Federal Bureau of Prisons Fails to Hold Officials Accountable for Torture, New Report Says

https://www.washlaw.org/federal-bureau-of-prisons-fails-to-hold-officials-accountable-for-torture-new-report-says/

Among many examples of abuse described in the report:

  • Officials at Thomson forced Kareem Louis into a cell with an individual they knew was dangerous. The cellmate stabbed Louis in the hands, back, arms, and neck, then raped him while he was unconscious.
  • When Daryl Hickson objected to a cell assignment because of a conflict with his cellmate, a white guard told him, “You either kill or be killed.” The guard then added, “You’re going back in that cell to get killed, “n****r.” When Hickson continued to object, officials dragged him to the restraint room where they shackled and stretched all four of his limbs and left him that way for hours.
  • B. attempted suicide nine times in the special management unit. Once, after telling staff he had swallowed excess pills, guards restrained him to a chair for 24 hours. He was denied food, water, and access to a toilet the entire time.
  • When S., who is transgender, filed a handwritten complaint about her treatment, officials placed her in a cell with an openly anti-LGBTQIA cellmate, who beat her, at the officials’ behest.