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Final week, the Federal Bureau of Prisons posted a video of Deputy Director Josh Smith vowing to “make the BOP nice once more.” The seven-minute clip echoes the guarantees of change company leaders have repeated in video bulletins for months because the BOP struggles with a staffing disaster and funds shortfalls.
As a reporter protecting the federal jail system, I wish to know: How’s that going?
It has been a chaotic 12 months within the Bureau of Prisons. The identical day Trump took workplace, the company director was fired. Then, bonuses had been canceled. The union contract was scrapped. Dozens of prisoners and jail employees instructed me about shortages of primary wants, from rest room paper to meals. And a whole lot of exhausted officers have left, many lured away by higher pay at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as I reported final week.
The identical day my story printed, the company posted one other video of Smith, this time saying a plan to spice up the BOP ranks by bringing again “considerably enhanced” retention incentives and providing one-time bonuses, paid for partly, he stated, from financial savings from the canceled union contract.
“Now we’re all again working as one workforce,” he stated. “Every little thing’s not going to get fastened instantly. However the onerous work has began, and, because of President Trump, we’re constructing a bureau the place each employees member is proud to serve.”
The announcement riled union officers. In an e-mail to members, union leaders wrote that the video was “designed to create a story that the union was the issue” and that canceling the contract in some way “fastened” it.
I’ve been investigating the federal jail system for years, and I’m going to report on what comes subsequent. I’m particularly concerned about suggestions in regards to the management’s priorities, contracting and funds selections, and considerations about wrongdoing or abuses of energy. And I’m at all times concerned about any paperwork or information you may share to color a fuller image of what’s occurring contained in the bureau.
At ProPublica, we recognize you sharing your story, and we take your privateness severely. I’m gathering these tales for the needs of my reporting and can contact you if we want to publish any a part of your story. I could not be capable to reply to everybody personally, however I promise to learn the whole lot you submit.
In case you are a present jail worker or you’ve gotten notably delicate data to share, you may contact me straight via Sign at KeriB.123.
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