A damning report from the Department of Justice Inspector General finds that “recurring policy violations and operational failures contributed to inmate suicides” in federal prisons. I don’t trust the report, which Fox News called a crisis, but I haven’t yet found a copy of it.
According to Fox, the report looked at the years from 2014 through 2021 and found that of the 344 deaths reviewed, just over half were death by suicide.
The report was triggered, in part, by the “high-profile deaths at BOP institutions, such as the homicide of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger in 2018 and the suicide of Jeffrey Epstein in 2019.”
The 344 deaths identified fell into one of four categories: 1) suicide, 2) homicide, 3) accident, and 4) unknown factors. The report found “a combination of recurring policy violations and operational failures [within BOP] contributed to inmate suicides.” The report also found that BOP’s staff response to emergencies “was often insufficient due to lack of clear communication, urgency, or proper equipment.”
Prisons hold some of the worst people in the country, and it’s no shock that they continue to find a way to commit crimes in prison.
This is nothing new, but it’s very timely in that Democrats want to empty out prisons and make prisons the bad guys. It’s just a coincidence, I’m sure.
In Manhattan, they’re shutting down Rikers and only building enough prisons for roughly half of the prisoners, which suggests they will release the rest of them.
Many of the deaths are attributable to drugs, and IG Michael Horowitz’s report points out that in many instances, cell searches are failing.
Some of the prisoners get their drugs via drone. The BOP is working on that. Maybe they need more staff and better technology.
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