Michael Carvajal, the outgoing Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) director, has been subpoenaed to appear before a Senate committee investigating abuse, corruption, and misconduct in the federal prison system, including at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who is the chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) and whose home is in Atlanta, announced the subpoena on Monday, adding that Carvajal had been asked to testify later this month.
The hearing is set for July 26.
“To date, the Subcommittee has been provided no legal basis that would prevent Director Carvajal’s testimony before the Subcommittee, and the Department of Justice continues to refuse to make him available to testify,” the statement read.
Widespread Misconduct
He resigned from his job in January the year after, just months after an Associated Press report revealed widespread misconduct, abuse, and corruption within the correctional agency that appeared to have largely gone ignored.The same report also found that over 100 workers at BOP had been arrested, convicted, or sentenced for crimes since 2019.
Cases included a warden indicted for sexual abuse, an associate warden charged with murder, guards accepting bribes in return for smuggling drugs, and rampant sexual assault at a women’s prison in California.
The report also noted that two-thirds of the criminal cases against the Justice Department (DOJ) staff in recent years had involved federal prison workers, despite the fact that such workers only account for less than a third of the DOJ’s workforce, including 28 of the 41 arrests made in 2021.
At the time the report was published, Carvajal had faced increased scrutiny over his leadership during the pandemic, particularly in regards to overpacked prisons where the virus was increasingly spreading.
It also noted that it was “committed to focusing” Carvajal’s last days in the role on making way for Peters to take over and that the subpoena to testify could prove to be distracting.
“As the Department has previously explained to the Subcommittee, we believe that preparation for testimony just five business days before this critical leadership transition may distract Director Carvajal’s time and attention away from this goal,” the DOJ said in a statement. “Nevertheless, we continue to work with the Subcommittee to find an agreeable solution.”