Senators blasted BOP director for worsening conditions at the Atlanta federal prison

• Senators heavily criticized BOP Director Michael Carvajal during a congressional hearing.
• Lawmakers expressed concerns about the problems occuring within a federal Atlanta prison.

The outgoing Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal came under fire Tuesday as a bipartisan group of senators grilled the director over concerns about worsening conditions at a federal prison in Atlanta.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said there are multiple reports documenting the unsanitary conditions and illegal drug use taking place at the prison, troubling allegations that come amid reports that the system has struggled to address suicides committed by incarcerated individuals at the facility.

"These were stunning failures of federal prison administration that likely contributed to the loss of life," the senator from Georgia said during the congressional hearing on Tuesday. "Conditions for inmates were abusive and inhumane and should concern all of us who believe in our country's constitutional traditions."

Ossoff pointed to a letter that a Georgia federal judge sent to US Penitentiary Atlanta Warden Sylvester Jenkins on January 14. In the letter, the judge stated that they had received several complaints that the prison had "rats in the building," "roaches in the food" and said that incarcerated individuals "lacked access to hygiene products in the facility."

The Georgia senator also said that between 2012 to 2020, 12 incarcerated individuals at the facility died by suicide.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said Carvajal is displaying almost "willful ignorance" after he told lawmakers on the panel that he was not alerted early on about the unsanitary conditions at the federal prison in Atlanta.

"I'm sorry, they have not been effectively addressed," he said. "These are outstanding issues for years. Somebody has got to be held accountable."

Carvajal said that once he became aware of the conditions at the Atlanta prison last year, he took "immediate action" to address some of these problems.

"We recognize the gravity of the alleged misconduct at USP Atlanta. It is and was unacceptable—and must never happen again at that facility or any other. That is why we responded with strong steps in the summer of 2021 to address the problems at that institution. We believe it is essential that we continue improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations," he said during the hearing.

The hearing comes after the subcommittee announced last week that it would investigate the conditions at the Atlanta federal prison. The subcommittee also issued a subpoena to compel Carvajal to testify about these conditions and his efforts to address these problems.

In recent months, Carvajal, who was appointed during the Trump administration, has been under intense scrutiny for how the BOP handled conditions within federal prisons amid the pandemic. Insider previously reported that federal employees say prison conditions have worsened amid the pandemic despite President Joe Biden's pledge to improve them.

Earlier this year, Carvajal announced that he would step down from his position. The Justice Department recently announced it was replacing Carvajal with Colette Peters, who currently oversees Oregon's prison system. She will begin to serve as the BOP director starting next month, according to the Justice Department.

"This is clearly a diseased bureaucracy," Ossoff said. "And it speaks ill to our national values and our national spirit that we let this persist year after year and decade after decade."