An investigation by the Associated Press (AP) found that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which has an annual budget of nearly $8 billion, is filled with people who turn a blind eye to employees credibly accused of misconduct.
According to the investigation, two-thirds of the criminal cases filed against Department of Justice personnel in recent years have involved federal prison workers, even though they account for just 37,500 of the department's more than 110,000 employees.
Of the 41 Justice Department officials arrested in 2021, 28 were BOP employees or contractors. Five were Federal Bureau of Investigation employees, and two each came from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
AP reviewed more than 100 cases and found that around 20 percent were accused or have been found guilty of committing crimes of a sexual nature. The over 100 cases also showed that federal prison workers in nearly every job function have been charged with committing crimes.
In one incident in Sept. 2021, Ray Garcia, the associate warden for the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, California, was charged with sexually abusing a woman. The Justice Department said Garcia took naked photos of the woman and had tried to stop her from reporting him by claiming that he was "close friends" with the investigator of inmate allegations of misconduct.
Garcia was indicted in November and could face up to 15 years in prison.
One correctional officer and drug treatment specialist for a federal prison medical center in Lexington, Kentucky threatened to kill inmates or their families if they did not go along with sexual abuse. One guard in a federal prison in Victorville, California threatened a female inmate with solitary confinement unless she agreed to be sexually abused.
Abuse of power, smuggling and murder
One incident from a federal prison in Mississippi highlights how criminal behavior by BOP employees "festers inside a federal prison system meant to punish and rehabilitate people who have committed bad acts," wrote AP journalists Michael Balsamo and Michael R. Sisak.
The official in question's main job was to investigate misconduct by other staff members. He was arrested on charges of stalking and harassing fellow employees. He was allowed to remain in his position even after his arrest, and he was also allowed to continue investigating a staff member who had accused him of misconduct. (Related: Corrupt judge ruined thousands of kids' lives by selling them to prison-industrial complex.)
In August, the associate warden for the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City was charged with killing her husband, who was also a federal prison worker. Police investigators said the associate warden shot him in the face in their New Jersey home.
Other crimes include one teacher employed by the BOP who pleaded guilty to faking an inmate's high school equivalency and a prison chaplain who admitted to taking over $12,000 in bribes to smuggle cellphones, tobacco, marijuana and Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction. The chaplain would leave the items in a cabinet in the prison chapel for inmates to retrieve.
In a statement, BOP spokeswoman Kristie Breshears declined to comment on any of the cases. She simply said that the bureau is "committed to ensuring the safety and security of all inmates in our population, our staff and the public" and that allegations of misconduct of its employees are "thoroughly investigated for potential administrative discipline or criminal prosecution."
The Justice Department has refused to comment, but said that it "will not tolerate staff misconduct, particularly criminal misconduct" and that 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."
More related stories:
American police state: No questions allowed.
Shameless police state continues to steal innocent citizens' money.
One nation under greed: The profit incentives driving the American police state.
Inmate starved to death as prison guards watched and did nothing.
Watch this episode of "InfoWars" and learn how the federal prison system kept Jan. 6 protesters behind bars as political prisoners.
This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.
Learn more about the corruption in the federal prison system at Corruption.news.
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