Justice Department watchdog describes unsanitary conditions at Florida prison

When inspectors from the Justice Department’s internal watchdog showed up unannounced at a federal women’s prison in Tallahassee, Florida, in May, they expected to find serious problems inherent in other crumbling, understaffed Bureau of Prisons facilities.

What they encountered shocked them: moldy bread on lunch trays, rotting vegetables, breakfast cereals infested with rodents and insects, cracked or missing bathroom and ceiling tiles, mold and rot almost everywhere, leaking roofs sealed with plastic bags, windows blocked with feminine hygiene products to to keep out the rain, loose ventilation covers that created perfect hiding places for contraband and weapons.

The inspection identified “serious operational deficiencies” at the Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security complex in Tallahassee that houses approximately 750 women – “most concerning were the alarming conditions of food supply and storage operations,” according to a report by the department’s inspector general, which was made public Wednesday.

The conditions are both extreme and emblematic of the worsening crisis at the prison agency, which operates more than 120 facilities. Nearly all are in need of serious repairs and are struggling to hire and retain workers, while private sector jobs offer higher wages and less stress.

But the report also provided a rare, vivid and sometimes sickening glimpse into a vast, dysfunctional system that was supposed to ensure safe and sanitary conditions.

“It was breathtaking,” Michael E. Horowitz, Justice Department inspector general, said in an interview.

The assessment was part of a new program of intensive on-site inspections that will cover three to four prisons a year, a small but telling snapshot of the conditions in which 160,000 prisoners and around 40,000 workers live. In January and February, Mr. Horowitz’s team discovered serious structural problems at the federal women’s prison in Waseca, Minnesota.

“We regularly conduct investigations into broad systemic issues, but we have begun using this unannounced inspection program to see firsthand what is really going on, day by day, for inmates and staff,” Mr. Horowitz said .

The original purpose of the inspections, he added, was to improve conditions in individual facilities. In Tallahassee, the director filled a vacant supervisory position in the food preparation department, which began by cleaning up the kitchen and storage areas during the week the inspector general’s team was on site.

But the bigger goal, Mr. Horowitz said, is to build support among lawmakers for a massive increase in the prison agency’s budget. That money would go toward structural repairs and an increase in compensation for workers who are often required to work overtime or neglect administrative duties to cover shifts because there are not enough corrections officers.

As a testimony this week Before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, Bureau of Prisons Director Colette S. Peters heralded recent gains in employee retention. But she said that in some of the system’s 120 facilities, staffing levels in some key departments, especially in medical units, were still half of what they needed.

The agency’s unmet infrastructure needs are equally pressing. Ms. Peters said her team is inspecting the more than 300 prison buildings managed by the agency, but she estimates $2 billion is needed to clear the backlog of repairs and renovations that have been identified as urgent.

“Over the past decade, the agency has averaged approximately $100 million per year in appropriations for necessary repairs and adjustments,” she told the subcommittee.

A spokeswoman for Ms. Peters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One of the most alarming problems in Tallahassee, Mr. Horowitz said, was that the prison — despite its 1930s infrastructure and dilapidated barracks — was not on the agency’s $2 billion wish list. Inspector General investigators found that all five buildings where inmates lived needed new roofs, and that many of the window, shower, and bathroom fixtures leaked so badly that staff members and inmates used whatever textile or paper products were available to fill the keep living areas dry.

But the problems reached disproportionate proportions in the kitchen, dining areas and food storage areas.

Researchers found haphazardly stacked bags of food products, such as soy and pasta, stored near a large wall opening that allowed rats, mice and insects to roam freely. Boxes and bags had been gnawed open, and rodent droppings were strewn across and among supplies destined for food bins. Insects were found in plastic bags containing breakfast cereals.

Cans and jars were warped or leaking their contents. And the cafeteria itself was in a state of disrepair, with many of the plastic stools attached to tables broken into jagged stumps that made sitting uncomfortable – and potentially provided a source of edged weapons. A windowsill in the dining room was covered in hundreds of dead insects that no one had cleaned.

The problems were well known, but not addressed. In a June 2022 survey conducted by the agency, 55 percent of jail inmates rated their meals as “poor” and complained that “outdated” food was served to them.

The bathrooms and ventilation systems in Tallahassee were also a mess. According to the inspector general’s team, many of the grilles covering the ventilation shafts had fallen off or pried loose from the cinder block walls, posing a potential hazard and also serving as convenient storage for contraband.

And the contraband — mostly cigarettes, vapes and phones — flowed easily and brazenly into the facility, according to the report, which cited interviews with staff.

One of the most important channels was also one of the most obvious: Sanitation of prisoners who collected waste in garbage bags from publicly accessible areas in front of the women’s prison and an adjacent men’s detention center were screened before re-entering the prison.

Their bags often weren’t.

“During our inspection, we observed inmates entering through the gate without their trash bags being screened,” investigators wrote.