Oregon Department of Prisons Facilities Government Report Focus

The Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report on FCI Sheridan, one of several federal prison facilities across the country. While the report specifically highlighted problem areas in Sheridan, most are simple challenges that exist across the BOP. This report reflects the results of separate unannounced inspections of BOP facilities (see reports for Tallahassee and Waseca here).

The OIG stated that Sheridan “…significant shortages of correctional officers and health care workers, which are a problem at many BOP institutions, have created widespread and onerous operational challenges at FCI Sheridan, and employees and “This has a significant impact on the health, welfare and safety of people.” Prisoners! ” BOP Director Colette Peters has visited many prisons across the country and recently closed the troubled FCI Dublin (California) women's prison after government agents stormed the facility in March 2024. did. The warden, chaplain, and other prison officials were charged with the crime. Rape a female prisoner.

The OIG said it plans to conduct many of these unannounced visits, and Sheridan is now being added to facilities with significant problems. The OIG found that FCI Sheridan does not have available correctional officers available to accompany inmates to outside medical providers, contributing to significant staffing shortages that are a problem for BOP populations across the country. Patients must be accompanied by a staff member when making medical appointments and hospitalization). Specifically, OIG noted during the inspection that 101 outside appointments were canceled from January to November 2023 due to a lack of staff to escort inmates to these appointments.

The OIG also found a severe shortage of FCI Sheridan staff to facilitate the BOP's Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), with only five of 16 staff positions filled at the time of the visit. It should be noted that other prisons have also recently discontinued their RDAP programs, which, if successful, can reduce prison sentences by up to a year. Due to shortages, FCI Sheridan is no longer able to provide her RDAP to many eligible inmates, particularly those who have been transferred from other facilities to participate in his FCI Sheridan programs. Three days after the OIG inspection concluded, BOP Director Colette Peters suspended RDAP at FCI Sheridan's minimum security prisoner of war camp.

Lockdowns are also a noted issue across the BOP hierarchy, as too few employees (particularly correctional officers) are available to work at the facility. At FCI Sheridan, OIG concluded that the vacancy rate for correctional officers meant that facility management could not fill all inmate supervision positions at all times and therefore lacked the staff needed to safely supervise inmates. As a result, inmates were routinely confined to their cells during the day and often unable to participate in programs and recreational activities. In addition to RDAP, there were three vacancies in the Psychological Services department (in addition to 11 vacancies for drug treatment personnel) and three vacancies in the Education department, which limited program delivery and contributed to FCI Sheridan's waiting list.

In relation to medical care, OPIG also noted a number of violations in medical care. 1) Drugs are removed from packages hours before the next pill line starts, increasing the risk of dosing errors as the employee removing the drug from the package may not be the same employee dispensing it later . 2) BOP staff reused the same bag when crushing different drugs. This can lead to drug cross-contamination, and inmates may have adverse reactions to contaminated drugs. 3) BOP did not consistently identify each patient by testing him for two forms of identification before dispensing the drug.

The OIG wrote of one situation in which an inmate took matters into his own hands to receive treatment: Infected hair. After faking a suicide attempt, he was finally tested and found that he needed to be hospitalized for five days to be treated for an infection. ”

Finally, the OIG found that FCI Sheridan did not centrally track the number of allegations of inmate-on-inmate sexual misconduct reported to employees. The failure to accurately track these allegations compromised the ability of both FCI Sheridan and the BOP to collect data pursuant to the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).