WASHINGTON (AP) — The director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons is defending his decision to stand behind a top agency official who rose through the ranks after beating black inmates in the 1990s, saying Tuesday that he feels he has shown remorse and that it deserves a thing. second. chance.
Colette Peters, who made the first comments since The Associated Press published an investigation into Thomas Ray Hinkle’s sordid past and subsequent promotions, said she met Hinkle shortly after he started as principal in August and that she left convinced she should keep her job.
“He openly shared with me some of his past and told me that he is a changed man, that he is not the person he was 25 years ago and that he wants to spend the rest of his career helping people understand that he is not it is exactly the same. mistakes,” Peters said.
“It’s the kind of behavioral change we look for in both those in our custody and those who work for us. Some don’t get a second chance. But he owned it.
Peters spoke to the AP after testifying Tuesday before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has spent months examining the Bureau of Prisons’ failure to crack down on sexually abusive staff behavior.
Subcommittee Chairman Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said the eight-month bipartisan investigation — following the arrest of a director and other workers at a federal women’s prison in Dublin, Calif. — shows the agency is “systematically failing” its duty. to protect women prisoners from the “cruel and unusual punishment” of abuse by prison workers.
The Bureau of Prisons’ failure to detect and prevent staff assaults on inmates led to dozens of assaults and left some accused workers free to offend again, the subcommittee found. The findings reflect common complaints about the agency’s reporting of sexual abuse and other misconduct by staff, some of which has been detailed in AP reports.
Among the subcommittee’s other findings: audits designed to ensure compliance with a federal prison rape prevention law were deemed inadequate; prisoners who report abuse often face retaliation; and the agency’s Internal Affairs office faces a backlog of 8,000 cases, including hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse. Peters said he has added 40 employees to the internal affairs office to process cases more quickly.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
At Dublin Prison, rape prevention audits were overseen by former warden Ray Garcia, who was convicted last week of abusing three inmates. At a prison in Coleman, Florida, where six have been accused of sexually abusing inmates since 2012, officials turned all the inmates away two days before they were to be heard by auditors.
“This situation is intolerable,” Ossoff said. “Sexual abuse of prisoners is a serious abuse of human and constitutional rights and cannot be tolerated by the United States Congress.”
Tuesday’s hearing began with disturbing testimony from three victims of sexual abuse by inmate staff: women who say the Bureau of Prisons exacerbated their suffering by ignoring warning signs, allowing cover-ups and failing to equip prisons with practical tools such as working security cameras.
Carolyn Richardson recounted how a corrections officer at a federal penitentiary in New York City exploited her visual impairment by sexually assaulting her after taking her to medical appointments. A sometimes tearful Briane Moore said the prison captain who abused her threatened to put her in solitary confinement or transfer her to another prison if she reported it.
Linda De La Rosa said the Bureau of Prisons “completely failed” to allow the corrections officer who assaulted her and three other women in 2019 at Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, to continue working despite previous charges of sexual abuse. The officer, Christopher Goodwin, pleaded guilty in March and is serving 11 years in prison.
“The problem is the old boys’ club,” De La Rosa said. “Prison staff, managers, investigators, corrections officers have been working together for years, if not decades. No one wants to rock the boat, let alone listen to the inmates. There is no objective and independent supervision”.
The AP typically does not identify people who claim to be victims of sexual assault unless they give permission, as Richardson, Moore and De La Rosa did. Any sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. Correctional officers enjoy substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives, from mealtimes to lights out, and there is not a single scenario in which an inmate could agree.
Peters, who testified alongside Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, vowed to change the culture that allowed officers to sexually assault inmates. She reiterated the Bureau of Prisons’ zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct by staff and said she has called for transparency throughout the agency so she is not kept in the dark about any incidents that occur.
Last month, a Justice Department task force issued recommendations to reduce sexually abusive behavior by staff. These include: launching a process for anonymous reporting of abuse, reviewing the investigation, seeking longer prison terms for workers convicted of abuse, and possibly granting early release to inmate victims.
Peters, who visited Dublin at the start of his term, said the crisis showed some prisons were infected with a “culture of abuse and misconduct” and that “when high-level officials get involved in these flagrant crimes, there is clearly a culture of abuse.
“This culture must be restored to ensure the safety and security of those in our care and custody,” Peters testified. “And I think we have systemic workplace changes that will help us restore that culture there and within the Federal Bureau of Prisons.”
As for Hinkle, Peters will face more questions about him this week when he meets with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin. The Illinois Democrat tweeted that he was “deeply troubled by the allegations” in the AP article about Hinkle “and if the BOP addresses the abuses, it will prioritize safety and improve their flawed approach to investigating misconduct.”
On Monday, prison workers and union officials picketed outside the agency’s regional office in Stockton, Calif., and called on Peters to fire Hinkle and his boss, regional director Melissa Rios.
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