B.O.P At Its Finest
It's been awhile since I've sent something out to blog.
Not that there hasn't been anything blog worthy!
We've had several lockdowns, phone and computer shut downs, disease outbreaks, drug and contraband infestations, fights, and major shakedowns resulting in more lockdowns. All that has transpired here in the last couple months while the FCI and camp are extremely short staffed. Walk throughs and visits from Regional. Central, and Washington, and the most outrageous dog and pony shows put together with a day's notice or less.
We have had either no staff or many people have been allocated to multiple positions, outside of their norm. So, Unit managers have been working as correctional officers, R&D manager has been the night guard... Some are even doing three jobs, just to cover the bare minimum of a body onsite. Often, they are so exhausted, we can't find them when we need them anyway.
A couple of weeks ago, a camper went to find her mail (which is also not being delivered regularly), but when she finally located someone, he was asleep in the office, so she had to bang on the window to wake him up.
This place is literally open housing, with so little else that it's counterproductive. People are displaying and picking up worse habits here than they would at home, actually working on themselves. These were the words I heard straight from an administrator's mouth last week.
The problem is and has always been that there is a vast separation between the courts and the BOP. Certainly, if the courts were aware of what actually transpires in the BOP, they would impose alternate directives. At the very least, for those with low recidivism levels and minimum security needs.
On January 29th of this year, "60 MINUTES" aired a detailed account of BOP protocols across the country- the lack of safety, security, medical attention, and the fact that the BOP has a staff shortage of more than 8,000 correctional officers, contributing to the abusive issues running rampant. They visited two women's facilities, acknowledging that the problem is nationwide. When we hear about issues at other facilities, the mirror what we see here. Derrell was able to find the expose on youtube: "60 Minutes, Agency in Crisis".
A couple of weeks later, CNN aired a segment about the BOP and the staff shortages making drug use easier and more prevalent, causing more and more suicides and homicides in federal prisons. https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/15/politics/bureau-of-prisons-inspector-general-report/index.html.
Last week, the Washington Post followed up with their own coverage titled "Inspector General report finds deadly culture of negligence and staffing issues at federal prisons."https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/02/15/ig-report-finds-deadly-culture-negligence-staffing-issues-federal-prisons/.
The fact that the dirty secrets of the agency are finally put on blast is something. Even Judges across the country are seeing fit to restructure sentencing in effort to control the prison population until the BOP can figure it out.
I guess one could say it's a good thing that there is finally public awareness brought to the bureau. It's been going on for years from prison industries making billions on the backs of inmate labor, to pharmaceutical chaos, and high ranking officers instigating prison rape while posing to advocate against it, to the hundred of millions directed to the agency for "programs" which do not exist.
Wardens being walked off compounds for rape, embezzlement, abuse of power, and all sorts of impropriety. It's really deplorable.
And we sit here living in conditions surely beyond what justice implies.
Drug dealers, Murderers, Con Artists, Money Launderers. The biggest of them all are running the show.