Tag Archives: BOP

BOP Negligence Causes Inmate Deaths, DOJ Says – Update for February 19, 2024

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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.

DEPT OF JUSTICE BLASTS BOP NEGLIGENCE IN PREVENTING INMATE DEATHS

fail200526Chronic failures by the Federal Bureau of Prisons have contributed to the deaths of hundreds of inmates, the Dept of Justice’s Inspector General concluded last Thursday in a report that CNN called “blistering.”

The Report found that

a combination of recurring policy violations and operational failures contributed to inmate suicides, which accounted for more than half of the 344 inmate deaths reviewed. We identified deficiencies in staff completion of inmate assessments, which prevented some institutions from adequately addressing inmate suicide risks. We also found potentially inappropriate Mental Health Care Level assignments for some inmates who later died by suicide. More than half of the inmates who died by suicide were single-celled, or housed in a cell alone, which increases inmate suicide risk.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said, “Today’s report identified numerous operational and managerial deficiencies, which created unsafe conditions prior to and at the time of a number of these deaths.

The media were more savage: “A combination of negligence, operational failures and a blundering workforce has contributed to hundreds of inmate deaths in federal custody,” The Washington Post wrote.

CNN said that

For years, the embattled Bureau of Prisons has been the subject of accusations by politicians, prisoner advocacy groups for mistreating or neglecting inmates.

The Justice Department itself has issued scathing rebukes against BOP, outlining serious mistakes that have led to the deaths of high-profile inmates like notorious Boston gangster and convicted murderer James “Whitey” Bulger, who was killed shortly after being transferred to a new prison, and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in his jail cell.

But the circumstances that led to Bulger and Epstein’s deaths are emblematic of wide-ranging and recurring issues within the federal prison system that affect hundreds of inmates across the country, the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General found in its report that outlined a system in crisis failing to protect its charges.

NPR was terser: “The BOP is a mess.”

Many of the Report’s findings have applicability beyond the suicide issue. The IG said that “some institution staff failed to coordinate efforts across departments to provide necessary treatment or follow-up with inmates in distress.” Staff deficiencies in responding to medical emergencies “ranged from a lack of urgency in responding, failure to bring or use appropriate emergency equipment, unclear radio communications, and issues with naloxone administration in opioid overdose cases.”

failuretocommunicate221027The Report found deficiencies extended to after-action documentation. “The BOP was unable to produce documents required by its own policies in the event of an inmate death for many of the inmate deaths we reviewed,” the Report said. “The BOP requires in-depth After-Action Reviews only following inmate suicides but not for inmate homicides or deaths resulting from accidents and unknown factors. The BOP’s ability to fully understand the circumstances that led to inmate deaths and to identify steps that may help prevent future deaths is therefore limited.”

The Report examined four categories of BOP non-medical deaths between 2014 and 2021, suicide, homicide, accident, and unknown factors (where the BOP could not determine the cause of death). Of the 344 non-medical deaths during that time period, 54% were suicides, 26% were homicides, 16% were accidents. Under four percent were from unknown factors. Most of the suicides occurred when inmates were locked up in single cells.

The BOP’s non-medical death count climbed 68% between 2014 and 2021 while the prison population fell 27%. In 2014, there were 38 inmate deaths by unnatural causes. In 2021, that number was 57 inmates.

The Report noted that the BOP has policies in place to prevent inmate suicides. But it found “numerous instances of potentially inappropriate” mental health assessments for inmates who later killed themselves. What’s more, BOP staff “did not sufficiently conduct required inmate rounds or counts in over a third of inmate suicides,” and they sometimes “failed to communicate with each other and coordinate efforts across departments to provide necessary treatment or follow-up with inmates in distress,” the Report found.

Many BOP facilities failed to run suicide drills mandated by policy (required three times a year, once for each shift), the Report said. Thirty-five percent of BOP facilities “were unable to provide evidence that they conducted a single mock suicide drill from 2018 through 2020.”
inmatesuicidedeath240219In one suicide case cited by the Report, BOP staff claimed to have searched a cell three times — including the day before the suicide — but found no contraband. After the prisoner died by a self-inflicted overdose, a search of the cell he had been in turned up 1,000 pills, the IG said.

The BOP continues to grapple with a severe staffing shortage, ‘which has a ripple effect across the agency’s institutions,” NBC said. Correctional Officers work multiple shifts and healthcare workers are “augmented” to serve as COs, being pulled from their regular duties. “That translates into less mental health care for inmates,” NPR reported.

“At one facility,” Government Executive reported, “psychiatric staff were reassigned daily for two months straight. In another case, a facility did not have any psychological services personnel on staff… Half of [one] facility’s nursing positions were unfilled. At another facility, employees worked double shifts for three consecutive days. Personnel on staff are often undertrained, the IG found, with the bureau’s after-action reviews identifying insufficient training as an issue in 42% of deaths. They are also improperly disciplined, with employees themselves telling the IG the process was too lengthy and ineffective.

The BOP continues to struggle to keep facilities free of contraband drugs and weapons, which contributed to nearly a third of inmate deaths in the Report.

Sen Richard Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has scheduled BOP Director Colette Peters and DOJ Inspector General Horowitz to testify on February 28th in a Committee hearing focused on federal inmate deaths.

“It is deeply disturbing that today’s report found that the majority of BOP’s non-medical deaths in custody could have been prevented or mitigated by greater compliance with BOP policy, better staffing, and increased mental health and substance abuse treatment,” Durbin said in a statement. “Accountability across the Bureau is necessary and long overdue.”

The IG recommended several changes to BOP procedure, including developing strategies to ensure that inmate mental health is properly evaluated, that prison staff is taught to use defibrillators and naloxone, and to develop procedures that require inmate death records to be consistently prepared.

bureaucraticgobbledygook24019

A BOP spokesperson told CNN last week that the agency “acknowledges and concurs with the need for improvements” and is “dedicated to implementing these changes to ensure the safety and well-being of those in our custody.”

Sure it is, provided its staff isn’t being asked to make rounds, conduct drills or fill out reports.

CNN, DOJ watchdog report finds chronic failures by Bureau of Prisons contributed to the deaths of hundreds of inmates (February 15, 2024)

Dept of Justice, DOJ OIG Releases Report on Issues Surrounding Inmate Deaths in Federal Bureau of Prisons Institutions (February 15, 2024)

NPR, DOJ watchdog finds 187 inmate suicides in federal prisons over 8-year period (February 15, 2024)

Government Executive, Understaffing and mismanagement contributed to hundreds of deaths in federal prisons (February 16, 2024)

NBC, Bureau of Prisons failed to prevent nearly 200 deaths by suicide, DOJ watchdog finds (February 15, 2024)

Washington Post, IG report finds deadly culture of negligence and staffing issues at federal prisons (February 15, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Pay Us More And Everything Will Be Fine – Update for February 16, 2024

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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.

MONEY, THAT’S WHAT I WANT…

moneythatswhat231128Brandy Moore White, president of the union council representing 30,000 BOP employees, wrote in The Hill last week that the crumbling BOP infrastructure, “a rise in inmates deploying more sophisticated methods to smuggle illegal items into prisons,” and a lack of staff together “pose a real and significant threat to the health and safety of the 35,000 federal employees who work at the agency as well as the 158,000 inmates currently in custody.”

“The number of BOP officers and staff has fallen precipitously over the past seven years, from 43,369 staff at the beginning of 2016 to around 35,000 today — a 20% decline,” she wrote. But that only tells half the story, since the Bureau of Prisons can’t even maintain the lower level of staffing that Congress has authorized… One of the agency’s main workforce challenges is that the salaries paid to federal correctional officers pale in comparison to what employees can earn at other federal law enforcement agencies, at state and local agencies, and even some retail chains.”

Ruben Montanez-Mirabal, Patrick Shackelford, Quandelle Joseph, Perry Joyner, Brian Jenkins, Shauna Boatright. These are just a few of Ms. Moore White’s union rank-and-file BOP employees to have been convicted in the past few years of smuggling contraband into federal prisons. She might want to consider her own union members while she’s busy blaming inmates for the rise of contraband.

moneyhum170419Last week, Sens Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Bob Casey (D-PA) sponsored the Pay Our Correctional Officers Fairly Act, which will redefine BOP employees working in rural areas as being in higher-wage urban areas, thus boosting pay. Cassidy said the bill will “allow[]for competitive pay that better reflects the cost of living, commute times, alternative careers, and the hard work and dedication of BOP employees.”

A companion bill by the same name was filed in the House last May as H.R. 3199.

The Hill, The federal prison system is in crisis. Here are the top 3 reasons why (February 9, 2024 )

H.R. 3199, Pay Our Correctional Officers Fairly Act

S.___ (no number assigned), Pay Our Correctional Officers Fairly Act

– Thomas L. Root

There Once Was an Inmate Who Lived in a SHU – Update for February 12, 2024

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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.

GAO EXCORIATES BOP FOR INEFFECTIVE AND POORLY MANAGED SPECIAL HOUSING UNITS

The Federal Bureau of Prisons says restrictive housing – that is, Special Housing Units (SHUs) – is not an effective deterrent for bad behavior and can even increase future misconduct. So guess who still keeps 12,000 of its “persons in custody” locked up 23 hours a day in SHUs around the country?

shucell240212A Government Accountability Office report wondered that last week, complaining that “while the BOP was previously called out for the practice of SHU placement of prisoners, little has changed.” The GAO criticized the BOP for its “slow progress toward taking action on longstanding recommendations, partly because the Bureau hasn’t established roles or time frames for doing so.” In fact, how the BOP monitors and evaluates all of its programs is such a problem that the GAO added the agency to the GAO’s High-Risk List annual update issued last April. It’s unlikely to be dropped from the 2024 list, due out in two months.

A SHU is a “housing unit” in name only, a warren of individual cells – some of the barred like old-time jails but more modern ones with solid metal doors with a small port through which food can be passed. The SHU residents – sometimes two to a cell, sometimes only one, are locked down 23 hours a day according to policy and removed from the cells only when handcuffed. A “recreation area” is usually a larger cage, sometimes with a basketball hoop, where often only the sky is visible. Inmates get a shower three times a week. There are no TVs, often no radios, scant reading material, and absolutely nothing to do.

“The management of federal prisons, including the use of restrictive housing, requires immediate attention,” the GAO found. “This issue is so pressing that, in 2023, Addressing these issues will enhance the Bureau’s approach to improving and ultimately reducing its use of restrictive housing.”

The BOP’s problems with its management of SHUs are nothing new. A Dept of Justice study a year ago criticized the BOP’s failure to reduce the number of SHU inmates. In a year, nothing improved.

dungeon180627Writing in Forbes last week, Walter Pavlo said, “The primary purpose of SHU is for disciplinary reasons. Disciplinary segregation is a punitive housing status imposed as a sanction for violating a disciplinary rule… However, SHU has been used for those under investigation for a disciplinary violation, protective custody (fear of being assaulted by fellow prisoners), pending transfer to another institution, or to protect a prisoner at the end of their disciplinary confinement term to prevent them from being assaulted on returning to general population.”

During the pandemic, prisoners testing positive for COVID were often isolated in the SHU, a practice that court-appointed expert Homer Venters, M.D., observed that locking COVID inmates in the SHU “runs counter to CDC guidelines on making COVID-19 responses in detention settings non-punitive” and resulted in prisoners with COVID symptoms to hide those from staff in order to avoid the SHU.”

“Some prisoners can be in SHU for months with little communication with the outside world and hardly a recreation outside of the cell in which they are confined,” Pavlo wrote. “While prisoners may be in SHU for these administrative reasons, it certainly feels like punishment.”

shit240212The GAO recounted that SHU inmates had complained that they felt hungry “because meal portions were insufficient or were smaller than the meals provided in general population.” Others reported that recreation time was much less frequent than policy dictated. “One individual,” the GAO reported, “said that facility staff kept a toilet ‘full of excrement’ in one of the SHU cells to use as a punishment and then directed an orderly to clean it before a visit from the regional director.”

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the GAO report “shows a troubling trajectory for the number of federal prisoners in restrictive housing” and expressed concern that the “BOP has not fully implemented 54 of the 87 recommendations from two prior studies on improving restrictive housing practices.” One of those studies was commissioned at BOP’s own request in 2014, meaning that some of the unmet recommendations are a decade old. Other recommendations are from a 2016 DOJ report that, among other things, recommended that the BOP ensure people with serious mental illness conditions were not put in restrictive housing.

BOP Director Colette Peters responded to GAO’s report by asserting that the BOP knows restrictive housing is not an effective deterrent and can increase future recidivism. Pavlo reported that Peters said the BOP plans to reduce the use of disciplinary segregation – part of a new rule proposed in the Feb 1 Federal Register – and will conduct unspecified “other studies… to address the issues brought forward by GAO.”

GAO, Federal Prisons Haven’t Addressed Longstanding Concerns About Overuse of Solitary Confinement (February 6, 2024)

GAO, High-Risk Series: Efforts Made to Achieve Progress Need to Be Maintained and Expanded to Fully Address All Areas (April 20, 2023)

Dept of Justice, Department of Justice Efforts to Ensure that Restrictive Housing in Federal Detention Facilities is Used Rarely, Applied Fairly, and Subject to Reasonable Constraints (February 2023)

Homer Venters, M.D., COVID-19 Inspection of BOP Lompoc by Dr. Homer Venters, Dkt. NO. 101-1 (filed in Case No 2:20-cv-04450, CD Cal (September 25, 2020)

GAO, Bureau of Prisons: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Restrictive Housing Practices (February 6, 2024)

Forbes, GAO Releases Report On Federal Prisons’ Use Of Restrictive Housing (February 6, 2024)

Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Durbin Statement on GAO Report on BOP’s Continued Failure to Eliminate Overuse of Solitary Confinement (February 6, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

BOP Crackdown On Inmates In Rules Changes Dressed in Sheep’s Clothing – Update for February 6, 2024

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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 SEEKS TO TOUGHEN PROHIBITED ACTS LIST

randompunishment240206There is little about prison life more arbitrary and random than inmate discipline. The offenses – like the infamous “engaging in anti-Soviet agitation” crime in communist Russia – are so general and squishy that virtually any conduct can be shaped and kneaded to fit within some offense confines.

The evidentiary standard that the prison must meet in order to find that an inmate is guilty of an offense is so low that if an inmate is charged, she is as good as convicted. The Supreme Court has declared it to be the “some evidence” standard:

This standard is met if there was some evidence from which the conclusion of the administrative tribunal could be deduced. Ascertaining whether this standard is satisfied does not require examination of the entire record, independent assessment of the credibility of witnesses, or weighing of the evidence. Instead, the relevant question is whether there is any evidence in the record that could support the conclusion reached by the disciplinary board.

Superintendent, Mass. Corr. Inst. v. Hill, 472 U.S. 445, 455 (1985),

Still, when the Federal Bureau of Prisons releases a proposed rule changing its list of prohibited acts, it’s a big deal. The BOP did so last Thursday, seeking public comment on a broad updating of its list of Prohibited Acts that sweepingly expands the conduct that is encompassed by some greatest severity category acts but dramatically cutting the use of disciplinary segregation.

Solitary confinement has gotten a well-deserved black eye in the last few years, and the BOP got that memo. Under the prohibited acts proposal, open for public comment until April 1, 2024, maximum first-offense disciplinary segregation would fall from a maximum of 365 days for a first 100-series violation to 60 days and 180 days to 30 days as a maximum punishment for a 200-series shot. No DS time could be assessed for a 300-series shot.

This is good.  It makes the BOP look progressive and forward-thinking, exactly how an outfit that has jettisoned the expression “inmate” in favor of “Adults in Custody” ought to look. Correct. Compassionate. Fair.

However, most of the BOP’s disciplinary decisions don’t include a term in solitary as a sanction. Instead, the BOP has a whole menu of lesser punishments – including forfeiting good time, FSA credits, loss of commissary or phone or visiting privileges. The new proposal doubles down on lesser, more common penalties while looking virtuous for cutting seldom-used disciplinary segregation.

punishmentwheel240206The fun doesn’t stop there. The proposal rolls out “additional examples of privileges that may be removed as a potential sanction: video visits, electronic device(s), and the use of electronic mail and messaging of any kind, including, but not limited to, through the TRULINCS system.”

The proposal expands a number of definitions of what constitutes particular prohibited acts, including

• Code 102 regarding escape will now include any unauthorized departure from the buildings, lands, property or perimeter (inside or outside) of any facility; unauthorized departure from community confinement, work detail, program or activity (whether escorted or unescorted); and unauthorized departure from any authorized location regardless of electronic monitoring devices.

• Code 108, possession of a hazardous tool – the code applied to people caught with cellphones – will now include as hazardous tools “items necessary in the use of these devices. Making these changes would allow for discipline “if telltale evidence of such items as a cellphone, electronic device, or escape paraphernalia were not found,” the BOP says, “but items which could only be used with prohibited items are found to have been used.”

• A new Code 194 is proposed, regarding unauthorized use of social media and fund transfer services. This Code would be applied “for accessing, using, or maintaining social media accounts” such as “Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc… or directing others to establish or maintain social media accounts on the inmate’s behalf” for the purpose of committing criminal acts or any Greatest category prohibited act. This code would also prohibit inmate use of fund transfer services such as CashApp.

After the public comment period, a final version of the rule will be rolled out.

All of this matters because in text and in practice, the expansive prohibited acts definitions permit BOP employees – largely untrained in the disciplinary system – to write up inmates for conduct that seems far beyond any reasonable interpretation of the regs.  In one case I worked on, an inmate became aware of a large stash of cellphones and other contraband.  She had been trying to get the warden to sign off on a pending recommendation that she be sent to home confinement. When she explained to a BOP secretary that she wanted to talk to her unit manager about it, and hoped she could trade her information for the unit manager pushing the warden to sign off on her home confinement, the secretary accused her of trying to bribe a BOP employee.

The inmate was charged with Prohibited Act 216, which is described in the rules as “Giving or offering an official or staff member a bribe, or anything of value.” 28 CFR § 541.3, Table 1.  Prohibited Act 216 is defined as a “high severity” offense.  She got a hearing, after which the BOP hearing officer ruled that the evidence “shows you are willing to give information as long as you receive something in return. This demonstrates your willingness to bribe staff.”

The unit manager herself testified that she did not feel as though the inmate was trying to bribe her, but in the BOP, the allegation alone is usually treated as presumptive evidence of guilt. The secretary said it sounded like a bribe, so it was a bribe.

But is it bribery? The BOP thinks so.
But is it bribery? The BOP thinks so.

Every defendant who cooperates with the government in hopes of getting a lesser sentence does the same thing this prisoner did, trade useful information for potential benefit. No matter. Providing information that contributed to institutional security was considered to be a bribe. The prisoner lost 21 days of good conduct time, four months of commissary, spent two months locked up in a cell awaiting disposition (this did not include any disciplinary segregation time), and was transferred to a higher-security facility. What’s worse is that the disciplinary record will be paraded in front of her judge as an argument against a sentence reduction, which will adversely affect her recidivism score.

The inmate’s habeas corpus appeal is still pending, but even if she wins and gets her 21 days back, most of the damage has been done.

The BOP already routinely punishes inmates with the Greatest category discipline for just living in a cell or cubicle where a cell phone is found, whether the inmate even knew of its presence.  Expanding the sweep of already expansive Prohibited Acts will only give BOP staff greater opportunity for mischief.  

BOP, Inmate Discipline Program: Disciplinary Segregation and Prohibited Act Code Changes (February 1, 2024), 89 FR 6455

– Thomas L. Root

‘Tis Some Visitor,’ I Muttered, ‘Tapping At My Prison Door’ – Update for January 31, 2024

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ONLY THIS AND NOTHING MORE

Dublinraven240130US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (Northern District of California) told the associate warden at FCI Dublin last Friday that she’s coming to perform a short-notice inspection of the women’s prison to see how things operate.

Rogers plans to email the facility after 9:30 pm sometime in the next month to announce she will be showing up at the front gate at 5:30 the next morning. “I don’t want you to prep for it,” she told the AW. “I just want to show up.”

“’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my prison door—
Some early visitor entreating entrance at my prison door;—
This it is and nothing more.”

(apologies to Edgar Allen Poe).

The judge will bring two of her staff and lawyers for the government and the class of sexual assault victims suing the BOP, but – according to KTVU-TV, Oakland – “but she also might shoo them away so that she can talk to anyone in the building that she wants.”

Rep Jackie Speier (D-Cal), since retired, visited the prison twice in early 2022. During her visit, Speier said, acting warden (and Deputy Regional Director) T. Ray Hinkle), tried to block her from speaking with several inmates who reported abuse and instead sent her to speak with hand-picked prisoners. Speier said Hinkle – later dismissively called sexual abuse committed by employees “an embarrassment.”

welcometohell230518Speier said she told him: “This isn’t an embarrassment. This is a toxic work environment. It is a reprehensible set of circumstances.” Afterward, in an email to Dublin staff obtained by the AP, Hinkle alleged Speier “mistreated” prison workers and treated one employee “as though she had committed a crime.” Hinkle later was accused of retaliating against BOP employees who complained about prisoner abuse at Dublin, and he admitted to having beaten prisoners back in the 1990s. After these allegations and admissions, he was promoted.

Judge Rogers does not intend to be buffaloed like Rep Speier says she was. During her inspection of the facility, she told Dublin management, “there won’t be anything you can do other than follow me around.”

The Judge is hearing a lawsuit by the California Coalition of Women Prisons, asking the court to stop many of the harms reported at FCI Dublin, such as sexual abuse by the guards and retaliation for speaking up, and possibly appoint a “special master” over the facility to make sure reforms are being met, according to KTVU-TV.

Government attorneys representing the BOP maintain that while there used to be sex scandals at the prison, they are now part of a long-gone era because of new leadership.

KTVU-TV, Scandal-plagued FCI Dublin to receive semi-surprise visit from judge (January 26, 2024)

Associated Press, Whistleblowers say they’re bullied for exposing prison abuse (February 24, 2022)

Associated Press, AP Investigation: Prison boss beat inmates, climbed ranks (December 9, 2022)

KTVU-TV, ‘Cultural rot:’ U.S. Congressional team tours Dublin prison after sex scandal widens (Machr 14, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

’60 Minutes’ Looks Behind BOP’s Potemkin Village Facade – Update for January 29, 2024

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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.

dogandpony240129First, 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.

forcedsex161202Vega 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.

bartsimpson240129Vega 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

New Year, Old Woes at the Federal Bureau of Prisons – Update for January 19. 2024

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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.

truecrime240119Former 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.”

pay240119The 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.

understaffed220929

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

It’s a New Year, and BOP Still Has Big Problems – Update for January 8, 2024

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

ianus240108You 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.

death200330Not 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.”

calcutta240108Defendant 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.”

sexualassault211014An 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)

If you have a question, please send a new email to newsletter@lisa-legalinfo.com.

– Thomas L. Root

Last Gift in the Bag: Something For The First Step Act – Update for December 29, 2023

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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.

FINALLY, A CANDY CANE FOR THE FIRST STEP ACT (BUT A LUMP OF COAL TO THE BOP)

I end my year-end emptying of Santa’s bag with this: The First Step Act turned five years old last week.


candycane231229I still wonder how the First Step Act ever passed. Back then, back in those dark November and December days in 2018, I was wondering how the bill would make it through the 115th Congress before the session expired. In fact I wrote its obituary several times in those waning days.

Back then, I publicly lamented the bill’s “dumbing down” to appease the Senator Tom Cottons, Josh Hawleys and Ted Cruzs of the world and wondered how quickly prisoners would see any advantages. It didn’t unfold like I thought it would, but then, who saw the pandemic coming?

First Step emerged from Congress leaner and definitely meaner than it started. Changes in 18 USC 924(c) to limit draconian mandatory sentences for successive violations were made nonretroactive. The list of convictions excluded from getting credit for successful completion of programming intended to reduce recidivism got longer and longer.

But for all of the belly-aching at the time, there has not been a piece of criminal justice reform legislation like First Step for at least 50 years. It’s easy to complain about the failings of the bill, largely due to political horse-trading needed to get the measure passed and Federal Bureau of Prisons administrative misfeasance and malfeasance. For the public, it has been an unqualified success. Without it, the federal prison population would be substantially higher than it is today. What’s more important, as The Hill put it last week, “since the First Step Act passed, thousands more people leaving the federal prison system have rebuilt their lives without reoffending — in fact, the federal recidivism rate has dropped by an estimated 37%t since the law was enacted.”

compassion160124What’s more, nearly 4,000 people received retroactive Fair Sentencing Act sentence reductions, over 4,600 people went home on compassionate releases, almost 1,250 elderly offenders went to home confinement under the 34 USC 60541(g)(5) pilot program, and almost 27,000 inmates have gotten earlier release through FSA credits.

As we approach the 2024 elections, some Republican candidates have been grousing about the First Step Act. Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who voted for First Step as a Congressman in 2018, denounced the bill last summer as a “jailbreak bill” and said he would get it repealed. But last week, Trump published his campaign’s “Platinum Plan” including a commitment to “continue to make historic improvements to the criminal justice system through common sense actions like the First Step Act” with a “Second Step Act.”

One commentator said that “the Act’s positive outcomes, such as significantly lower recidivism rates among those released under its provisions, demonstrate that public safety reforms are not inherently linked to the recent surge in violent crime… On the other end of the spectrum, we find the likes of Chris Christie and Nikki Haley. Their records of reform in New Jersey and South Carolina, respectively, have been lauded as models of successful criminal justice reform.”

lumpofcoal221215One piece of coal fell out of Santa’s bag along with First Step’s candy cane. The coal goes to the BOP for its disingenuous press release last week that said “the Federal Bureau of Prisons is proud of the work accomplished implementing the First Step Act. Including the support and collaboration of our partners and stakeholders, the dedication and hard work of our employees, and the courage and resilience of the AICs [‘adults in custody’ for you Philistines who still think of them as prisoners and inmates]and their families.”

Anyone who recalls the BOP’s approving 36 out of 31,000 compassionate release requests during the pandemic (an average of 1 in 1,000), its mean-spirited and chary November 2020 proposed rules for FSA credits that were rejected only by new leadership in the Dept of Justice just before adoption a year later, and its ham-handed efforts to timely credit and post FSA credits knows that First Step’s successes have been despite, not because, of BOP administration.

The Hill, Five years on, Congress must build on the First Step Act successes (December 21, 2023)

BNN, The First Step Act: A Pivotal Landmark in Criminal Justice Reform and its Political Implications (December 18, 2023)

BOP, Fifth Anniversary of the First Step Act (December 21, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root

An “AIC” Would Get More Prison Time For Doing What the BOP and ACA Did – Update for December 21, 2023

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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.

INSPECTOR GENERAL UNMASKS BOP-ACA INSPECTION SCAM

Adults in Custody (that’s “prisoners” in normal-speak and so far, the new label is about all the progress BOP Director Colette Peters has made in 17 months at the helm) are fortunate that the institutions in which they’re housed are regularly audited by the American Correctional Association to ensure that they continue to meet that organization’s uncompromising high standards.

badcheck231221Of course. And the check’s in the mail, too…

A report issued by the Dept of Justice Inspector General last month found that instead of providing an independent evaluation of Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, the ACA “instead relied on the prisons’ own internal reports during reaccreditation reviews.” In other words, as the DOJ put it, “it appears the BOP is, in effect, paying ACA to affirm the BOP’s own findings.”

The BOP awarded a $2.75 million contract to the ACA in 2018 to obtain accreditation and reaccreditation for BOP facilities. Five years into the agreement, the DOJ audit was intended to evaluate “the value the BOP receives through ACA accreditation for its prisons” and “how the BOP uses ACA’s accreditation to improve BOP standards for health, safety, and security of inmates and staff; and (3) the BOP’s contract administration and ACA’s performance and compliance with terms, conditions, laws, and regulations applicable to the contract.

nothingtosee230313The IG’s report found that “[a]lthough the contract requires ACA to perform its accreditation and reaccreditation in accordance with ACA’s policies, manuals, and procedures, current BOP and ACA officials… agreed that ACA would only perform independent reviews of BOP facilities as provided for in ACA policy during initial accreditation. For reaccreditation reviews, which was most of ACA’s work under the contract, the BOP and ACA agreed that ACA would rely on the BOP’s internal program review reports. As a result, it appears the BOP is, in effect, paying ACA to affirm the BOP’s own findings.”

The auditors also wrote they “did not identify instances where the BOP used ACA’s accreditation process to improve BOP standards for health, safety, and security of inmates and staff.” Of course not. If the BOP did a self-audit that the ACA signed off on, why bother to improve? Remember that only three months ago, NPR reported that the BOP claimed on its website that its medical centers were accredited by the Joint Commission, which accredits the vast majority of US hospitals, when in fact the certification had lapsed two years before.

NPR’s investigation – showing that federal prisoners die from treatable conditions that the BOP does not diagnose or treat in a timely way – was behind a call last week from Sens Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) for better BOP healthcare.

drquack191111“It is deeply upsetting that families are mourning the loss of their loved ones because they were not afforded the proper medical care they deserved while incarcerated,” Durbin, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told NPR. “BOP must immediately prioritize correcting the ineffective, harmful standards and procedures used to determine when an incarcerated person will be seen by medical professionals.”

Grassley, also a member of the Judiciary Committee, agreed. “BOP needs to be held responsible for this failure and take action to raise its standards.”

In response, a BOP spokesperson told NPR the Bureau “‘appreciates the Senators’ focus on this important issue’ and is committed to continue working with them on oversight.”

DOJ Office of Inspector General, Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contract Awarded to the American Correctional Association (November 16, 2023)

Lincoln, Nebraska, Journal-Star, Federal audit blasts nonprofit responsible for accrediting Nebraska’s prisons (December 10, 2023)

NPR, Lawmakers push for federal prison oversight after reports of inadequate medical care (December 12, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root