New Bureau of Prisons Head

From the AP: Justice Dept. taps reforming outsider to run federal prisons.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday named Colette Peters, the director of Oregon’s prison system, to run the federal Bureau of Prisons, turning to a reform-minded outsider as it seeks to rebuild the beleaguered agency.

Peters, who championed steeply reducing the state’s inmate population in the last decade, will inherit a federal agency plagued by myriad scandals. Her hiring comes about seven months after Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal submitted his resignation amid mounting pressure from Congress after investigations by The Associated Press exposed widespread corruption and misconduct in the agency.

In an interview with the AP, Peters stressed the importance of working to “create an environment where people can feel comfortable coming forward and talking about misconduct.”

I  not sanguine but wish her well. Federal correctional policy is set by Congress which uses incarceration as a political tactic. This politics corrupts its prison system. This policy allows the federal prison system to dehumanize its prisoners and out of this dehumanization comes the feeling of superiority that feeds the corruption of the agency's employees. I called the system a Potemkin village while I was in federal prison. This new head will most likely be a version of that idea.

sch 7/13/22