Durbin calls for Garland to remove federal prisons director

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MICHAEL BALSAMO

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded Tuesday that Attorney General Merrick Garland immediately fire the director of the beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons after an Associated Press investigation detailing serious misconduct involving correctional officers.

Sen. Dick Durbin’s demand came two days after the AP revealed that more than 100 Bureau of Prisons workers have been arrested, convicted or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019. The AP investigation also found the agency has turned a blind eye to employees accused of misconduct and has failed to suspend officers who themselves had been arrested for crimes.

Durbin took particular aim at Director Michael Carvajal, who has been at the center of the agency’s myriad crises. Under Carvajal’s leadership, the agency has experienced a multitude of crises from the rampant spread of coronavirus inside prisons and a failed response to the pandemic to dozens of escapes, deaths and critically low staffing levels that have hampered responses to emergencies.

Carvajal was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr but Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said recently that she still had confidence in him despite the many serious issues during his tenure. The AP reported in June that senior officials in the Biden administration had been weighing whether to oust him. He is one of the few remaining holdovers from the Trump administration.



Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., gives opening remarks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining the Department of Justice on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis/Pool via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-crime-prisons-health-judiciary-b6d9ca267dbc52aa34ef11f47b29bfc2

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[SheilaAnn]

2. Most, if not all of trump's appointees fall into the categories of liars, cheats and ne'er do wells.

Get rid of all of them including DeJoy another offender of the highest order. None of these bums are above the law.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Seems Lisa Monaco should be removed too.

[PSPS]

8. I agree. She got where she is via Obama and Biden but her statement indicates she has to go.

[Ray Bruns]

4. Time to go. Time to clean house of trump filth.

[ancianita]

5. More crisis house keeping on the back end. This should've been much sooner. I know, too much to do.

If Durbin, majority whip, can't whip Sinemanchin, at least he can do this, so more power to him.

To examine the Department of Justice is to help Garland out. Perhaps the Judiciary Committee might even move on to examining the actual U.S. Judiciary

[ShazamIam]

6. To me, our two greatest shames as a nation, The death penality and for profit prisons.

[PSPS]

7. "one of the few remaining holdovers from the Trump administration"

There's no excuse for there being any "holdovers from the Trump administration."

[Duppers]

9. K & R

[rgbecker]

10. Here's more from July.

[link:https://apnews.com/article/michael-carvajal-federal-bureau-of-prisons-222852b5fe71d4585ae88421edcd3ec6|