October 1, 2003–March 31, 2004
Office of the Inspector General

The BOP operates a nationwide system of prisons and detention facilities to incarcerate those imprisoned for federal crimes and detain those awaiting trial or sentencing in federal court. The BOP has approximately 34,000 employees and operates 104 institutions, 6 regional offices, 2 staff training centers, and 28 community corrections management offices. The BOP is responsible for the custody and care of approximately 174,000 federal offenders, 147,000 of whom are confined in BOP-operated correctional institutions and detention centers. The remainder are confined in facilities operated by state or local governments or in privately operated facilities.

Reports Issued

Abuse of September 11 Detainees

The report supplemented our June 2003 review of the treatment of aliens held on immigration charges in connection with the investigation of the September 11 attacks. This follow-up report, issued in December 2003, examined allegations that some correctional officers in the BOP's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, physically and verbally abused detainees there. In the supplemental report, we described the evidence we found of abuse, concluded that the evidence substantiated many of the allegations that had been made, and recommended the BOP discipline certain correctional officers. We also described systemic problems in how the MDC handled the September 11 detainees. Among the report's findings:

• We found evidence that some officers slammed detainees against the wall, twisted their arms and hands in painful ways, stepped on their leg restraint chains, and punished them by keeping them restrained for long periods. We determined that the way these MDC officers handled some detainees was in many respects unprofessional, inappropriate, and in violation of BOP policy.

• While the staff members denied verbally abusing the detainees, we found evidence of staff members making threats to detainees and engaging in conduct that was demeaning to the detainees.

• MDC staff acted unprofessionally by placing detainees' faces against a T-shirt taped to the wall that had a picture of the U.S. flag and the phrase "These colors don't run" on it. One lieutenant said officers used the T-shirt to "acclimate detainees to the MDC" and send a message to them.

• We found the MDC regularly audiotaped detainees' meetings with their attorneys, in violation of 28 C.F.R. § 543.13(e) and BOP policy.

We made seven recommendations to the BOP to address those systemic problems, which we concluded would improve the BOP's ability to prepare for and respond to future emergencies involving detainees as well as improve its routine handling of inmates. We also recommended that the BOP consider taking disciplinary action against ten current BOP employees, counseling two current MDC employees, and informing employers of four former staff members about our findings against them.

After receiving the BOP's response to the seven recommendations contained in the OIG's MDC report discussed above, we issued an analysis concluding that, in general, the BOP has taken reasonable and responsible steps to implement our recommendations. Many of the BOP's actions appropriately address the concerns underlying the recommendations. However, the BOP continues to disagree with several recommendations, including:

• The BOP did not believe it was appropriate to preselect and train a cadre of officers to handle high-security and sensitive inmates. However, according to the MDC lieutenants we interviewed, this approach would be preferable for escorting special interest detainees because it would have prevented a significant amount of the physical and verbal abuse that occurred.

• The BOP stated that it will continue to implement its policy of strip searching inmates after non-contact attorney and social visits. However, we found these strip searches required significant staffing resources, deterred detainees from meeting with their attorneys or families, and were not necessary for effectively intercepting contraband.

Implementation of these recommendations is ongoing, and we continue to monitor and report on the BOP's progress. The OIG expects to receive the BOP's next response by June 1, 2004.

Inmate Release Preparation and Transitional Reentry Programs

The BOP is responsible for offering inmates occupational, educational, recreational, religious, and psychological programs that provide them with the skills they need to reenter society successfully when released from prison. The BOP also is required to provide eligible inmates the opportunity to make their transition into society through halfway houses. Studies have shown that inmates who successfully complete such programs are less likely to reoffend and return to prison.

During FYs 2000 through 2002, 74,401 federal inmates were released from BOP institutions and, according to the most recent recidivism statistics, about 41 percent of them will commit new offenses. Approximately 16 percent will return to federal prisons within three years. The OIG conducted this audit to evaluate whether the BOP is ensuring federal inmates participate in programs designed to prepare them for successful reentry into society.

Our audit concluded that BOP institutions have not maximized the number of inmates who successfully complete reentry programs during incarceration. According to BOP officials, the BOP has been working to establish an effective strategic management process for monitoring and evaluating reentry program goals and outcomes since 1998. However, we found the BOP has not yet implemented a standardized process to establish realistic occupational and educational completion goals. From FYs 1999 through 2002, 34 to 69 percent of BOP institutions failed to meet occupational and educational program completion goals. The BOP also did not routinely review program performance at each of its institutions, despite the fact there was a wide range in the percentage of inmates successfully completing occupational and educational programs at institutions of the same security level. In addition, we found the BOP did not have a standardized process in place among its regions to ensure institutions maximize participation in psychological programs, nor did it track the percentage of inmates who successfully completed the Release Preparation Program at each of its institutions.

Our audit further concluded that the BOP does not ensure that all eligible inmates have the opportunity to make the transition back into society through halfway houses. We found that from FYs 2000 through 2002, 28 to 54 percent of BOP institutions failed to meet established targets for halfway house utilization and that utilization targets had not been established for high-security institutions.

Our report contained 13 recommendations to help improve the BOP's management of its programs to prepare inmates for release into society. The BOP concurred with all 13.

Investigations

During this reporting period, the OIG received 2,483 complaints involving the BOP and opened 142 investigations. The most common allegations made against BOP employees included job performance failure, use of unnecessary force, official misconduct, and custody and security failure. The vast majority of complaints dealt with noncriminal issues that the OIG referred to the BOP's Office of Internal Affairs.

At the close of the reporting period, the OIG had 264 open cases of alleged misconduct against BOP employees. The criminal investigations cover a wide range of allegations, including bribery of a public official, sexual abuse of inmates, and introduction of contraband (e.g., drugs). The following are examples of cases involving the BOP that the OIG investigated during this reporting period:

• A BOP correctional officer assigned to the Federal Correctional Institution in Estill, South Carolina, was sentenced to ten years' incarceration and five years' supervised release pursuant to his guilty plea of attempting to possess heroin with the intent to distribute. A joint investigation by the OIG's Washington Field Office and the FBI revealed the correctional officer had agreed to provide an inmate with 5 pounds of heroin in exchange for $100,000.

• A BOP correctional officer was convicted by a jury in the Northern District of Texas on charges of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a ward, abusive sexual contact, and assault with the intent to commit a felony. A joint investigation by the OIG's Dallas Field Office and the FBI developed evidence that in March 2000 the correctional officer forced a female inmate at the Federal Medical Center in Carswell, Texas, to engage in sexual intercourse with him. Sentencing is pending.

• A former BOP contract counselor employed to provide drug and alcohol counseling to individuals referred by the BOP and the U.S. Probation Office pled guilty in the Northern District of Texas to charges of tampering with government records. An investigation by the OIG's El Paso Area Office determined that from October 2000 to December 2002, the counselor submitted fraudulent invoices totaling approximately $90,000, claiming he provided counseling services he did not provide. In addition, the contract counselor assisted two clients in circumventing urinalysis screening by substituting his own urine for the clients' urine and falsifying the paperwork to make the submission appear legitimate. Sentencing is pending.

• A BOP cook foreman assigned to the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida, was arrested in the Middle District of Florida on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and introduction of contraband. A joint investigation by the OIG's Miami Field Office and the FBI led to a meeting between the BOP cook and a civilian. During the meeting, the BOP cook received $2,700 from the civilian for introducing marijuana into the correctional complex for an inmate. Judicial proceedings continue.

• A former inmate was arrested pursuant to an indictment returned in the Southern District of Illinois on charges of making false statements to the BOP and the OIG. The OIG's Chicago Field Office initiated an investigation based on allegations that the inmate had become pregnant after being coerced into having sex with a correctional officer while incarcerated at the Federal Prison Camp in Greenville, Illinois. However, the investigation developed evidence that the inmate's pregnancy resulted from sexual relations she had with her boyfriend while sneaking out of the camp at night. When confronted with evidence refuting her story, the inmate admitted fabricating the allegations against the correctional officer and providing false statements to conceal the circumstances of her pregnancy. The correctional officer was exonerated.

Ongoing Work

The BOP's Disciplinary System

The OIG is assessing whether the BOP adequately investigates allegations of employee misconduct and disciplines employees in a timely and consistent manner if they are found to have committed misconduct.

The Process for Selecting Muslim Religious Services Providers The OIG is reviewing the BOP's procedures for selecting Muslim personnel, contractors, and volunteers who provide religious services to inmates. The OIG's review is examining whether the BOP's process effectively screens candidates to ensure that members of extremist groups do not become religious service providers in the BOP.