Federal Prison Workers Commit Rampant Crime and Abuse
More than 100 federal prison workers have been arrested, convicted or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019.
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The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), with an annual budget of nearly $8 billion, is a hotbed of abuse, graft and corruption, and has turned a blind eye to employees accused of misconduct, even failing to suspend officers who themselves had been arrested for crimes, reports the Associated Press. More than 100 federal prison workers have been arrested, convicted or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019. Of the 41 arrests of Justice Department personnel in 2021, 28 were of BOP employees or contractors, two-thirds of the total criminal cases against their employees.
Federal prison workers in nearly every job function have been charged with crimes. At the highest ranks, the warden of a federal women’s prison in Dublin, California, was arrested in September 2021 and indicted on charges he molested an inmate multiple times. One-fifth of the BOP cases tracked involved crimes of a sexual nature, second only to cases involving smuggled contraband. In the most egregious cases, inmates say they were coerced through fear, intimidation and threats of violence. Theft, fraud and lying on paperwork after inmate deaths have also been issues. More than a dozen bureau staff members have also raised concerns that the agency’s disciplinary system has led to an outsize focus on alleged misconduct by rank-and-file employees and they say allegations of misconduct made against senior executives and wardens are more easily brushed aside.
