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Citizens
United for Rehabilitation of Errants Federal Prison
Chapter
A National Effort to
Reduce Crime
Through Federal Criminal
Justice Reform
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Federal
CURE, Inc. 33318-5667 E-mail:
information@FedCURE.org Web site: www.FedCURE.org |
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Chairman of the Board Kenny
H. Linn, J.D., L.L.M. Executive Director Office
Vacant Board of
Directors
Mark
A. Varca, J.D. Chief Information Officer Elizabeth
Alexander, J.D. Paula
Eyre Jana
V. Jay, J.D. Rev.
Alan Laird Sylvia
McAfee John
McCarty Justine
C. McCarty Daniel
S. Murphy, Ph. D.
Fred M. Mosely, J.D., L.L.M. Stephen
C. Richards, Ph. D. Mike
Shryock, M.Ed. Charles
& Pauline Sullivan Co-Directors Daniel
K. Akaka (HI) Tom
Harkin (IA) James
M. Jeffords (VT) Howard
L. Berman
(CA) William
L. Clay (MO) Bob
Clement (D) TN John
Conyers, Jr. (MI) Lane
Evans (IL) Martin
Frost (TX) Sheila
Jackson-Lee(TX) John
Lewis (GA) James
P. Moran, Jr. (VA) Charles
B. Rangel (NY) Martin
O. Sabo (MN) Robert
Scott (VA) Louise
M. Slaughter (NY) Fortney
"Pete" Stark (CA) Mel
Watt (NC) |
November 30, 2004 Mr. Harley G. Lappin, Director Bureau of Prisons 320 First St., NW Washington DC 20534 Dear Mr. Lappin: On June 9th of this year, I met with you and your staff and presented four major issues that we at FedCure thought should be brought to your attention. The first issue was medical complaints and how best to deal with them. I am pleased to report that I have a good working relationship with my medical liaison in Central Office and we have been able to allay most of the fears brought to me by friends and families of inmates and we are reasonably able to stay on top of medical emergencies. The second issue was the use of the ion spectrometers at visiting and what could be done to limit false positives and the result of limited visitor access. This is the response to my latest request last week for initiation of a policy in this area: We are on schedule as previously indicated. The policy has been negotiated
with union officials and we are trying to finalize things. I appreciate your patience and
hope to have something out to the field soon.
The third request was to terminate the unwritten policy of keeping USP inmates in SHU for inordinate periods of time without the ability to transfer or return to the Compound even though they have not been charged with a disciplinary violation or their time is up. This is the response I got when I questioned the unwritten policy: As explained to you at the meeting with the Director and by follow-up with ……, we do have a policy regarding the Special Housing Units.
This is
not the case and I believe you were surprised when I told you that inmates
who were not trying to manipulate transfers were being kept in SHU for
years with no justification and contrary to existing policy. The SHUs are overflowing and there
are many inmates that have been left there for years and are invariably
lost after such long periods of time. My understanding was that a new
national policy statement would be forthcoming to update an expired ops
memo, which itself did not permit this practice and I respectfully request
that one be issued. The fourth request was to allow
visitor processing to begin at the 8:00 AM shift change, so that on the
weekends the visitors, many of whom had been lined up for hours, would not
have to wait for count clearance and lose half a day’s worth of
visiting. Although you and
your staff agreed that theoretically this seemed to be a good idea have
seen no change in policy. I would appreciate your review of
my letter and comments above and request a response so we can keep our
constituency informed.
Thank you for your
consideration. Very truly
yours, Kenneth Linn, J.D.,
LL.M. Chairman, FedCure
Serving Federal Prisoners and Their
Families
Working to Reinstate Parole and to
Increase Good Time Allowances
"Using
Technology To Bring About Federal Criminal Justice Reform"
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