A medium-security prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, one of the country’s busiest federal prisons, a transit point for 27,000 inmates a year, is buckling under a staggering array of problems, including substandard health care, crumbling facilities and harassment of employees by other staff, a Justice Department watchdog announced on Thursday, The New York Times reports. The magnitude of the dysfunction at Lewisburg stunned investigators Inspector general Michael E. Horowitz, who said that the core problem is the bureau’s new but seriously flawed system for determining staffing levels at prisons. It is the centerpiece of a reform effort by the bureau’s director, Colette S. Peters, who has tried to bolster recruitment and retention of employees at a time when they can often find better-paying and less stressful work elsewhere.
Among the most alarming findings from an inspection in February, wrote NYT report Glenn Thrush: the unusual decision by the prison’s medical director to discontinue antidepressant medication for 15 inmates — without consulting or examining the patients. The omission violated bureau guidelines and put them at risk for depression and self-harm. The medical staff also failed to provide inmates with basic care, tests and screening for colorectal cancer and diabetes, according to a report on the inspection’s findings. Investigators also found that corrections staff acted in grossly inappropriate ways — hanging framed Nazi-themed art from prisoners on the walls of staff-only areas, and scrawling sexual slurs targeting fellow employees. .