WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 100 federal prison workers have been arrested, convicted or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019, including a warden indicted for sexual abuse, an associate warden charged with murder, guards taking cash to smuggle drugs & weapons, and supervisors stealing property such as tires & tractors.
An Associated Press investigation has found that the federal Bureau of Prisons, with an annual budget of nearly $8 billion, is a hotbed of abuse, graft & corruption & has turned a blind eye to employees accused of misconduct. In some cases, the agency has failed to suspend officers who themselves had been arrested for crimes.
Two-thirds of the criminal cases against Justice Department personnel in recent years have involved federal prison workers, who account for less than one-third of the department’s workforce. Of the 41 arrests this year, 28 were of BOP employees or contractors. The FBI had just 5. The Drug Enforcement Administration & the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives each had 2.
The numbers highlight how criminal behavior by employees festers inside a federal prison system meant to punish & rehabilitate people who have committed bad acts. The revelations come as advocates are pushing the Biden administration to get serious about fixing the bureau.
In 1 case unearthed by the AP, the agency allowed an official at a federal prison in Mississippi, whose job it was to investigate misconduct of other staff members, to remain in his position after he was arrested on charges of stalking & harassing fellow employees. That official was also allowed to continue investigating a staff member who had accused him of a crime.
Federal prison workers in nearly every job function have been charged with crimes. Those employees include a teacher who pleaded guilty in January to fudging an inmate’s high school equivalency & a chaplain who admitted taking at least $12,000 in bribes to smuggle Suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction, as well as marijuana, tobacco & cellphones & leaving the items in a prison chapel cabinet for inmates to retrieve.
At the highest ranks, the warden of a federal women’s prison in Dublin, California, was arrested in September & indicted this month on charges he molested an inmate multiple times, scheduled times where he demanded she undress in front of him & amassed a slew of nude photos of her on his government-issued phone.
Warden Ray Garcia, who was placed on administrative leave after the FBI raided his office in July, allegedly told the woman there was no point in reporting the sexual assault because he was “close friends” with the person who would investigate the allegation & that the inmate wouldn’t be able to “ruin him.” Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
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