The current Director of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Michael Carvajal, was named as head of the agency in February 2020 and inherited management of federal correctional institutions at one of the most challenging times in the agency’s history. As the virus started to spread across the United States, actions were taken to address the contagion among the inmate population, where social distancing is difficult and medical care inadequate. On March 26, 2020, Carvajal plac

Two executives of a now-defunct meatpacking company pleaded guilty to selling more than $1 million dollars worth of adulterated and uninspected beef to the federal prison system, the Department of Justice announced. Jeffrey Neal Smith and Derrick Martinez, president and operations manager of West Texas Provisions, respectively, admitted to contaminating and mislabeling approximately 775,000 pounds of meat that were then distributed to 32 prisons in 18 states. Specifically, Sm

Attorney General William Barr announced Thursday that the federal government is resuming the death penalty after nearly two decades. The execution of five death row prisoners were immediately ordered beginning in December. There are currently 62 prisoners on federal death row, including white supremacist Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black worshipers at the historic Emanuel AME Church in June 2015, and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Federal prosecutors are expecte

New York (CNN-)Vivianne Guevara's work with the Federal Defenders of New York had taken her to the Metropolitan Detention Center many times, but the incessant pounding sound coming from inside the Brooklyn waterfront jail that day was unsettling. "It sounded like a cry for help, and I don't know Morse code or anything, so I couldn't tell if anybody was trying to send a message, but it sounded desperate, and it sounded like people who wanted to be heard," said Guevara, directo