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Trick or Treat: The Sequel – Update for October 31, 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.

TRICK-OR-TREAT – PART 2 (IN WHICH BOP DIRECTOR IS HOPING FOR ‘CHOCOLATE HEARTS’ INSTEAD OF A THUG HUG)

What we kids used to call “Halloweening” (I know, it’s not really a verb, but a lot of non-verb words are being used as verbs these days) continues today.

hugathug221031BOP Director Colette Peters sat for her first national media interview last week, telling Associated Press reporters Michael Balsamo and Michael Sisak – who have covered BOP crises, scandals and miscues in detail for the past three years – that skeptics who denounce her approach to running a prison system “hug a thug” are simply wrong.

Peters didn’t mind that, but she offers a different term: “chocolate hearts.” Her ideal BOP employee, she said, is as interested in preparing inmates for returning to society after their sentences as they are in keeping order while those inmates are still locked within the prison walls. She said she wants to reorient the agency’s hiring practices to find candidates who want to “change hearts and minds” and end systemic abuse and corruption. She told the AP she would not rule out closing problematic prisons, though there are no current plans to do so.

chocolatehearts221031Chocolate hearts or the ‘Thug Squeeze’, Peters nevertheless is still dealing with problems she inherited when she took the director’s job last August, and those problems are many.

Trick: Ruben Montanez-Mirabal (Montanez), a nurse at FDC Miami, was indicted last week on charges of bribery, smuggling contraband into prison and possession with intent to distribute K2.

According to the indictment, Montanez posted Instagram photos of him in a Lamborghini, a Rolls Royce and a McLaren. When one person wrote back to Montanez about how much he was paying for these cars Montanez responded, “Absolutely nothing. It’s all about having the right contact.” The cars were owned by the inmate at FDC Miami who was cooperating with authorities.

Treat: Peters won praise from Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) for her decision to join him in inspecting USP Atlanta last Wednesday.

“I want to be really clear, I’m not here to tell you the problems are solved,” Ossoff told reporters. “We saw encouraging signs of improved management and I heard a firm commitment from the new leadership to continue improving this facility and safeguarding public safety in the community.”

The BOP emptied USP Atlanta of prisoners a year ago amid reports of rampant staff corruption, decrepit facilities and drug use and contraband possession among inmates. “We saw encouraging signs of improved management and I heard a firm commitment from the new leadership to continue improving this facility and safeguarding public safety in the community,” Ossoff said. However, he warned, “I’m a long way from being prepared to declare that the problem has been solved.”

callback221031Trick: While Peters was getting lauded by Sen Ossoff, she was taking it on the chin in Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which has been covering staff abuse and miserable conditions experienced by the female inmates and conditions at FMC Carswell, the BOP women’s medical center in Fort Worth, asked Peters for an interview on September 7. A BOP spokesman declined on her behalf, saying Peters’ “schedule is very full her first few months, but we can re-visit this request in the future.”

To determine when Peters may be available, the Star-Telegram requested her appointment calendar through a Freedom of Information Act request. Last week, the newspaper reported that the BOP told it the FOIA request would take a while because it “must be searched for and collected from a field office.” One month later,” the Star-Telegram said, it “had not received Peters’ calendar.”

On October 11, the Star-Telegram again requested to speak with Peters regarding abuse at FMC Carswell. A BOP spokesperson once again said “the director’s schedule does not permit an interview at this time.”

Treat: The FCI Dublin sex abuse scandal is working its way toward resolution. Last Thursday, a former BOP corrections officer accused of sexually abusing inmates there pleaded guilty.

Enrique Chavez entered a plea to one count of abusive sexual contact with a prisoner. Chavez was a food service foreman there two years ago when he locked the door to the pantry and fondled an inmate.

Chavez was the fifth Dublin employee to be charged with sexual abuse of inmates since June 2021. Others include the prison’s former warden and a chaplain. He is the third to have pleaded guilty.

computerhaywire221031Trick: Auto-calc, the new BOP computer app created to automatically calculate inmates’ earned-time credits” suffered a technical glitch as it was launched earlier this month (only 60 days late).

Instead of recognizing inmates’ ETC credits, NBC News reported Friday, “some said the opposite occurred, which suddenly shifted their release dates to a later time than they had anticipated. In extreme cases, some prisoners already released to halfway homes were erroneously told that the new calculations indicated they were deficient in the necessary credits and they would have to return to prison.”

Director Peters told NBC News on Thursday that prisoners’ time credit calculations are now accurately reflected and it was “unfortunate we had some IT glitches as it rolled out.”

“When you move from a human calculation to an automation, you always hope that the error rate drops, and so that’s our hope as well going forward,” she said.

AP, US Bureau of Prisons chief pledges hiring reforms amid staffing crisis (October 25, 2022)

Forbes, Federal Prison FDC Miami Nurse Indicted On Contraband Charges (October 24, 2022)

WSB-TV, Atlanta’s federal penitentiary being inspected after inmates could come and go through holes (October 26, 2022)

Ft Worth Star-Telegram, Bureau of Prisons continues to evade questions about sexual abuse at Fort Worth prison (October  27, 2022)

Corrections1, Federal prison worker pleads guilty to inmate sex abuse (October 28, 2022)

NBC News, Tech glitch botches federal prisons’ rollout of update to Trump-era First Step Act (October 28, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

Outgoing Director Carvajal Beaten Up by Gang of Senators – Update for August 1, 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.

FORMER BOP DIRECTOR GETS SENATORIAL KICK IN THE PANTS ON HIS WAY OUT THE DOOR

Widespread drug abuse, substandard health care, violence and horrific sanitary conditions are rampant at USP Atlanta, according to a Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee investigation revealed last week.

riot170727The dysfunction at USP Atlanta is so notorious within the BOP that “its culture of indifference and mismanagement is derisively known among bureau employees as ‘the Atlanta way’,” the New York Times reported last week. Witnesses at the Subcommittee hearing last week “describe[ed] dozens of violent episodes — and the systematic effort to downplay and cover up the crisis — over the past few years,” The Times reported.

The prison’s conditions reflect wider problems in the BOP’s network of 122 facilities housing about 158,000 inmates, The Times said. The system has suffered from chronic overcrowding, staffing shortages, corruption, sexual violence and a culture that often encourages senior officials to minimize the extent of the problems.

The Associated Press reported that outgoing BOP Director Michael Carvajal, who testified under a Subcommittee subpoena, “faced a bipartisan onslaught Tuesday as he refused to accept responsibility for a culture of corruption and misconduct that has plagued his agency for years.”

schultz220801Carvajal argued that “he had been shielded from problems by his underlings — even though he’d been copied on emails, and some of the troubles were detailed in reports generated by the agency’s headquarters.” He blamed the size and structure of the BOP for his ignorance on issues such as inmate suicides, sexual abuse, and the free flow of drugs, weapons and other contraband that has roiled some of the BOP’s 122 facilities. His attempts to deflect responsibility for his leadership failings sat well with neither Subcommittee chairman Sen Jon Ossoff (D-GA) nor its ranking member, Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI).

Colette S. Peters, the longtime head of Oregon prisons, assumes the BOP director’s post on Tuesday. Carvajal finally will get the retirement he announced seven months ago, but not before the Subcommittee made it clear that it was fed up with his blandishments.

“Inmates hanging themselves in federal prisons, addicted to and high on drugs that flow into the facilities virtually openly,” Ossoff told Carvajal, “and as they hang and suffocate in the custody of the US government, there’s no urgent response from members of the staff, year after year after year… It’s a disgrace. And for the answer to be ‘other people deal with that. I got the report. I don’t remember’. It’s completely unacceptable.”

“It’s almost willful ignorance, and that’s what I find disturbing,” Johnson said. “‘Don’t want to know what’s happening below me. Don’t want to hear about rapes. Don’t want to hear about suicides’.”

rapeclub220801In one of the hearing’s most heated moments, Ossoff pressed Carvajal on rampant sexual abuse at FCI Dublin, a federal women’s prison in California’s Bay Area known to staff and inmates as the “rape club.” Among the Dublin employees charged criminally so far is the prison’s former warden.

“Is the Bureau of Prisons able to keep female detainees safe from sexual abuse by staff?” Ossoff asked. “Yes or no?”

“Yes, we are,” Carvajal replied. “In those cases when things happen, we hold people appropriately accountable.”

“You are the director at a time when one of your prisons is known to staff and inmates as a ’rape club,” Ossoff shot back. Carvajal had no response.

Rebecca Shepard, a staff attorney for the Federal Defender Program Inc., said USP Atlanta subjects inmates to inhumane and substandard conditions:

I have seen clients routinely locked down and allowed out of their cells for extremely limited periods of time, such as only 15 to 30 minutes, three to four times a week, or only an hour each day. And these lockdowns persist for months. Clients are treated as though they are in solitary confinement, not because of their behavior, but because of their misfortune and being placed at USP Atlanta.

The problems were “stunning failures of federal prison administration,” Ossoff said. But despite “unequivocal internal reports of abuse and misconduct, the situation continued to deteriorate.”

sexualassault211014Attorney General Merrick Garland appears to be moving more decisively, especially on the issue of sexual violence against female inmates and staff members. On July 14, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced a task force to establish a policy aimed at “rooting out and preventing sexual misconduct” by prison employees over the next 90 days. Ms. Monaco said she was also instructing frontline prosecutors to make all misconduct cases at facilities a top priority, The New York Times said.

Last week, Forbes reported that Peters will take over an agency in disarray:

Relations between management and labor is at an all-time low, the agency is failing at implementing the First Step Act and COVID-19 continues to ravage its institutions. A recent survey by Partnership for Public Service, which ranks best places to work within the US government, ranked the BOP near last among 432 federal agencies. It ranked dead last in Effective Leadership category. This comes at a time when the BOP is trying to recruit new workers to make up for many veteran BOP employees who are leaving the agency.

Dumpster220718Hyperbole?  Well, just last week:

•      An independent arbitrator found the management at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Correctional Center Yazoo City in Mississippi guilty of violating the civil rights of the American Federation of Government Employees’ (AFGE) local President Cyndee Price at the facility, as well as retaliating against her in violation of the union contract.

     In 2020, Price was the first Black woman elected to serve as the local union president at any Federal Correctional Complex in the nation. But after that, the arbitrator ruled, prison wardens prohibited Price from using 100% official time to perform her union work, although previous Local President Vincent Kirksey had been granted 100% official time for the past seven years, and male local presidents at other BOP facilities also are on 100% official time.

     Bankston ordered the agency to pay Price overtime pay for the 1,080 hours of union work she performed on her own time that should have been performed during duty hours under the approved contract and past practice. Price was also awarded $300,000 in compensatory damages, as well as attorney’s fees and expenses.

•    A former BOP employee from FMC Lexington was sentenced last Friday to 80 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to committing five counts of sexual abuse of a ward. The employee, Hosea Lee, was a correctional officer serving as a drug treatment specialist. Between August and December 2019, Lee engaged in sexual acts with four separate female inmates who were in his drug classes.

•    A Mississippi woman, Tarshuana Thomas, was arrested Monday after being indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged fraud involving federal COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loans. The US Attorney said Thomas, who worked as a CO at FCC Yazoo City at the time of the alleged fraud, devised a scheme to obtain PPP funds by filing fraudulent loan applications.

The Atlanta Voice, Senator Ossoff grills Federal prison officials over deplorable conditions at Atlanta Penitentiary (July 28, 2022)

The New York Times, Prison Personnel Describe Horrific Conditions, and Cover-Up, at Atlanta Prison (July 26, 2022)

Forbes, Outgoing Federal Bureau Of Prisons Director Carvajal Subpoenaed By Senate Subcommittee (Jul 19)

WRDW-TV, Ossoff leads hearing on troubled Georgia federal prison (July 26, 2022)

WJTV, Arbitrator finds Yazoo County federal prison guilty of violating civil rights (July 26, 2022)

Dept of Justice, Former BOP Employee Sentenced to 80 Months in Prison for Sexual Abuse of a Ward (July 29, 2022)

Mageenews.com, Former BOP Correctional Officer Charged with COVID-Relief Fraud (July 29, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

“Mikey, We Hardly Knew Ye” – BOP Director Resigns (and Other Stories) – Update for January 6, 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.

BOP BLUES

A lot’s going on in the BOP, and little of it can be lifting spirits at Central Office.

carvajal220106Carvajal’s Out: Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal announced yesterday that he’s resigning, six weeks after the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland deliver his head on a platter.

Carvajal, appointed during the Trump administration, has “been at the center of myriad crises within the federal prison system,” according to the Associated Press. The BOP characterized the decision as a “retirement,” which – after 30 years as a BOP employee – Carvajal is certainly entitled to do.

The BOP said he will stay on for an interim period until a successor is named. It is unclear how long that process would take.

The beginning of the end for Carvajal came in November, when the AP reported that more than 100 Bureau of Prisons workers have been arrested, convicted, or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019, including a warden charged with sexually abusing an inmate. The AP stories apparently prompted Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illnois), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to call for Carvajal’s removal.

Carvajal took office just as COVID-19 took off, and included “a failed response to the pandemic, dozens of escapes, deaths and critically low staffing levels that have hampered responses to emergencies,” the AP said.

“We are very appreciative of Director Carvajal’s service to the department over the last three decades,” DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement. “His operational experience and intimate knowledge of the Bureau of Prisons — the department’s largest component — helped steer it during critical times, including during this historic pandemic.”

Atlanta: Last week, Forbes magazine got its hands on an internal BOP memorandum from 2020 revealing just how much of a mess USP Atlanta was a year before the Bureau took the extraordinary step of shipping out 1,100 inmates and shuttering the facility for an extensive rehabilitation.

jailbreak211025The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2017 about the “Wild West” atmosphere that defined USP Atlanta and its satellite minimum prison camp. According to an August 31, 2020 memorandum to the Southeast Region of the BOP, “USP Atlanta presents significant security concern for the Southeast Region … [which] requires immediate corrective action.”

Forbes reported the memo resulted from a Security Assessment performed just months after USP Atlanta passed its Program Review with a “Good” score. Program Reviews examine the adequacy of controls, efficiency of operations, and effectiveness in achieving program results. Institutions receiving a grade of “Good” qualify for a break of three years before another such review. Forbes reported that some have questioned whether the reviewers and facilities managers “have become too chummy because members who conduct those reviews consist of BOP management from peer institutions.”

Forbes said, “These are unprecedented times for the BOP. MCC New York closed earlier this year because the building had fallen into disrepair, staff corruption cases abounded and the widely reported suicide of Jeffrey Epstein. FCI Estill (South Carolina)… was hit by a tornado that ripped up the fence, tore off parts of the roof and caused heavy damage to the facility. Within days of the incident, hundreds of inmates were transferred to a prison hundreds of miles away in Pennsylvania. The remaining camp level… inmates now live in deplorable conditions at the damaged institution. As USP Atlanta’s problems continue to mount, it is just one more blow to an agency that appears to be in free-fall.

A BOP employee who works at another institution and who also reviewed the memorandum told Forbes, “The items listed are not a surprise. If they did this same type of assessment at other USPs they would get the same result, or close to it.”

violent160620Hazelton: The correctional officer who is president of AFGE Local 420 AFGE last week blamed increasing violence at USP Hazelton – contraband weapons, a “massive” fight in a housing, and a stabbing on Christmas Eve – on a lack of leadership from the warden, Richard Hudgins.

“Over the last few weeks there has been an immense amount of violence heightened at the prison due to the lack of leadership from our warden who is retiring this month,” Union President Justin Tarovisky said.

The BOP declined to comment to the Morgantown Dominion-Post on “anecdotal allegations,” but issued a statement that “We can assure you there are qualified management staff at the institution to ensure FCC Hazelton operates in a safe and secure manner and provides the programs that are critical for successful prisoner reform.”

FMC Carswell: A Southern Illinois federal judge last week issued a 61-page opinion ordering the BOP to evaluate ther request of a transgender inmate – now held at FMC Carswell – for gender confirmation surgery.

trans220106Chief Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel ruled that the BOP’s Transgender Executive Council must evaluate the inmate, who is a biological male seeking surgery to transition to female, within a month. The Judge issued several pages of specific instructions and timelines for the BOP to meet, depending on whether it recommends or refuses to recommend the inmate for surgery.

The opinion, which has gotten media attention due to its holding that the BOP’s failure to address transgender matters as an 8th Amendment violation, is also noteworthy for the judge’s scathing dismissal of BOP excuses for not acting before, inasmuch as the inmate has served almost 30 years in BOP custody and always claimed gender dysphoria. “Administrative convenience and cost may be, in appropriate circumstances, permissible factors for correctional systems to consider in making treatment decisions,” the judge wrote. However, “the Constitution is violated when they are considered to the exclusion of reasonable medical judgment about inmate health.”

You Just Had the Wrong Prosecutor:  Last week, as Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking offenses for assisting Jeffrey Epstein in procuring and grooming underage girls, the US Attorney in Manhattan quietly dismissed all charges against the two BOP correctional officers accused of felonies for falsifying reports connected to the 2019 Epstein suicide at MCC New York.

jailfree140410Prosecutors had said the COs napped, caught up on the news, and shopped for motorcycles and furniture instead of doing their rounds at the MCC. Epstein was held there while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and sexual-abuse charges. Last May, the COs entered into a deferred prosecution agreement where prosecutors agreed not to bring their case to trial until after they finished cooperating with an investigation by the DOJ Inspector General. The OIG has yet to release a report in connection with the investigation.

The conservative publication American Thinker said, “The message being sent by the light punishment for the prison guards whose negligence enabled Epstein’s death is pretty clear. If Maxwell were to “commit suicide” or “have an accident,” any guards implicated in negligence permitting such a death may face minimal consequences.”

Associated Press, US prisons director resigning after crises-filled tenure and scrutiny over his leadership (January 5, 2022)

Forbes, A Review of the Federal Prison In Atlanta Shows an Agency in Crisis (December 31, 2021)

BOP, BOP Director Announces Plans to Retire (January 5, 2022)

Morgantown Dominion-Post, Hazelton union concerned about mounting violence in prison (December 28, 2021)

Law and Crime, ‘She Is Running Out of Time’: Judge Orders Gender Confirmation Surgery Review for Federal Prison Inmate (December 28, 2021)

Iglesias v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 245517 (S.D.Ill. Dec. 27, 2021)

Business Insider, Federal prosecutors quietly dropped their case against Jeffrey Epstein’s jail guards in the middle of Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial (December 30, 2021)

American Thinker, Coincidental or not, dropping criminal charges against Epstein’s prison guards sends a message to Ghislaine Maxwell the day after her conviction (January 1, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root