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

EDITOR’S NOTE: ARE WE INFLUENTIAL OR WHAT?

Only a couple of hours after we posted this, the Dept. of Justice announced that Colette Peters had been hired as BOP director.  While some may say that this is post hoc, ergo proper hoc reasoning, we’re quite willing to think that Merrick Garland starts his day with LISA’s posts.

BOP’S SHIP SLOWLY SINKS AS SEARCH FOR CAPTAIN SEEMS TO BE STALLED

With July 4th, last week was short. Good thing, too, because the Bureau of Prisons probably could not have taken a fifth day of bad news.

First, an Associated Press report on a lawsuit about conditions at FCI Sheridan said that the Oregon Public Defender Lisa Hay alleged in a filing that the BOP turned off water at the Sheridan detention center in order to end refusal by some detainees to eat.

The warden allegedly issued a memo to detainees that “showers are postponed due to continued threats of assault to staff.” The court filing said that temperatures in Sheridan reached 90 degrees when showers were withheld.

Oregon Public Broadcasting said BOP “didn’t answer questions about the memo or whether the water was cut off in an effort to end the hunger strike.”

Conditions inside the federal prison have been the subject of concern since the pandemic took hold in 2020. Hay has in court filings detailed lockdowns that have lasted for days. In other filings, her office has documented poor medical and dental care that has left many suffering.

Meanwhile, in a letter Wednesday to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, USP Thomson staff and union leaders called for the immediate removal of Warden Thomas Bergami, citing “an abundance of serious incidents” and the mass departure of 60 correctional officers since March.

“Warden Bergami has failed within his position of trust and has placed the staff, inmates and communities at risk,” AFGE Local 4070 President Jonathan Zumkehr wrote. “Attempts to address these issues directly have gone unheeded and even to the extent of being covered up and or distracted from the facts… Managers are blatantly violating laws and refusing to adhere to local agreements, placing the hard-working staff in limbo with ever-changing policies and procedures that have done nothing but set USP Thomson ablaze.”

Bergami has only been at Thomson since March.

The BOP settled two lawsuits last week. One, a 20-year old suit by six people detained after 9/11 at MDC Brooklyn, included a cash payment and letters to each of the plaintiffs from BOP Director Michael Carvajal wrote a letter to each of the men saying the Dept of Justice had determined they were “held in excessively restrictive and unduly harsh conditions of confinement and a number of individuals were physically and verbally abused by certain MDC officers.”

“I don’t know that the director of the Bureau of Prisons has ever signed a letter of this nature before to individual clients, so that is unique,” Rachel Meeropol, an attorney for the men, said.

On June 28, the BOP settled the two-year-old FCC Lompoc class action, agreeing “to comply with Attorney General Barr’s March 26 and April 3, 2020 memoranda, the current BOP guidance at the time of each review, and the standards set forth in this Court’s orders when making decisions about a request for home confinement. In addition, the agreement requires Respondents to transfer individuals within one month of the decision granting home confinement and, if the transfer does not occur timely Respondents must provide an explanation of the reasons for the delay.”

The agreement substantially contains the terms previously imposed by the court in an injunction and enforcement orders.

Last week, the BOP reported two more inmate COVID deaths, an April 21 death at USP Tucson and a May 16 death at Yazoo City Medium. Both men had previously had COVID and been declared to have recovered. The federal prisoner inmate COVID death total now stands at 319 or higher. COVID cases ended the week at 520 (inmates) and 338 (staff), the highest since the beginning of March.

Finally, there seems to be no movement on a new BOP Director since Colette Peters, director of the Oregon prison system, was reported to be a finalist for the post almost a month ago. One would hardly blame her for any second thoughts she might be having.

KGW-TV, Lawyer: People at federal prison in Oregon denied showers amid hunger strike (July 5, 2022)

Corrections1, Prison staff, union call for warden’s removal after ‘abundance of serious incidents’ (July 7, 2022)

Colorado Springs Gazette, Feds settle suit alleging abuse by men detained after 9/11 (July 5, 2022)

Santa Maria Times, Settlement reached in Lompoc prison COVID-19 class action laws (July 7, 2022)

Joint Motion, Torres v Milusnic, Case No 2:20cv4450 (CD Cal)

BOP, Inmate Death at USP Tucson (July 6, 2022)

BOP, Inmate Death at FCI Yazoo City Medium (July 6, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root