In an unprecedented move, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has locked down all of its 122 facilities across the United States as a result of a fight at the high security prisons, USP Beaumont (Texas) where multiple men were injured and two killed.
BOP employees received a notice stating:
“Effective January 31, 2022, The Federal Bureau of Prisons was placed on a National Lock-down. The Lock-down was initiated out of abundance of caution due to current events which occurred at another facility. This order is to ensure the safety and security of all staff and inmates.”
This incident involved members of the notorious MS-13 gang killing two prisoners belonging to the Surenos, loosely affiliated gangs that pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia. A third prisoner is in critical condition at the hospital. Fearing further violence throughout the prison system, the BOP understandably had to take some action.
It is not unusual that fights or death occur at federal prisons where high security inmates are located. In 2018, notorious organized crime gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, was killed within days of arriving at USP Hazelton in West Virginia. An inmate-on-inmate fight in December at the high security prison in Florence, CO resulted in an inmate death ... it was the 3rd death as a result of an attack inside a BOP facility during the month of December 2021.
National lockdowns of all facilities were ordered with widespread COVID-19 outbreaks but national lockdowns are rarely done for security reasons. Facilities were locked down during the national protests associated with the death of George Floyd, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 attacks and the crisis when Cuban inmates rioted about their detention in Atlanta and Oakdale (Louisiana) federal prisons. There was also a temporary lockdown around the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Now, the entire BOP is on edge and for good reason.
COVID-19 has taken a mental toll on all inmates from minimum security camps to high security US Penitentiaries. Since March 2020, many prisoners have been confined to their cells, have had limited contact with family (social visits suspended in most locations), restricted programs and restricted recreational activities. The emergence of the Omicron throughout every BOP institution is further aggravating the situation.
The BOP’s Director, Michael Carvajal, and its Deputy Director, Gene Beasley, both announced their retirements in early January 2022. No replacements have been named. Their retirements come amid tensions with prison union members who are complaining of staff shortages, which they claim have made U.S. federal prisons even more dangerous. The departure of Carvajal had been called for by leaders in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Politicians are now weighing in on the events in Beaumont.
U.S. Representative Randy Weber (R-TX) issued a statement about the Beaumont incident and struck a cord of concern over a more systemic problem in prisons ... staff shortages. “While instances of prison violence are not always avoidable, staffing shortages across the federal system—and especially at the Federal Correctional Center (FCC) in Beaumont—contribute to dangerous working conditions that endanger the lives of guards and inmates alike...”
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley called on elected officials to take immediate action to address a shortage of corrections officers issuing a statement that read, “The violent attack at USP Beaumont that resulted in the death of two inmates is a vivid reminder of the dangers faced by every correctional officer and employee who works in the Bureau of Prisons,” Kelley said. “As the exclusive union representative for federal correctional officers and staff, AFGE has long warned that the chronic understaffing of our prisons is jeopardizing the lives of both workers and inmates.” Had a staff member been killed, there would have been congressional enquiries and an overhaul of the BOP. Rather than do that, a national lockdown will have to suffice until a new BOP director is appointed.
FCC Beaumont is an expansive complex of nearly 5,000 federal prisoners ranging in security levels from minimum to high, housing the most dangerous and violent prisoners in the BOP. It was at the high security USP Beaumont where a fight broke out between rival gangs leaving two prisoners dead and many injured. FCC Beaumont’s Warden is Bryan K. Dobbs who has held numerous senior positions at other institutions over his career at the BOP.
In 2014, Dobbs was Captain at FCI Miami over Lieutenant Kevin Burden who was accused of sexually harassing a fellow corrections officer ... asking to touch her, sending pornographic and sexually explicit texts. An arbitrator found that administration at FCI Miami took part in a “grand cover up of sexual harassment” ... “the victim’s complaints fell on deaf ears”.... “FCI Miami Adminstration provided little or no opportunities for the victim to avoid harm.” Burden, had a previous claim of sexual harassment by a female corrections officer at nearby FDC Miami. That female corrections officer was terminated.
According to someone familiar with BOP practices who is still in the organization, “regional offices of the BOP are usually called ‘the penalty box’ where those who might find themselves in controversy can hang out until the dust settles.” MCC New York Warden Lamine N’Diaye was transferred to the BOP’s Northeast Regional Office just after Jeffrey Epstein hung himself while awaiting trial. N’Diaye is now the Warden at FCI Ft. Dix (in New Jersey). Dobbs spent two years as a Senior Correctional Services Administrator in the North Central Regional Office of the BOP after being Captain at FCI Miami, before landing as an associate warden at Beaumont. Finally he was promoted to the position of Warden at FCI Miami in August 2017, then FCI Williamsburg before landing the job as Complex Warden at FCC Beaumont.
In 2018, under the executive management of Warden Dobbs, FCI Miami was cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for noted hazards associated with workplace violence. The report concluded that OSHA found “Employees working in the housing units at FCI Miami who were exposed to two separate incidents of violent behavior during routines searches for contraband ... On three separate incidents, female staff were exposed to sexual assault and violent threats from an inmate who was transferred from a Level 4 facility to FCI Miami, a Level 2 facility .... employees were threatened bodily harm by inmates who received management variables to transfer to FCI Miami, a low security prison.” Under Dobbs a case manager was indicted on contraband charges and it was also reported here that a renegade contraband regime enticed prisoners to bring in drugs and cell phones to entrap other staff members.
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, then Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, wrote a letter to the BOP director in 2018 citing FCI Miami for prisoner assaults against correctional staff, flooded housing units, broken radio systems that prevented emergency response and whistleblower retaliation. FCI Miami is a Low security prison.
In 2018, U.S. Representative Trey Gowdy, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to then-BOP Director Mark Inch concerning Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints regarding “credible information” of inmate health and well-being potentially being ignored, unwanted sexual advances among staff, inebriated staff, and unsafe operating conditions. Gowdy specifically asked Director Inch to provide all “Documents referring or relating to any complaint filed against the following BOP officials from January 1, 2013, to the present:”. The names of the five individuals were redacted from the publicly available document but, according to a Joe Rojas who was then-President of AFGE Local 506 who was privy to the original Gowdy letter , one of the five names Bryan K. Dobbs.
Rojas told me in an interview that when Dobbs, then-Warden at FCI Williamsburg, had a sign made and placed at the entrance to the institution renaming it “The Burg.” Rojas said that he and then-Southeast Regional Director Jeffrey Keller, held an intervention with Dobbs. Rojas said, “The guy was a bully and, to his credit, he finally came around and apologized but it took a while.”
AFGE Local 501 President Eric Speirs, who represents union members working at FDC Miami, told me in an interview that he was the union steward at FCI Miami when Warden Dobbs was in charge. “Dobbs once bragged in Annual Refresher Training that he had a PhD ... Public High School Diploma.” Dobbs, like the current BOP Director Carvajal, do not have college degrees. As Speirs told me, “I think those guys saw it [no college degree] as badge of honor.”
