Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today the release of a Management Advisory Memorandum to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) identifying concerns with BOP senior managers’ compliance with time-sensitive reporting requirements in the BOP General Policy.
This memorandum arises out of an ongoing DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigation of staff at a BOP Federal Correctional Institution. In our ongoing investigation, we found evidence that a Warden directed an Associate Warden, who was then serving as the Acting Warden in the Warden's absence from the institution, not to report security incidents as required by BOP General Policy, and advised the Associate Warden that the Warden would make the required report when the Warden returned to the institution. We found evidence that the Associate Warden would have reported a security incident within the time frame required by BOP General Policy, but for the Warden's instruction not to do so. The Warden told the OIG that if an Acting Warden is serving for a period of up to two weeks, then the practice within the BOP is for the Acting Warden to wait until the Warden returns to the institution, present any reportable information to the Warden, and then leave it to the Warden to report the information as required by BOP policy.
Based on our investigation, we are concerned that there may be a practice among BOP senior managers that violates BOP's reporting policy. Therefore, we recommend that BOP consider how best to immediately reinforce BOP reporting requirements to management and staff agency-wide, and take appropriate steps to address any reporting requirement violations.
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