By Joe Davidson
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The list of offenses reads like a police blotter during a full moon.
June 25, Inez, Ky.: Inmate stabs officer with shank covered with feces.
July 7, Anthony, Tex.: Prisoner places officer in headlock and beats him.
July 13, Hazelton, W.Va.: Inmate throws feces and urine on officer.
Friday, Springfield, Mo.: Inmate strikes Bureau of Prisons officer in the head after inmate was told to pull up his pants.
The stomach-turning catalogue of violence against federal prison employees, provided by the American Federation of Government Employees, is long, serious and apparently unending. The assaults are sometimes fatal.
In June 2008, Jose Rivera became the first Federal Bureau of Prisons officer killed in the line of duty in 11 years when he was stabbed by inmates at a penitentiary in Atwater, Calif. Less than a year later, on April 23, another correctional officer, whose name the bureau would not release, was stabbed in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
"BOP prisons have become increasingly dangerous places to work, primarily because of serious correctional officer understaffing and prison inmate overcrowding problems," Phil Glover, a union official, told a congressional panel Tuesday.
The inmate-to-staff ratio is more than one-third greater than it was in 1997, federal figures show.
"Systemwide, the BOP was operating at 37 percent over its total rated capacity" as of July 2, the bureau's director, Harley G. Lappin, told the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security. But high-security facilities, where the most violent offenders are kept, are 50 percent over capacity.
Medium-security pens are almost as crowded. In about 20 percent of those facilities, cells are triple-bunked, "and in many institutions, inmates are being housed in space that was not designed for inmate housing," Lappin said.
As overcrowding increases, so do assaults. Inmate-on-staff violence rose 6 percent and inmate-on-inmate violence jumped 16 percent in fiscal 2006, compared with the previous year, Glover said, citing BOP statistics. In addition to being the legislative coordinator for the union's Council of Prison Locals, he is a correctional officer in Loretto, Pa.
Although much of the hearing dealt with issues such as inmate health care and the overblown topic of terrorists in U.S. correctional facilities, the most gripping part of the discussion focused on the safety, or lack of it, of the 34,000 federal correctional officers and employees who work in the prisons. Glover blamed Lappin for allowing the number of officers to fall too low for the growing inmate population they theoretically control.
Union leaders want Lappin's head to roll.
Glover said that "BOP management is failing to take advantage of increased federal funding to hire additional correctional officers," despite Lappin's assertion that increasing staff levels is his top priority.
Glover said that $160 million in the current budget has not been spent to hire officers and fill other needs, as Congress intended, and that BOP has no plans to spend $70.5 million provided to increase officer staffing next year.
Not so, Lappin said. "All of the money we have for salaries is being put to use for salaries and benefits for staff," he said after the hearing.
Glover told lawmakers that they should direct the Bureau of Prisons to take action that would enhance staff safety. The federal employees' union says two correctional officers should be assigned to each housing unit; officers should be provided batons, pepper spray and stun guns in potentially dangerous situations; and the use of protective vests should be subject to "a more reasonable implementation policy."
Labor and management clearly have their differences, but they agree that prisons with too many inmates who have too little work become breeding grounds for violence against each other and staff members.
Federal Prison Industries provides inmates with jobs and a chance to develop skills and improve their work ethic as they produce goods for sale. "It also keeps inmates productively occupied," Lappin said. "Those who participate in FPI are substantially less likely to engage in misconduct."
But that won't be the case for 1,700 inmates who are losing their jobs. Last week, 19 prison factories began closing or cutting back operations. Work hours are being cut for other inmates.
The union doesn't represent those prisoners, but it argues for their jobs, for altruistic and selfish reasons.
The loss of inmate jobs, Glover said, "would seriously endanger the safety of our members -- the correctional officers and staff who work inside BOP institutions."
The written statements of Lappin, Glover and other hearing witnesses can be found at http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_090721.html.
Contact Joe Davidson at federaldiary@washpost.com.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.