Tag Archives: USP Thomson

Friday Couldn’t Come Soon Enough – Update for February 24, 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.

TOUGH WEEK FOR THE BOP

Bad news came in threes for the Federal Bureau of Prisons last week.

badweekA230224First, the BOP announced it is closing the USP Thomson Special Management Unit – described by The Marshall Project as sort of a “double solitary” detention unit for violent inmates – after adverse reports have circulated for months about inmate deaths, suicides and reported sexual harassment by staff and against staff..

The 350 SMU prisoners will be transferred to other prisons. They had come to the Thomson SMU (USP Thomson sits on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River about 125 miles due west of Chicago) after committing disciplinary infractions in facilities around the country, the New York Times reported.

Bureau officials “recently identified significant concerns with respect to institutional culture and compliance with BOP policies” at the high-security facility, which houses about 800 inmates, Randilee Giamusso, a bureau spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

“We believe these issues are having a detrimental impact on facility operations, and the BOP has determined that there is a need for immediate corrective measures,” she added.

badweekB230224Second, on February 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that BOP employees cannot sue over the government’s denial of hazard pay benefits in connection with their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The en banc decision held that under existing Office of Personnel Management regulations governing hazard pay, only federal workers enlisted to work in a laboratory setting with “virulent biologicals” are entitled to enhanced pay for dangerous work not included in their job description.

FCI Danbury workers sued in 2020, claiming they were entitled to hazard pay because they worked in close proximity to inmates infected with COVID-19 and were not provided sufficient personal protective equipment.

badweekC230224Third, the Reason Foundation, which skewered the BOP for reported medical neglect at FCI Aliceville, sued the Bureau under the Freedom of Information Act last week for records about whether women who died at Aliceville and FMC Carswell received adequate medical care.

Reason Foundation, a nonprofit that publishes Reason magazine, is seeking medical reviews of in-custody deaths in two federal women’s

Reason filed a FOIA request with the BOP in May 2020 for inmate mortality reviews at Aliceville and Carswell.

New York Times, Bureau of Prisons Is Closing Troubled, Violent Detention Unit in Illinois (February 14, 2023)

Government Executive, Federal Prisons Employees Aren’t Entitled to COVID Hazard Pay, Appeals Judges Rule (February 16, 2023)

Reason, Reason Files FOIA Lawsuit Against Bureau of Prisons for Inmate Death Records (February 17, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root

You’ve Got Mail, Director – Update for September 15, 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.

‘WE’VE GOT SOME CONCERNS, DIRECTOR’

The Sentencing Project, which recently reported on the large number of people serving sentences of longer than 10 years (52% of BOP inmates have such sentences, about average for the nation’s prison systems), sponsored a letter last Tuesday to BOP Director Colette Peters.

dungeon180627The letter asked her “to bring the Bureau into compliance with federal law and to lead the Bureau toward a more humane future grounded in transparency and accountability.” It cited “inadequate medical care, overcrowding, staff shortages, unsanitary conditions, violence, and abuse” in facilities across the BOP system. It noted that when “COVID-19 first threatened federal prisons, the Bureau could have embraced compassionate release as a tool to reduce the prison population and protect the most vulnerable people in federal prisons. Instead, the Bureau chose to attempt to use solitary confinement and lockdowns to reduce the spread of COVID-19, a practice internationally condemned as torture. Today, COVID-19 restrictions still define life within federal prisons, including 78 level three facilities which remain under intense modifications with minimal access to rehabilitative programming.”

At the end of last week, the BOP reported 477 inmates and 716 staff sick with COVID, spread over 110 facilities.

The letter called on the BOP to “use its power to file motions for compassionate release in extraordinary or compelling circumstances.” As well, it asked the BOP to step up calculating and applying time credits, complaining that agency foot-dragging was “keeping people from their loved ones months after they should have qualified for release to community corrections.” Ironically, this demand came only two days before the BOP issued its memo (see preceding story).

prisoncorruption2310825Finally, the letter cited FCI Dublin, USP Atlanta and USP Thomson as emblematic of BOP “of corruption and abuse and inaction.” The letter said, “We urge you to set a new standard and lead the Bureau towards transparency and accountability. The men and women incarcerated in federal prisons deserve safety, health, compliance with federal law, and to be treated with dignity.”

Not mentioned was FCI Carswell. Last week, Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX) urged the House Committee on the Judiciary to hold a hearing in North Texas to investigate sexual assaults in federal prisons, in response to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram investigation into systemic sexual abuse and cover-ups at a federal prison in Fort Worth.

The paper reported that its request to interview Director Peters about Carswell had been denied because her schedule “is very full her first few months, but we can re-visit this request in the future.”

busy220915No doubt she’s quite busy, but with all due respect, the issues being complained about are serious and may be system-wide. Being unable to find a few hours to prepare and sit for an interview with a newspaper that is laser-focused on the issue (one which is attracting some Congressional concern) seems somewhat short-sighted, even if only from a public relations angle.

Sentencing Project, How Many People Are Spending Over a Decade in Prison? (September 8, 2022)

Sentencing Project, Formerly Incarcerated People and Advocacy Organizations Urge Reform of US Bureau of Prisons (September 6, 2022)

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Congressman calls for federal investigation into ‘horrors’ at Fort Worth women’s prison (September 7, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

Dept of Justice Takes Hard Look at USP Thomson – Update for June 15, 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.

INSPECTOR GENERAL TO PROBE USP THOMSON

Last Thursday, the Dept. of Justice Inspector General launched an investigation into USP Thomson, based on a demand letter from Sens Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and Rep Cheri Bustos, all of whom are Illinois Democrats.

The demand letter had noted news accounts about Thomson that alleged Bureau of Prisons staff stoked tensions between cellmates to cause inmate-on-inmate attacks, encouraged assaults against sex offenders and informants, employed abusive shackling of inmates, and the highest use of pepper spray in the agency.

The letter said, “If these reports prove accurate, they describe conduct that would almost certainly contravene numerous BOP policies, as well as infringing the civil rights of individuals in BOP custody and possibly violating federal criminal statutes.”

thomson220615Thomson’s AFGE Local 4070 President Jon Zumkehr said in a released statement, “We fully support the investigation into the allegations into USP Thomson and we have also invited Sen. Durbin and Sen. Duckworth to visit USP Thomson.” Two years ago, the union complained that a staff shortage at Thomson was resulting in unsafe working conditions as the BOP used augmentation – assigning non-custody workers like nurses, psychologists and cooks to fill in as correctional officers – to address the problem.

In a speech on the Senate floor last Thursday, Durbin promised a Judiciary Committee hearing in the next few weeks on BOP oversight, including the continued overuse of solitary confinement and restricted housing. “We need answers from the Biden Administration on the failure to reduce the use of restricted housing,” Durbin said, “and we will discuss what BOP must do to address the staffing crisis that has contributed to this disastrous situation.”

Durbin also renewed his call for the immediate replacement of BOP Director Michael Carvajal, who announced his retirement months ago but is staying on until a replacement is named. Former Ohio Dept of Rehabilitation and Corrections chief Gary Mohr was rumored several weeks ago to be in line for the top BOP spot, but he denied it at the time. Nothing more has been said since then.

WQAD-TV, Justice Department Inspector General launches investigation into USP Thomson (June 9, 2022)

Press Release, Durbin Slams BOP Mismanagement, Allegations Of Abuse At USP Thomson (June 9, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

Feds Descend on USP Thomson – Update for June 10, 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.

DOJ INSPECTOR GENERAL LAUNCHES USP THOMSON INVESTIGATION

A week ago, three members of Congress called for an immediate federal investigation into violence and abuse at  USP Thomson, prompted by a Marshall Project/NPR report from two days before.

thomson220610Yesterday, the Dept. of Justice Inspector General launched an investigation into Thomson, based on the news report’s details of inmate deaths and alleged Bureau of Prisons staff abuses.

Sens. Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and Rep Cheri Bustos (all D-IL), wrote in last week’s letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz that it was “imperative” he look into allegations that

• Staff purposely stoked tensions between cellmates and intentionally paired men whom they knew would attack each other;

• Staff encouraged assaults against sex offenders and informants and falsely told inmates that a particular person was a sex offender, resulting in repeated physical and sexual assaults;

• Abusive shackling leaving scars known as “the Thomson tattoo,” including use of a room known as “the dungeon,” where men would lie shackled to a bed for hours without food or water;

• abusive behavior towards incarcerated persons after the SMU was transferred to USP Thomson;

• The highest rate of pepper-spray usage in the BOP; and

• Staff laughing and joking at a Jewish inmate as he lay dying in a hospital following an assault after staff placed him in a recreation cage with white supremacists.

prisonfight220211The letter said, “If these reports prove accurate, they describe conduct that would almost certainly contravene numerous BOP policies, as well as infringing the civil rights of individuals in BOP custody and possibly violating federal criminal statutes.”

Yesterday, AFGE Local 4070 President Jon Zumkehr said in a released statement, “We fully support the investigation into the allegations into USP Thomson and we have also invited Sen. Durbin and Sen. Duckworth to visit USP Thomson.” No doubt Thomson staff also enthusiastically anticipates root canal procedures performed without anesthetic.

Back in May 2020, the union complained that a staff shortage at Thomson was resulting in unsafe working conditions as the BOP used augmentation – assigning non-custody workers like nurses, psychologists and cooks to fill in as correctional officers – to address the employee shortage. WQAD-TV reported that over 2,000 overtime shifts were being authorized every month just to keep up with daily prison functions.

In a speech on the Senate floor yesterday, Durbin – who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee – promised a Committee hearing in the next few weeks on BOP oversight, including the continued overuse of solitary confinement and restricted housing in federal prison facilities such as USP Thomson. Currently, he said, about 7.8% of BOP inmates are housed in a form of restricted housing.

'Enjoy retirement,' Durbin tells Carvajal, 'preferably sooner rather than later.'
‘Enjoy retirement,’ Durbin tells Carvajal, ‘preferably sooner rather than later.’

“We need answers from the Biden Administration on the failure to reduce the use of restricted housing,” Durbin said, “and we will discuss what BOP must do to address the staffing crisis that has contributed to this disastrous situation.”

Durbin also renewed his call for the immediate replacement of BOP Director Michael Carvajal, who announced his retirement months ago but is staying on until a replacement is named.

WQAD-TV, Justice Department Inspector General launches investigation into USP Thomson (June 9, 2022)

Press release, Durbin Slams BOP Mismanagement, Allegations Of Abuse At USP Thomson (June 9, 2022)

Sen. Durbin, Letter to DOJ Inspector General (June 1, 2022)

NPR, Lawmakers call for probe into deadly federal prison (June 2, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root