For those who believe federal prisons are a summer camp:

[mucifer]

In July 2021, he was sent to the Special Management Unit at the new U.S. penitentiary in Thomson, Ill. — a program meant for some of the most violent and disruptive prisoners, though many have ended up there who don't fit that description. Everson, who was serving time for drug and weapon charges, had recently been written up for "threatening bodily harm" and "assault without serious injury," though prison records don't provide details. After his transfer, his letters home to his family in New York grew more desperate with each passing week.

Everson, who the family called AJ, told them he was locked down nearly 24 hours a day with a cellmate, in cells so small that the toilet was crammed next to the bottom bunk. He was let out only for occasional medical appointments, showers or an hour of exercise in an outdoor cage. He could hear guards in riot gear blasting men on his tier with pepper spray and locking them in hard restraints. His own wrists, ankles and abdomen were scarred from these shackles — prisoners called it the "Thomson tattoo," according to attorneys.

In late November, Everson got in a fight with his new cellmate. "I'm doing my best to bob and weave these incidents," he wrote. "Keep calling up here, inquiring on me any lil free time you get."

Seventeen days later, Everson, 36, was found dead in his cell. It was a homicide caused by "blunt trauma" with an object, according to prison records. Federal prosecutors have yet to file charges against anyone in connection to his death, which is still under investigation.

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/31/1100954134/federal-prison-deaths-usp-thomson-illinois-prison

It's hards to find the right paragraphs to cut and past. It's NPR so no paywall to read the whole thing. It's truly horrific.

[grumpyduck]

1. I dunno... strictly from what I read,

it seems the problem goes way deeper than "conditions."

Sounds like it begins with the type of people these places hire and how they're trained and supervised. IOW, start looking at the top.

[Tommy Carcetti]

2. Minimum security federal prisons are better than most state or higher security federal prisons.

Think Martha Stewart.

That being said, they're still not pleasant places or "summer camps" a la Scandanavian prisons by any stretch of the imagination.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Prisons don't keep people safe.

[niyad]

4. My local alternative paper, the Independent, had its main article about the

incredible rising death rate in our penal system at all levels.