Why the Bureau of Prisons may be the unhappiest place in America
The Bureau of Prisons, an agency of the Justice Department, made two highly visible lists within couple of weeks. It placed at the very bottom of the list of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, meaning its employees rank it as the worst place. And, it joined the three dozen other programs on the Government Accountability Office’s High Risk List. For why it made the High Risk List, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with GAO’s Director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues, Gretta Goodwin.
Having spent more than a decade in the care of the BOP, this is not such a surprise. I overheard too much of backstabbing, complaints about management, of how the ground level staff belittled management, and the like. And this was a low-security facility, Fort Dix FCI.
And then this amused me:
Gretta Goodwin So when the BOP director is, you know, doing her strategic planning, she will make those decisions. But, you know, the three reasons why we are putting the management of the federal prison system on the high risk list, I would think that that’s of where she would start because this management managing the staff and resources is really key. And as you know, BOP, just the staff in and of itself, BOP has also had six different directors over the past six years. Two of those directors have been acting. And so just management commitment and focus is going to be a real issue here. So our sense is that the BP director is paying very close attention. And then, as I mentioned earlier, managing some of these rehabilitation programs, just trying to have a good sense for what is successful and what isn’t, and focusing your attention and your resources on that. And then you have to monitor and evaluate these programs. We just found that that has not really been happening. And so BOP doesn’t have a good sense for which programs would actually lower the rates of recidivism. And so when you think about BOP is responsible for the care and custody of federal inmates, and part of that care in custody is helping people prepare for a successful return to the community. But if you don’t have a good sense for whether these programs are working, that’s going to be a major issue.
Rehabilitation programs? The chief interest of Fort Dix FCI was security. We had more razor wire, according to those from other low-security facilities, than any other low.
Scuttlebutt had one CO in the education department actively campaigned against, maybe even to the point of sabotaging, the efforts to bring college courses to Fort Dix.
The drug program RDAP was notorious for being designed to flunk people, for encouraging snitching of other participant over treatment.
When I asked my case manager what plans he had for my re-integration into society, he shrugged his shoulders and said he had none. I was to be in too long for him to make any viable plans. The efforts to keep me from being a recidivist were my own efforts. This was true of those like me - educated, of middle-class origins, desirous of change. This remains true of me during my period of supervised release. If I succeed in not returning to prison, it will not be due to any efforts by the BOP.
Again, really?
Gretta Goodwin Well, the reason BOP is here is for the care and custody of people who are incarcerated. And part of their mission, part of their role is to help reduce the rates of recidivism, help prepare people for successful return to the community. How that is done, that will be left up to the management of the federal prison system. But we know that there is a commitment to ensuring that things are done properly. Things are done effectively. We know that there’s a commitment to ensuring that, you know, anyone who enters the federal prison system is evaluated once they come in to determine what their risk of recidivism might be. They’re evaluated once they when they enter to determine what their needs are. So BOP is responsible for providing these programs, whether they be literacy programs, whether they be anger management programs. BOP is responsible for providing that because that helps individuals return safely to the community.
The only commitment I saw was a commitment to CYA.
I have no idea how the BOP monitors its facilities. At Fort Dix, we always knew when there would be an inspection. We, the inmates, actually welcomed them since the food and its preparation generally improved. During Covid, all the necessary signs and warnings appeared the day, or two days, before the "secret" inspection. The second stairwell in the unit buildings were opened until after inspection.
I do not recall any being evaluated for my needs. However, I do recall our orientation when the head chaplain warned us against getting sick, there was doubt about the efficacy of the facility's health services.
There was a GED program. Anyone without proof of a GED or high school diploma was pushed into the program. The scuttlebutt being the BOP got $2500 a head from the Department of Education. I heard one fellow complain about being dragged into the program - he had a Ph.d.
Anger management courses were unknown to me.
I went to Fort Dix from a halfway house, my expectation was to find a professional system, and I left still looking for that professionalism.
Sometime during my first year, maybe even my first six months, I came up with what I think remains a perfect description of Fort Dix FCI - it is a Potemkin village.
Parts of my prison journal already online, they are from the end of stay, but they may still be informative. Just follow the link below for "prison life."
And some headlines dragged up by Google might give a bit more insight to your federal prison system:
We had drugs, we had as many cell phones as an AT & T store; the only vice missing was women.
Warden at Epstein jail who led Fort Dix quietly retires amid federal probe
I think this was my last warden. Again, the rumor mill had this fellow placed at Fort Dix to avoid the scrutiny from the Epstein murder. It was Covid, so we saw little of him. The man he replaced, is featured next.
NJ Warden Reassigned After Mishandling COVID-19
Otherwise, this warden's great achievement was removing all the East Compound's flower beds. The alleged reason being it needed to look more like a prison. Oddly, the entrance for visitors in the East Compound still had its flower beds, as did the West Compound.
Cell phones are a major problem inside of prisons. Ft. Dix New Jersey, home to a large Low Security prison and a satellite prison camp, has had its share of cell phone fiascos. NBC reported in 2017 that Ft. Dix inmates were trolling the web for child pornography from smuggled cell phones. Last October 2020, a former Ft. Dix inmate was arrested for using a drone to drop tobacco and cell phone chargers into the prison yard. In January 2021, The Trentonian reported that 1,046 cell phones were found at Ft. Dix, a Low security federal prisons ... a prison that has about 3,000 inmates ... so one-in-three inmates had a phone.
If I were as pathological as the federal government thinks I am, I had more than a little ability to commit new crimes in Fort Dix FCI.
Rep. Kim Wants Federal Prison at Fort Dix Locked Down as COVID Surges
What goes unmentioned is that Fort Dix FCI took in a lot of inmates from FCI Elkton, which had until Fort Dix overtook them, the highest incident of COVID. What I have been able to publish here of my prison journal covers the COVID period.
This is your tax dollars at work.
sch 5/14
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