As conditions at Federal Correctional Institution-Miami continue to get worse, families lament that neither their political representatives nor Justice Department officials are willing to take responsibility.
As of Friday, the Bureau of Prisons website lists 96 inmates and 23 staff as having tested positive for the coronavirus. But the situation in the prison doesn’t appear to be improving. The Washington Examiner has attained correspondence between one prisoner and his family. It states desperately that “someone needs to let the media know what’s going on in here. Now that the virus is spreading and people are dying, they have shut off our communication, hoping to hide everything.”
This fits with my reporting last week on the dichotomy between what the Bureau of Prisons is saying about conditions in the prison and the actual reality as reported by prisoners to their families. Multiple families have told me that the prison’s commanding officer, Warden Sylvester Jenkins, has responded to the raising of concerns by punishing prisoners and further restricting their rights. Families insist the prison continues to lack adequate personal protective equipment supplies and that Jenkins is refusing to allow nonviolent prisoners to be released on temporary furlough, so as to mitigate the strains on his facility. One prisoner alleges that the quarantine unit is at maximum capacity and covered in bodily fluids.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that anyone is willing to address these issues. Families say that Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio have been reluctant to question the Bureau of Prisons over the situation directly. One family member told me that they want to see questions from their senators in the vein of Rep. Sylvia Garcia’s challenge to Attorney General William Barr, this week, on the situation in federal prisons in Texas. The questioning matters because the bureau itself doesn’t seem particularly interested in improving matters. The bureau did not respond to my last email.
True, there’s no question that the bureau must be facing a major challenge as it seeks to balance prisoner and staff safety with public protection. Still, the systemic issues at FCI Miami deserve greater and more expedient attention.
Ultimately, the buck must stop with Barr. If bureau Director Michael Carvajal is unwilling or unable to lead his agency, Barr must find someone who can do so. It is clear that what is happening at FCI Miami falls far short of the basic level of care to which prisoners — and their families — are entitled.
