Tag Archives: Federal Prisons Oversight Act

Congress Orders BOP To Spend Money It Doesn’t Have – Update for July 31, 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.

FPOA IS LAW, BUT BOP MONEY WOES PERSIST

hr3019oversight240528President Joe Biden signed the Federal Prisons Oversight Act into law last Thursday. The bill is intended to strengthen oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons after The Associated Press reported on systemic corruption, failures and abuse in the federal prison system.

The FPOA, which passed the Senate on July 10th and the House last May, establishes an independent ombudsman to field and investigate complaints by prisoners, their families, and staff about misconduct and deficiencies. It also requires that the Dept of Justice inspector general conduct regular inspections of all 122 federal prison facilities, issue recommendations to address deficiencies and assign each facility a risk score. Higher-risk facilities would receive more frequent inspections.

BOP Director Colette Peters praised the bill in testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance last week, but told the Subcommittee that the agency will need tens of millions of dollars in additional funding “to effectively respond to the additional oversight and make that meaningful, long-lasting change.”

“You inherited a mess. I mean, you inherited a mess,” Congressman Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) told Peters during her testimony last Tuesday. And she did, a mess that is not going to go away without money.

understaffed220929For instance, Peters noted that the new FPOA limits the BOP’s use of augmentation, the practice of using education, medical and other staff as stand-in corrections officers. “While I agree with the sentiment of limiting augmentation,” Peters told the Subcommittee, “today in the midst of our staffing crisis, without augmentation, we will mandate more overtime which will not only cost tens of millions of dollars more per year (~$60 million) but again, I will note the human cost and the physical and mental wear and tear on our people.”

Last year alone, the BOP paid more than $128 million in incentives and more than $345 million in overtime. Ordering the BOP to stop augmentation without giving the agency the money needed to hire COs is like trying to stamp out poverty by ordering poor people to be rich.

Peters testified, “Over the past 10 years, BOP’s budget only increased approximately 23% (which equates to about 2% per year). Over that period, budgeting resulted in a reduction of 3,473 authorized positions… Over the past 10 years, we did not receive a total of more than 1,900 authorized positions and 7,000 FTEs requested in the President’s Budgets… BOP has temporarily closed three institutions and 13 housing units at 11 institutions due to dangerous conditions. They account for a loss of more than 4,000 beds at every security level.”

Writing in Forbes last week, Walter Pavlo pointed out that the BOP has some control over its destiny:

One way to help reduce the stress the agency is under is by reducing the number of prisoners in prisons, something that could be done with a full implementation of the First Step Act and Second Chance Act. Director Peters noted that the prison population has slightly increased over the past few years despite the legislation. Those two laws, both passed and signed into law under Republican administrations (Donald Trump and George W. Bush respectively) allow many low and minimum security prisoners to reduce their prison term by up to a year and also place them in the community (halfway houses) for longer periods of time.

No room at the inn?
No room at the inn?

An NBC News investigation found that the BOP is not placing as many people in the community as it could. The result is that many prisoners stay in correctional institutions far longer than necessary when less restrictive and less expensive prerelease custody (halfway house/home confinement) should be available. However, a noted shortage of halfway house space is preventing the BOP from placing more people in confinement in the community. Retired BOP Acting Director Hugh Hurwitz said, ‘Since the First Step Act was signed, the BOP knew it needed more capacity but nearly 6 years later, halfway house space continues to be a problem’.”

“We believe in accountability, oversight, and transparency,” Peters told the House Subcommittee. “But we cannot do this work alone.” That is true, but there is more that the BOP can do.

Associated Press, Biden signs bill strengthening oversight of crisis-plagued US Bureau of Prisons after AP reporting (July 25, 2024)

Sen Jon Ossoff, SIGNED INTO LAW: Sens. Ossoff, Braun, & Durbin, Reps. McBath & Armstrong’s Bipartisan Federal Prison Oversight Act (July 25, 2024)

BOP, Oral Statement of Director Colette S. Peters, July 23, 2024,
House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance

Forbes, Bureau of Prisons Director Testifies At House Judiciary Committee (July 24, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Senate Unanimously Passes Prison Oversight Bill – Update for July 11, 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.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week off (our first in several years). Now, we’re back at it…

“ACCOUNTABILITY, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT”

adultsupervision240711The Senate passed legislation yesterday to bring adult oversight to what the Associated Press calls “the crisis-plagued” Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Federal Prison Oversight Act (S. 1401), sponsored by Sens. Jon Ossoff (D.GA), Mike Braun (R-IN), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Shelley Caputo (R-WV), Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), sailed through the Senate on a unanimous vote.

The House of Representatives passed the same legislation as H.R. 3019 last May by a lopsided 392-2 vote. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden for signature.

The bill provides for the appointment of an ombudsman within the Dept of Justice who will investigate the health, safety, welfare, and rights of incarcerated people and staff. The ombudsman would establish a secure hotline and online form for family members, friends, and representatives of incarcerated people to submit complaints and inquiries. The measure prohibits BOP retaliation against those who complain or institute any investigation or inspection under this bill.

inspector240711FPOA also requires the DOJ Inspector General to conduct risk-based inspections of all 122 federal prisons, identify deficiencies, recommend changes to address shortcomings and assign each facility a risk score. Higher-risk facilities would then receive more frequent inspections. The IG must report its findings and recommendations to Congress and the public, and the BOP will be required to respond to inspection reports with a corrective action plan within 60 days.

The Associated Press — whose reporters Michael Balsamo and Michael Sisak deserve kudos for their relentless reporting on BOP peccadillos — said that the bill comes “in the wake of rampant sexual abuse and other criminal misconduct by staff, chronic understaffing, escapes and high-profile [inmate] deaths.”

Ossoff, Durbin, and Braun launched the Senate Bipartisan Prison Policy Working Group in February 2022. That group’s efforts resulted in the bill’s passage in the Senate. Reps Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) and Lucy McBath (D-GA) backed the House version of the bill.

“We applaud today’s actions by the Senate in passing this landmark bill, which paves the way to ensuring conditions in prisons are safer and more humane for staff and incarcerated people alike,” Heather Rice-Minus, president and CEO of Prison Fellowship, said in a statement. Prison Fellowship, a Christian nonprofit serving currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families, blitzed Capitol Hill three weeks ago with a “Day of Action,” during which over 40 Prison Fellowship employees, most of which were formerly incarcerated, visited 29 congressional offices to urge passage of FPOA.

Benjamin Franklin famously answered a question posed to him by Elizabeth Willing Powel – who asked him after the Constitutional Convention in 1789 whether the document delivered a republic or a monarchy – with the response, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

The FPOA establishes within the DOJ a mechanism intended to make the BOP accountable for its management of the custody of 158,646 inmates. True, under Director Colette Peters, we eschew “inmate” for the “woker” term “Adult in Custody.”

BOPsexharassment191209Catchy name (and we all love acronyms). However, those AICs continue to suffer sexual abuse, harassment, gross mistreatment, and denial of their statutory right to release and placement in community programs. It brings to mind a pseudo-Franklin quip (that is actually just a line in the Broadway plan-turned-movie musical “1776”): It “is like calling an ox a bull. He’s thankful for the honor, but he’d much rather have restored what’s rightfully his.”

Calling inmates “AICs” so far has been both the most visible and the most hollow change ordered by Director Peters. It has not moved the needle on the treatment of the AICs (although the female inmates being bussed from FCI Dublin would probably have preferred being called “AICs” to being called “bitches.”

Congress may figure that FPOA solves its federal prison problem, but asking the DOJ – the same folks who have permitted the situation at its component agency BOP to fester and continue to impede judicial efforts to address BOP misconduct – to exercise “oversight” hardly ensures accountability.

We now may have BOP accountability. If we can keep it.

Associated Press, Congress OKs bill overhauling oversight of troubled federal Bureau of Prisons (July 10, 2024)

Federal Prison Oversight Act (S.1401)

Sen Jon Ossoff, Senate Passes Sens. Ossoff, Braun, & Durbin, Rep. McBath & Armstrong’s Bipartisan Federal Prison Oversight Act (July 10, 2024)

Federal Prison Oversight Act (HR 3019)

Prison Fellowship, Prison Fellowship Applauds U.S. Senate for Passing the Federal Prison Oversight Act (July 10, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

The Wheels On The Bus – Update for April 29, 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.

PUNISHING THE VICTIMS, DISSING THE JUDGE

wheelsonbus240429Nearly all inmates had been transferred out of the beleaguered Bureau of Prisons women’s facility FCI Dublin by last Tuesday, according to a BOP spokesman, with only about 23-40 prisoners–all of whom have pending releases or halfway house/home confinement transfers scheduled–remaining at the facility.

Several news outlets last week reported that the hasty transfers bore more than a passing resemblance to the Bataan Death March. Inmates reported they went without water or sanitary products, and some ended up sitting in their own excrement. A prisoner’s parent told KTVU-TV in Oakland that when the inmates asked where they were going, 

“They were told ‘none of your business,’ or ‘SFTU, see, this is why Dublin is closing, you all need to learn to keep your mouths shut. I gave up my Saturday off to move you girls.’ The other CO said, ‘I came out of retirement to help move you bitches.’

“The bus driver played a children’s recording of the Wheels on the Bus over and over again at full volume, and then played loud rap music with sexually explicit language about sex acts.

“He told them the more they fussed, the louder it was going to be,” [the parent wrote to the TV station]. “All thru the 12 hours they were called bitches. They were told they were the reason for the closing of Dublin. They should have kept their mouths shut.”

BOPbus240429The San Jose Mercury News reported that one source said of the closure and transfer, “I have witnessed people fighting. I have witnessed people crying. I have witnessed people drinking pills because they just want to pass out and not think about it. I have witnessed people vomiting. Another lady over here next to me, she was cutting herself. We have witnessed all of that. And even officers over here are crying because that’s how crazy it is.”

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to BOP Director Colette S. Peters expressing concern over claims of a chaotic transfer. The letter, signed by Committee Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL) and four others, alleged that

“concerned stakeholders and advocates have made alarming reports about the ensuing chaos. These reports include: unavailability of medical staff; inadequate-to-no medical attention, including for individuals expressing suicidal ideation; improper medical clearance prior to transport; lack of food and water for those remaining in the facility awaiting transfer; mistreatment, harassment, neglect, and abuse while in transit; and confiscation of personal property. This reporting is appalling and even more concerning in light of the well-documented abuses that have taken place previously at FCI Dublin…”

The letter demanded that the BOP director provide the Committee with information on how the agency has prepared to close FCI Dublin, including its written plans on the “safe and humane release from custody.”

On that same day that the BOP announced Dublin would close, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the Oakland, California, judge overseeing the class action suit against Dublin officials, ordered a halt in the transfers so that the special master she had appointed to oversee Dublin could review the process. A review of each prisoner’s status would “ensure inmates are transferred to the correct location,” the judge wrote in her April 15 order. “This includes whether an inmate should be released to a BOP facility, home confinement, or halfway house, or granted a compassionate release.”

bird240429The BOP pushed back, filing a motion for relief from the Judge’s order, questioning the authority of the special master and complaining that the judge’s order amounts to “a de facto requirement” that the BOP keep the prison open. “The Court not only lacks jurisdiction to impose such a requirement, but it is also antithetical to the overall objective of safeguarding inmate safety and welfare,” the motion complains. “Extensive resources and employee hours have already been invested in the move.”

As of yesterday, the motion has not been ruled on. Given that the BOP has already transferred up to 96% of the Dublin inmates–many in horrific conditions–the BOP appears to have presented Judge Gonzalez Rogers with a fait accompli that the Court is unlikely to be able to undo,

goodjobhomer240429In a case of the BOP really not getting it, KTVU reported that in an interoffice memo sent last week, Director Peters “commended her staff for their ‘tireless efforts in facilitating the successful transition’ of women from FCI Dublin… Peters said that the transfer involved ‘careful planning and coordination to ensure the safe transfer of women to other facilities, with special attention given to their unique programming, medical, and mental health requirements’.”

It is perhaps unsurprising that the Federal Prison Oversight Act (H.R. 3019), introduced a year ago, was approved earlier this month by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Under the bill, which still must be approved by the full House and Senate before becoming law, the Dept of Justice’s Inspector General would conduct periodic prison inspections of BOP facilities. The bill would require the attorney general to ensure the inspectors have “access to any covered facility, including the incarcerated people, detainees, staff, bargaining unit representative organization, and any other information” needed. The assessments “may include” incarceration conditions; staff adequacy and working conditions; availability of FSA programs; SHU practices; prison medical and mental health services; and violence, sexual abuse and excessive-force allegations.” The bill would establish an ombudsman to whom prisoners and loved ones could complain.

Associated Press, Senators demand accounting of rapid closure plan for California prison where women were abused (April 24, 2024)

KTVU, FCI Dublin prison closure: Women describe horrific journey across US (April 22, 2024)

KTVU-TV, U.S. Senators call FCI Dublin transfer of women ‘appalling’ (April 25, 2024)

Senators Richard Durbin, Cory Booker et al., Letter to Colette S Peters (April 24, 2024)

San Jose Mercury News, Chaotic Dublin prison closure leads to fighting, crying, cutting, inmates say (April 24, 2024)

Associated Press, Feds push back against judge and say troubled California prison should be shut down without delay (April 18, 2024)

KTVU, BOP director commends FCI Dublin staff, despite accounts of abusive behavior (April 24, 2024)

HR 3019, Federal Prison Oversight Act

– Thomas L. Root

Is Senate Fed Up With BOP? – Update for July 13, 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.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, SENATORS MAY BE TELLING BOP

Phineas T. Barnum reputedly said, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” But P.T. Barnum never served as Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

badpublicity230714It’s been a rough ride. First, the Dept. of Justice Inspector General has issued a scathing report of BOP mismanagement and maladministration that led to the suicide of high-value celebrity prisoner Jeffrey Epstein and the murder of Whitey Bulger. There has been a steady stream of death-of-a-thousand-cuts reports of BOP employees being convicted of everything from inmate sexual abuse to cellphone smuggling to COVID fraud. The Washington Post fumed last week that “regardless of the offense, any unnatural death in custody is a failure of the prison system.”

This week has seen well-loathed U.S. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar – serving an endless string of life sentences for an endless string of revolting assaults of women gymnasts – stabbed multiple times at USP Coleman by attackers unknown. BOP employees promptly blamed the attack on a short-staffed facility.

It wasn’t long before the Associated Press reported that Nassar was attacked inside his cell, “a blind spot for prison surveillance cameras that only record common areas and corridors.” The AP said, “In federal prison parlance, because of the lack of video, it is known as an ‘unwitnessed event.’”

It isn’t clear that even full implementation of the Prison Camera Reform Act (Pub.L. 117-321), hardly prevented Capitol Hill from finally having had enough of the BOP follies.

Enough is more than enough. After several half-hearted attempts to address BOP management weaknesses, a bipartisan group of senators yesterday announced the introduction of the Federal Prison Accountability Act of 2023 (no bill number assigned yet), intended to increase oversight at federal prisons.

FPAA would require the president to seek Senate advice and consent when appointing the BOP director, who would be appointed to a single, 10-year term. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said requiring Senate confirmation of the BOP director would “bring badly needed transparency and accountability to the federal prison system.”

“The Director of the Bureau of Prisons leads thousands of employees and expends a massive budget,” Grassley said in a press release. “It’s a big job with even bigger consequences should mismanagement or abuse weasel its way into the system.”

sexualassault211014It took awhile to get here. Following an 8-month investigation last year that revealed rampant sexual abuse of female prisoners and a failure to prevent recurring sexual abuse, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) introduced the Federal Prison Oversight Act (S.4988) late last year. The bill – which would have required the DOJ Inspector General to conduct inspections of the BOP’s 122 correctional facilities, provide recommendations to problems and assign each facility a risk score – was window-dressing, a political statement with no chance of passage in the waning days of the 117th Congress.

Three months ago, however, Ossoff introduced a revised version of FPOA (S.1401), with Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) filing a companion bill in the House (H.R.3109). The new FPOA would have, among other actions, created a hotline for prisoners to report misconduct.

mismanagement210419Now, three months later, the latest effort to reform federal prisons would subject the BOP director to the same congressional scrutiny as other law enforcement agency chiefs such as the director of the FBI, which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said is needed. “The Director of the Bureau of Prisons oversees more than 34,000 employees and a multi-billion dollar budget, and should be subject to Senate review and confirmation as well,” McConnell said.

Grassley introduced FPAA along with McConnell and Sens Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), John Cornyn (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN) and Ossoff. With that kind of legislative horsepower behind it – not to mention black eyes like Jeffrey Epstein, Whitey Bulger and Larry Nasser – it’s safe to predict that Director Colette Peters may be the last BOP Director to not be approved by the Senate.

The Hill, Bipartisan senators introduce bill to increase federal prison oversight (July 13, 2023)

Sen. Charles Grassley, Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Increase Accountability at Federal Prisons (July 13, 2023)

Associated Press, Larry Nassar was stabbed in his cell and the attack was not seen by prison cameras, AP source says (July 11, 2023)

Associated Press, Former federal prison guard sent to prison for violating civil rights of injured inmate (July 11, 2023)

Washington Post, Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide reveals grave failures of U.S. prisons (July 10, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root

BOP Oversight Bill Resurrected – Update for May 4, 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.

BILL TO ESTABLISH BOP OVERSIGHT RE-INTRODUCED

A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers introduced legislation last week to establish a new oversight system for the BOP.

adult220225The Federal Prison Oversight Act (no bill number yet) is sponsored by Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Richard Durbin (D-IL), in the Senate and Representatives Lucy McBath (D-GA) and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) in the House. The same legislators sponsored the same legislation when it was introduced last fall, but the measures died at the end of the 117th Congress.

The bills are a response to press reports that exposed systemic corruption in the BOP, several sex abuse scandals involving male BOP staff and female inmates, and increased congressional scrutiny. Ossoff, Braun and Durbin are founding members of the Senate Bipartisan Prison Policy Working Group.

“It’s no secret that BOP has been plagued by misconduct,” Durbin said. “One investigation after another has revealed a culture of abuse, mismanagement, corruption, torture, and death that reaches to the highest levels. And yet it still operates without any meaningful independent oversight.”

investigate170724FOPA would require DOJ to create a prisons ombudsman to field complaints about prison conditions and compel the Department’s Inspector General to evaluate risks and abuses at all 122 BOP facilities. Under the bill, the DOJ Inspector General would conduct risk-based inspections of all federal prison facilities, provide recommendations to address deficiencies and assign each facility a risk score. Higher-risk facilities would then receive more frequent inspections.

The IG would report findings and recommendations to Congress and the public, and the BOP would be required to respond with a corrective action plan within 60 days.

Press Release, Sens. Ossoff, Braun, Durbin Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Overhaul Federal Prison Oversight (April 26, 2023)

The Appeal, Congress Seeks to Create New Independent Federal Prison Oversight Body (April 26, 2023)

ABC News, After investigating abuse in prison system, senators propose new oversight law (April 26, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root

Some BOP Tidbits From Last Week – Update for November 8, 2022

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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.

LAST WEEK IN THE BOP

sexualassault211014Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told Department of Justice  officials last Wednesday that prosecutors must use “all available tools” to hold BOP employees who sexually abuse women in their custody accountable, including employing a new law that has a maximum sentence of 15 years.

“The Department’s obligation to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those in our custody is enduring,” Monaco wrote. Her memo, obtained by NPR, “follows a high-level review this year that uncovered hundreds of complaints about sexual misconduct by Bureau of Prisons employees over the past five years, but only 45 federal prosecutions during that same period.”

The working group identified weak administrative discipline against some prison workers — and flaws in how prosecutors assessed reports of abuse.

Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, issued a statement that last week’s “DOJ report on pervasive sexual abuse in our nation’s federal prisons is evidence of the desperate need for reform. The new Director, Colette Peters, needs to show resolve and Congress needs to back her efforts to clean up this sorry mess.”

peters220929BOP Director Colette Peters continued her charm offensive last week, sitting for a lengthy interview with Government Executive magazine. Despite the DOJ Inspector General’s report the week before criticizing the BOP for reflexively disbelieving inmates and whitewashing staff misconduct, Peters said, “We are partnering with the inspector general. I’ve met with him multiple times now to ensure that we’re holding individuals accountable. I’ve met with the U.S. attorneys and asked the same thing: that they take these employee cases very seriously, both because those individuals need to be held accountable, but the person working next to that individual needs to know that their work is valued and that when people are making bad choices, that they’ll be held accountable, so that the employee remaining is safe and secure.”

Peters noted that the BOP will fill 40 additional in its Office of Internal Affairs to address sexual assault backlogs.

Peters also told Government Executive, “[T]here’s a huge perception out there that [First Step Act] implementation didn’t happen or didn’t happen when it was supposed to. But as I review the outcomes and the deliverables we’ve delivered, the programming is happening…While there might have been bumps along the way, the agency has been working really hard to ensure that [First Step Act] implementation happens both at headquarters and in the institutions.”

ombudsman221108I reported last month that Sens Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mike Braun (R-IN) had introduced legislation, the Federal Prison Oversight Act (S. 4988) that would establish an independent DOJ ombudsman to investigate the health, safety, welfare, and rights of BOP inmates and staff and create a hotline for relatives and representatives of inmates to lodge complaints. A companion bill, H.R.9009, was introduced in the House by Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA).

A week ago, Sen. Ossoff told Capital Beat News Service that the bill’s prospects for passage during the Congressional lame-duck session after this week’s mid-term elections “are favorable because it has bipartisan support.”

NPR, Guards who sexually abuse inmates haven’t been punished harshly enough, DOJ memo says (November 3, 2022)

Office of Richard Durbin, Durbin Statement On New Report On Sexual Misconduct By Bureau Of Prisons Staff (November 4, 2022)

Government Executive, We’re Not ‘Shawshank Redemption’: New Federal Prisons Director Tackles the Bureau’s Reputation (November 2, 2022)

Capital Beat News Service, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff sees ‘signs of improvement’ at Atlanta federal penitentiary (October 26, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

BOP Director to Be Grilled By Senate Judiciary Committee Today – Update for September 29, 2022

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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.

DURBIN TO GRILL BOP DIRECTOR AT THURSDAY JUDICIARY HEARING

peters220929When Colette Peters was sworn in last month as BOP director, her honeymoon with Sen Richard Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, lasted all of three days.

Durbin’s dislike of prior Director Michael Carvajal was well known, and publicly, the Senator was elated at Peters’ appointment. But when Durbin learned the BOP had given Carvajal a 30-day consulting contract to assist the new director with the transition, he was much less enthused.

At the time, Durbin threatened to hold another oversight hearing on the BOP. He is about to make good on that threat.

The Judiciary Committee will conduct a BOP oversight hearing today. Peters is the primary witness, but other witnesses include Shane Fausey, President of the Council of Prison Locals national union; John Wetzel, a prison consultant and former head of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections; and Cecilia Cardenas of Davenport, Iowa.

It is not clear who Ms. Cardenas is, but a person of that name and from that area was released by the BOP last January.

understaffed220929

Fausey is probably on the witness list because of his outspoken criticism of BOP staffing levels. Fausey told a reporter last week that much of the BOP staffing decline is due to declining morale as general environmental conditions are declining. He said BOP staff is “exhausted” as mandatory overtime has “skyrocketed” at high-security institutions across the country.

Last week, BOP employees at FCI Raybrook in upstate New York posted a sign along a highway there saying the federal prison is “dangerously understaffed” and asks the community if it feels safe.

I expect that a major topic of discussion will be the Federal Prison Oversight Act, introduced yesterday by Sens Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Mike Braun (R-IN), and  Durbin. The Federal Prison Oversight Act, according to a Durbin press release, will require the Dept of Justice’s Inspector General to

conduct comprehensive, risk-based inspections of the [BOP’s] 122 facilities to identify problems that affect incarcerated people and staff and to provide recommendations to address them.  It will require the IG to assign each facility a risk score, with higher-risk facilities required to be inspected more often.  Under the bill, the IG must also report its findings and recommendations to Congress and the public, and the BOP must respond to all inspection reports within 60 days with a corrective action plan.

The bill will also establish an Ombudsman within DOJ to investigate issues that adversely affect the health, safety, welfare, or rights of incarcerated people or staff, and who would report dangerous findings directly to the Attorney General and Congress.  The Ombudsman would also be tasked with creating a secure hotline and online form to be made available for family members, friends, and representatives of incarcerated people to submit complaints and inquiries regarding issues within BOP. 

forcedsex161202No doubt Peters will be asked pointed questions about sexual assault of female prisoners. Last week, she issued a statement saying she was “firm in my commitment to work with the BOP team, Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Congress, and others as I begin to assess and address issues and concerns pertaining to the BOP and the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin.”

The former warden and four other FCI Dublin employees face criminal charges for sexually assaulting female inmates.

Peters may as well be asked about the sexual assault scandal at FMC Carswell, the only medical center for women in the BOP system. The Ft Worth Star-Telegram last week reported that a former federal Bureau of Prisons staff member who pleaded guilty to raping two women at a prison in Fort Worth was sentenced to 18 months in prison — half the time one of his victims is serving for drug possession.

Luis Curiel pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a ward while he was a lieutenant at Carswell. He was sentenced to concurrent 18 months for each charge. According to court documents, Curiel admitted to meeting three women at separate times near a staff elevator and forcing them into sexual acts.

If the Committee runs short of topics for Director Peters, it may inquire about an Oklahoma City TV report last week that a widow is still seeking answers about her husband’s death at FTC Oklahoma City.

missingcorpse220929Nearly two weeks after Jonathan Patterson Days died suddenly at the FTC, his wife told reporters says she still doesn’t know what happened to him and the facility hasn’t returned his body.

Abbie Alvarado-Patterson said she asked the chaplain, “when do I get his body back? He said, ‘you want his body back?’” She said the BOP chaplain couldn’t give her any additional information about what happened, including a timeline for returning the body

Associated Press, Senate to hold hearing on crisis-plagued federal prisons (August 5, 2022)

Senate Judiciary Committee, Hearing Notice (September 29, 2022)

Associated Press, Senators push new oversight to combat federal prison crises (September 28, 2022)

Press Release, Durbin, Ossoff, Braun Introduce Bipartisan Bill To Overhaul Federal Prison Oversight (September 28, 2022)

News Nation, Experts warn prison staff shortage put lives at risk (September 23, 2022)

KTVU-TV, Prison director vows to ‘change the culture’ at FCI Dublin (September 23, 2022)

Ft Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth prison officer gets lighter sentence for assault than victim’s drug sentence (September 20, 2022)

KFOR-TV, ‘This man was loved’: Wife demands answers after husband dies in federal custody (September 21, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root