Prison Personnel Describe Horrific Conditions, and Cover-Up, at Atlanta Prison
This article excerpt features Government Accountability Project clients Dr. Erika Ramirez and Ms. Terri Whitehead, and was originally published here.
“WASHINGTON — Widespread drug abuse, substandard medical and mental health care, out-of-control violence and horrific sanitary conditions are rampant at a federal prison in Atlanta, a new congressional investigation into the federal Bureau of Prisons has found.
The problems plaguing the medium-security prison, which holds around 1,400 people, are so notorious within the federal government that its culture of indifference and mismanagement is derisively known among bureau employees as “the Atlanta way.”
But whistle-blowers, including two top prison officials, documented the depth of dysfunction at U.S. Penitentiary Atlanta during a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, describing dozens of violent episodes — and the systematic effort to downplay and cover up the crisis — over the past few years.
“My very first day, I sat in my car and said, ‘What the hell — how does this happen in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons?’” Terri Whitehead, who served as one of the prison’s top administrators until recently, said before members of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The conditions at the prison, while extreme, reflect wider problems in the bureau’s sprawling network of 122 facilities housing about 158,000 inmates. The system has suffered from chronic overcrowding, staffing shortages, corruption, sexual violence and a culture that often encourages senior officials to minimize the extent of the problems.”