Union chief takes issue with findings of probe at Atlanta penitentiary

The leader of the union representing guards at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary is worried they are bearing the blame for systemic issues at the prison that were highlighted in a U.S. Senate subcommittee report.

Union President Morell Huguley sent a letter to the panel’s chairman, Georgia Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, inviting him to tour the prison.

He said in the letter that union members who work in the medium-security prison were “embarrassed” by the investigation and objected to descriptions of employees there as “dirty.”

“The term ‘dirty staff ’ is a horrific term in our profession,” he told Ossoff. “It is the most disgusting term to describe an individual correctional worker. This term has been used loosely to describe all staff here at (the penitentiary).”

A 10-month investigation by Ossoff ’s panel, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, depicted a number of problems at the prison, including sewage backups, mold, ubiquitous contraband and a troubling suicide rate among inmates.

A rat infestation was so bad, an ex-administrator testified, that staff propped open doors at the lockup so stray cats could enter and prey on the vermin.

Ossoff placed much of the blame for the penitentiary’s troubles on the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

“The investigation has revealed that gross misconduct persisted at this prison for at least nine years, and that much of the damning information revealing misconduct, abuse and corruption was known to BOP and accessible to BOP leadership during that period,” he said at a hearing in July.

He added that the penitentiary’s Correctional Services staff “engaged in misconduct with impunity and, according to BOP’s own internal investigations, lacked regard for human life.”

“Vast quantities of contraband, including weapons and narcotics, flowed through the prison, enabled by staff corruption,” he said.

Huguley said the hearing placed an unfair amount of responsibility on union members rather than on managers. He traced some of the criticism to “disgruntled supervisors in management positions, who were otherwise complicit with the alleged corruption that has been ongoing in this agency for years.”

Ossoff ’s office said the senator has since spoken with Huguley and has also expressed interest in touring the prison.