BOP

A new BOP statement sheds light on the high costs of using minimum security facilities, also known as camps, in lieu of cheaper detention alternatives, including halfway houses and home confinement. The BOP’s main facility designations are minimum, low, medium, and high security. Minimum security facilities are used to house detainees convicted of nonviolent, white collar, and low-level drug crimes. There are approximately 24,000 detainees in minimum security facilities.

On September 4, 2024, the DOJ Civil Rights Division announced that it has opened a civil rights investigation into two California women’s prisons. DOJ’s announcement can be found here. The civil rights investigations are centered around allegations of sexual abuse of female detainees at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino.

Pennsylvania death-row prisoner with a history of mental illness is held in solitary confinement for 26 years. He sues a prison official, who does not dispute whether that violates the Eighth Amendment, arguing only that he is entitled to qualified immunity. Third Circuit: There's "no room for doubt that individuals with a known history of serious mental illness have a clearly established right not to be subjected to prolonged solitary confinement without penological justification." No QI.

Of the 64,124 cases reported to the United States Sentencing Commission in fiscal year 2023, 21,504 involved non-U.S. citizens. Non-U.S. citizens accounted for 33.7% of all individuals sentenced in fiscal year 2023.

This Government Accountability Office report provides publicly available information on incarcerations of non-citizens in the U.S., not just federal facilities.

CoreCivic, the leading private prison company in the U.S., has spent more than $4.4 million to settle dozens of complaints alleging mistreatment — including at least 22 inmate deaths — at its Tennessee prisons and jails since 2016 (access full article).

Andrew Ciolli was the warden in charge at FCC Florence when an internal investigation uncovered that Ciolli’s staff used excessive force in violation of BOP’s policy. Moreover, it was specifically determined that Ciolli failed to stop the excessive force occurring at his prison. Prior to his time at FCC Florence, Ciolli was the warden of USP Thomson. Under Ciolli’s watch, inmates at Thomson were killed, shackled for hours or days at a time, and suffered other mistreatment. For his actions in Florence, Ciolli was referred for disciplinary action by internal investigators.

Lisa Montgomery, 52, was killed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, and pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. (Eastern Time) Wednesday (article available here). She was the first woman to be executed by the federal government since 1953 and was the only woman on death row.

A federal judge granted Mrs. Montgomery a stay of execution Tuesday for a competency hearing -- just hours before she was scheduled to be executed.

Keith Dwayne Nelson was executed today, Friday, August 28, 2020 at 4:32 p.m. EDT, according to the Bureau of Prisons, marking the fifth federal execution in the past six weeks. The first four were Daniel Lewis Lee (July 14, 2020), Wesley Purkey (July 16, 2020), Dustin Honken (July 17, 2020) and Lezmond Mitchell (August 26, 2020).

The Justice Department reinstated federal executions in mid-July after a 17-year hiatus.

Today, Attorney General William P. Barr today directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule the execution of Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row (article available here). The execution is scheduled to occur on August 26, 2020, at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Tribal leaders and the victim's family oppose the death penalty.

A jury on Tuesday awarded $42 million to three former detainees of Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, holding Virginia-based military contractor CACI Premier Technology Inc. responsible for contributing to their torture and mistreatment two decades ago (access full article).

The three testified that they were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, forced nudity and other cruel treatment at the prison.