contraband | Legal Information Services Associates LLC

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A REMARKABLE ADMISSION… AND A WARNING

BOP Director William K. Marshall took to video last week to describe with uncommon candor the BOP’s losing battle with contraband in its facilities.

In a 5-minute video posted on the BOP website, Marshall said BOP staff is confronting a steady stream of drugs, weapons and drone drops, some of which is being introduced by corrupt BOP employees.

In the last 10 months, BOP staff have used Narcan in more than 500 apparent overdose incidents. Drugs found in facilities include fentanyl, methamphetamine, marijuana, liquid-soaked papers, Suboxone strips, amphetamines, mushrooms and vapes. In the same time period, Marshall noted, the BOP has intercepted 228 drone drops, seized nearly 17,000 cell phones, confiscated 4,300 weapons, recovered nearly 50 lbs. of methamphetamine, and stopped 231 visitors with contraband.

Notably, Marshall disclosed that the BOP has conducted contraband investigations involving 260 staff members. He recounted one case in Texas where a staff member was caught smuggling tobacco into a facility.

It is both evidence of the severity of the problem and of Marshall’s willingness to recognize reality that he acknowledged that some of the contraband problem is staff-driven. (But then, in the past 10 months, Marshall has proven himself to be a very different director. He is the director who looked at a plate of expired dining hall food being served to an inmate during a facility visit last summer and asked a warden, “Would you eat that? If the answer is ‘no,’ then don’t serve it. Period. That’s` not just about food safety, that’s about human decency”).

As for the contraband problem, Marshall said, “These numbers represent real threats stopped by real people. But for every attempt we catch, others are still trying.” And he had a warning: “We are prosecuting anyone, whether a visitor, a staff member, or an inmate who attempts to introduce contraband into our facilities. This unified approach sends a clear message – criminal activity in or around federal prisons will not be tolerated, and those responsible will be held accountable.”

William Marshall, Growing Threat of Contraband in the Bureau of Prisons (February 17, 2026)

Forbes, “Would You Eat That? A Leadership Question at the Bureau of Prisons (February 11, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

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

BOP HAS A BAD WEEK

Last week was a trial by fire for new BOP Director Michael Carvajal. But as an old custody hand, the Director probably found the issues were hardly new.

First, the Dept. of Justice Inspector General issued a report last Tuesday criticizing the BOP for failing to adopt policies to safeguard against serving potentially contaminated food to inmates, a problem that led the agency to buy substandard products (like $1 million worth of adulterated meat, including whole cow hearts that were labeled “ground beef”). The IG faulted the BOP for not having “a protocol in place to ensure its food supply is safe” and failing to “properly document or communicate food vendor quality issues.”

“The BOP should develop a quality assurance plan… to mitigate the risk that a vendor could deliver a substandard product,” the IG wrote.

Two days later, a shakedown at MDC New York – the prison already on the ropes for letting Jeffrey Epstein kill himself last summer – turned up vast quantities of contraband, including a loaded gun, inside the facility.

The Associated Press reported that the discovery “marked a massive breach of protocol and raised serious questions about the security practices in place at the Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for more than 175,000 federal inmates, and specifically at the jail, which had been billed as one of the most secure in America.” Three BOP officials told the AP that the US Attorney has opened a criminal investigation into potential misconduct by COs, focusing on the flow of contraband into the lockup uncovered during the search for the gun.