Durbin: Prisons chief has ‘no intention of reforming’ system
WASHINGTON — Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, lambasted the director of the beleaguered federal prison system on Thursday, saying he has “no intention of reforming the institution” and reiterating his call for the director to be immediately fired.
Durbin doubled down on his demand that Attorney General Merrick Garland remove Director Michael Carvajal, which came days after an Associated Press investigation that detailed serious misconduct involving federal correctional officers and revealed more than 100 Bureau of Prisons workers have been arrested, convicted or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019.
“Since day one, Director Carvajal has shown no intention of reforming the institution,” Durbin said in a speech on the Senate floor. “For years, the Bureau of Prisons has been plagued by corruption, chronic understaffing, and misconduct by high-ranking officials.”
Under Carvajal’s leadership, the agency has experienced a multitude of crises, from the rampant spread of coronavirus inside prisons and a failed response to the pandemic to dozens of escapes, deaths and critically low staffing levels that have hampered responses to emergencies.
Durbin initially called for Carvajal to be fired days after the AP’s investigation into rampant criminal activity among employees, which found the agency has turned a blind eye to employees accused of misconduct and has failed to suspend officers who themselves had been arrested for crimes. Two-thirds of the criminal cases against Justice Department personnel in recent years have involved federal prison workers, who account for less than one-third of the department’s workforce. “It’s a recurring pattern of misconduct by officials within the Bureau of Prisons who believe they can abuse inmates and break the laws with impunity,” Durbin said.
Durbin also pointed to a series of recent violent incidents within the federal prison system, including an attack earlier this month at FCI Fort Dix, a low-security prison in Burlington County, New Jersey, that is run by the same warden who was in charge of a Manhattan federal jail when financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself.