WASHINGTON -- More than 100 federal prison workers have been arrested, convicted or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019, including a warden indicted for sexual abuse, an associate warden charged with murder, guards taking cash to smuggle drugs and weapons, and supervisors stealing property such as tires and tractors.
An Associated Press investigation into the federal Bureau of Prisons, an agency with an annual budget of nearly $8 billion, found instances of abuse, graft and corruption. In some cases, the agency 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. Of the 41 arrests this year, 28 were of Bureau of Prisons employees or contractors.
The FBI had five. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives each had two.
The numbers highlight how criminal behavior by employees festers inside a federal prison system meant to punish and rehabilitate people who have committed bad acts. The revelations come as advocates are pushing the Biden administration to get serious about fixing the bureau.
In one case unearthed by the AP, the agency allowed an official at a federal prison in Mississippi, whose job it was to investigate misconduct of other staff members, to remain in his position after he was arrested on charges of stalking and harassing fellow employees. That official was also allowed to continue investigating a staff member who had accused him of a crime.
In a statement to the AP, the Justice Department said it "will not tolerate staff misconduct, particularly criminal misconduct." The department said it is "committed to holding accountable any employee who abuses a position of trust, which we have demonstrated through federal criminal prosecutions and other means."
Attorney General Merrick Garland has said his deputy, Lisa Monaco, meets regularly with Bureau of Prisons officials to address issues plaguing the agency.
Federal prison workers in nearly every job function have been charged with crimes. Those employees include a teacher who pleaded guilty in January to fudging an inmate's high school equivalency and a chaplain who admitted taking at least $12,000 in bribes to smuggle Suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction, as well as marijuana, tobacco and cellphones, and leaving the items in a prison chapel cabinet for inmates to retrieve.
At the highest ranks, the warden of a federal women's prison in Dublin, Calif., was arrested in September and indicted this month on charges he molested an inmate multiple times, scheduled times where he demanded she undress in front of him and amassed a slew of nude photos of her on his government-issued phone.
One-fifth of the Bureau of Prisons cases tracked by the AP involved crimes of a sexual nature, second only to cases involving smuggled contraband.
All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. In the most egregious cases, inmates say they were coerced through fear, intimidation and threats of violence.
Theft, fraud and lying on paperwork after inmate deaths have also been issues.
Earlier this month, three employees and eight former inmates at the notorious New York City federal jail where financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself were indicted in what prosecutors said was an extensive bribery and contraband smuggling scheme.
The Justice Department closed the jail in October, citing deplorable conditions for inmates. Last year, a gun got into the building.
One of the charged employees, a unit secretary, was also accused of misrepresenting gang member Anthony "Harv" Ellison as a "model inmate" to get him a lesser sentence.
The Bureau of Prisons, which houses more than 150,000 federal inmates and employs about 37,500 people, has lurched from crisis to crisis in the past few years -- 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.
In interviews, more than 12 bureau staff members have also raised concerns that the agency's disciplinary system has led to an outsize focus on alleged misconduct by rank-and-file employees and they say allegations of misconduct made against senior executives and wardens are more easily brushed aside.
The bureau said it requires background checks and carefully screens and evaluates prospective employees to ensure they meet its core values. The agency said it requires its employees to "conduct themselves in a manner that fosters respect for the BOP, Department of Justice, and the U.S. Government."
