Freedom of Information and the U.S. Department of Justice

There has been another gang fight (9/17/2006) at the Federal Correctional Institution ("FCI") La Tuna, New Mexico/Texas (the prison actually straddles the border, though almost all prisoner claims must go to a Texas court). There is still a possibly unlawful "control unit" of hyper-high-security inmates operating at the FCI Victorville "Medium" II, outside Adelanto, California. The "Medium" means that FCI was designed for medium-security inmates, not the Worst of the Worst from the West Coast. Inmates in Federal Bureau of Prisons ("BOP") custody are not receiving medical care they need and request; they are not receiving medications; they are not receiving essential -- and re-offense stopping -- Drug Abuse Programming; and Federal inmates are dying as a result of BOP neglect, understaffing, and lack of funding. Then, while visiting families are scanned and frisked and denied entry because of questionable technology -- Ion Spectrometry -- BOP guards are often the actually culprits who smuggle drugs and cell phones and cash into inmates. When the Justice Department sent agents in June 2006 to arrest one such group of crooked guards, at the FCI Tallahassee, Florida, Correctional Officer Ralph Hill killed a Justice Department agent with his personal weapon (which CO Hill had smuggled into the prison), and then died in the resulting firefight -- inside a Federal prison. Two other COs arrested at Tallahassee that day have already pled guilty to misconduct in Tallahassee's sex-for-contraband ring. See, for example, the Tallahassee Democrat, "Second FCI officer pleads guilty" (http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060914/BREAKINGNEWS/609140351). Why should you care? You should care because your tax dollars are being wasted, and lives are being destroyed on your dime. You should also care because, in a worst case scenario, the violent inmates we fear most could get loose in your neighborhood, because of these problems (like understaffing). I am an attorney who has asked for records from the BOP about some of these problems, without any compensation, and in the public's interest -- in your interest. I operate a website pro bono publico (for the public good) that documents just some of our Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") requests, about La Tuna and Victorville. I ask you go to http://www.victorvillefoia.org/, that pro bono website. I ask you read some of the materials (which I will make more user-friendly soon). I ask, if you have a desire for the BOP to finally be held accountable for its conduct, that you please sign the Guestbook. That Guestbook will be filed with Federal courts as I sue for the various records that the BOP -- our Department of Justice -- says are not in the public's interest. Show the DOJ and the BOP that you are interested in what they do, and what they do to voiceless prisoners. Vote for some open BOP records, and some accountability from DOJ's D.C. offices. Use your voice to help those who have no voice. When these untreated and angry prisoners are eventually released, all our lives may depend on it. Thank you, Jay