Worker safety questioned in wake of Beaumont prison brawl

A mass melee that resulted in the death of two prisoners inside the walls of a Beaumont federal prison partially prompted a total system-wide lockdown of inmates housed at Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities nationwide on Monday, Jan. 31. In the wake of the bloodshed, officials are now questioning the safety of employees tasked with prisoner oversight, especially that of workers in Southeast Texas.

According to reports released in the aftermath of the Beaumont inmate deaths, “multiple” men at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) maximum security facility were involved in a fight that sparked at approximately 11:30 the morning of Jan. 31. Four were sent to the hospital for treatment of their injuries; two inmates, Guillermo Riojas and Andrew Pineda, were “subsequently pronounced deceased by hospital staff.”

Both decedents were alleged M-13 gang members.

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley expressed that such carnage could be the result of understaffed prisons, and warns that it could have been civilians who lost their lives due to the inability to properly manage the number of prisoners housed in Beaumont with a staff severely undermanned.

“The violent attack at USP Beaumont that resulted in the death of two inmates is a vivid reminder of the dangers faced by every correctional officer and employee who works in the Bureau of Prisons,” Kelley said. “As the exclusive union representative for federal correctional officers and staff, AFGE has long warned that the chronic understaffing of our prisons is jeopardizing the lives of both workers and inmates.

“While no employees were reportedly injured in this most recent attack, they may not be so lucky next time. Our elected leaders must take immediate action to ensure all federal prisons have the staff and resources they need to safely carry out their duties.”

The national union representative was joined in his argument by local U.S. Rep. Randy Weber.

“I am deeply troubled by the loss of life that occurred … at the United States Penitentiary, Beaumont,” Weber penned in a public release to the media. “While we await more information from officials at the facility and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), our office has also offered assistance.

“While instances of prison violence are not always avoidable, staffing shortages across the federal system – and especially at the Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) in Beaumont – contribute to dangerous working conditions that endanger the lives of guards and inmates alike.”

Weber added that he supports reform for correctional officer pay, to make the position more competitive for job-seekers, and specifically addressed pleas made to BOP Director Michael Carvajal addressing the staffing issues at FCC Beaumont.  According to Weber, correspondence was forwarded to Carvajal in September 2021, but, “To date, I have not received a response from Director Carvajal.”

Absent BOP intervention, Weber is of the belief issues at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Complex will continue.

“If the underlying issues that plague the BOP are not addressed, I am afraid that we will continue to see instances of violence throughout the federal prison system,” Weber affirmed. “I will continue to work with my colleagues on the BOP Reform Caucus to address these concerns, and I call on Director Carvajal to fulfill his duty as Director of the BOP to take immediate action to secure our prisons and to work with Congress to solve the staffing problems.”

The maximum security facility where the homicides occurred is home to 1,372 inmates designated as the system’s most difficult to oversee. The FCC Beaumont also consists of a medium security prison, which houses 1,467 prisoners, as well as a low security facility and camp that houses 1,974.

In a management report produced by the Investigations Division of the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General in June 2021, security concerns were noted at Beaumont FCC long before two men were killed.

“The OIG has found through multiple investigations that many FPCs and SPCs have security weaknesses that have in some cases enabled inmates to escape undetected,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote of BOP facilities in general, at Beaumont in particular. “While the security weaknesses vary by facility, they include unsecured outer building doors within some FPCs and SPCs, even during times when inmates were not permitted to move freely; door locks and sensors that were susceptible to tampering, thus leading to alarms failing to function when locked doors were opened without authorization; limited or no outer perimeter fencing; and limited video surveillance.”

Horowitz explained that, in the case of a fairly recent inmate escape in Beaumont, “the escape of four inmates was not detected for over 12 hours, despite three overnight inmate counts conducted during that time period,” and, “we found that the outer doors of separate buildings within the SPC at FCC Beaumont were unsecured in that they were unlocked, were unmanned, were not equipped with surveillance cameras, and had either nonfunctioning alarms or alarms that could be manipulated by inmates, even during times when inmates were not permitted to move freely within the SPC, such as during counts and at nighttime.”

Inmates placing dummies in their beds or physically placing themselves in other inmate beds during inmate counts to deceive correctional officers as to their true whereabouts was not uncommon, and was common knowledge, Horowitz further explained, and inmates could easily escape the Beaumont FCC camp undetected as long as they returned before 10 a.m. – which they do, to retrieve and bring contraband into the Beaumont prison facilities.

“During the FCC Beaumont investigation and other OIG investigations, the OIG has found that inmates escaping into the community can place the community at risk,” the report concluded, and that “gaps in security at FPCs and SPCs present risks that inmates will escape and, if they return, smuggle contraband back into facilities undetected, which endangers the community, other BOP inmates and correctional staff.”