead staying in a county lockup. When George finally got to his designated federal prison, the BOP administered his individualized risk and needs assessment, and he started earning FSA credits.

George asked for credits for the 15 post-sentence months he spent in county, where – according to him – he participated in programming or productive activities which should earn him First Step Act time credits under 18 USC § 3632. These credits can be applied to shave up to a year off a prison sentence, and any excess credits earned beyond that buy a prisoner more halfway house and home confinement at the end of a sentence.

But because George didn’t receive the individualized assessment of needs that First Step requires the BOP to perform on every prisoner in order to match him or her with the most effective programs until after he had completed 15 months of programs, the BOP refused to give him any credits for the programs he had taken before reaching his designated prison.

Benson filed a pro se 28 USC 2241 habeas petition, requesting that the BOP be ordered to award him about 150 FSA credits he said he earned for programs completed while in the county jail. Without conducting discovery or requiring a response from the Government, the district court dismissed his petition.

Last week, the 4th Circuit vacated the decision and sent the case back to the district court.  While it would be easy to read too much into the Circuit’s ruling, two holdings are significant.

First, after George’s needs assessment, the BOP calculated that he was at medium risk for recidivism under the PATTERN system. Medium-risk inmates can earn FSA credits but normally cannot use them until their recidivism risk falls to low or minimum. The government argued that since George couldn’t use any of the credits he wanted awarded to him, he had no standing to bring the habeas corpus.“Standing” is a constitutional concept: a petitioner who has nothing at stake in the suit lacks standing to bring the action, and the case is dismissed as moot.  For a controversy to be moot, the 4th held, it must lack at least one of the three required elements of Article III standing: (1) injury in fact, (2) causation, or (3) redressability. Because recidivism levels can change with prisoners’ age and completion of programs (among other reasons), the Circuit ruled that George had a reasonable chance of being able to use his FSA credits in the future. What’s more, the FSA lets medium- and high-risk inmates “petition to be transferred to prerelease custody or supervised release [upon] approv[al] by the warden of the prison,” based on determinations listed in 18 USC § 3624(g)(1)(D)(i)(II), so George had a chance of using the credits, even if it was not a very strong chance.

Thus, “the FSA does not squarely foreclose a prisoner’s eligibility for prerelease custody or supervised release based on a single determination that he has a “medium” risk of recidivism,” the Court said. While “it limits that prisoner’s options, [] it leaves two paths to eligibility… (1) two subsequent reassessments of “low” risk; or (2) the warden’s approval of the prisoner’s petition.” These paths are enough to give George standing to bring the habeas.

On the merits of George’s claim, the BOP argued on appeal that the statute requires “successful participation” in programs to earn FSA credits, and its rule requires that “successful participation” in programming must include a prior determination by BOP staff that the programs or productive activities have been recommended, based on the inmate’s individualized risk and needs assessment. 28 CFR § 523.41(c)(2). Because George was not evaluated until he reached prison, the agency argued, nothing he did while in county lockup could count. The BOP argued that its rule was a reasonable interpretation of the statute and thus the court had to accept the BOP’s interpretation under the well-known Chevron doctrine.

However, while George’s case was pending, the Supreme Court overruled Chevron in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The Loper Bright opinion held that courts were to decide questions of law without deferring to what the agencies charged with carrying out the laws thought they might mean. Thus, the 4th Circuit sent the case back for the district court to decide whether “successful participation” in programming requires that the BOP evaluate the inmate first.

George has a lot of hurdles to cross back in district court, including showing that he actually did engage in worthwhile programs and productive activities while in county jail. But the Circuit’s standing holding and application of Loper Bright non-deference are a significant victory for inmates and the first of many successful attacks on BOP rules of questionable rationality.

 

Benson v. Warden, Case No. 24-6713, 2026 U.S.App. LEXIS 11454 (4th Cir. April 22, 2026)

Chevron USA Inc. v. NRDC, 467 US 837 (1984)

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (2024)

~ Thomas L. Root