U.S. Senator Ken Salazar

Member: Agriculture, Energy, Veterans' Affairs, Ethics and Aging Committees

 

2300 15th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

 

For Immediate Release

October 11, 2006

CONTACT:    Cody Wertz – Comm. Director

                        303-455-7600

Andrew Nannis  – Press Secretary

                        202-224-5852


  Sen. Salazar Urges Immediate Remedies at ‘Supermax’ to Ensure Security

Denver, CO - United States Senator Ken Salazar requested Attorney General Gonzales take immediate steps to ensure that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) remedy the security flaws at a Colorado ‘Supermax’ prison that led to convicted terrorists’ ability to send letters aimed at recruiting suicide bombers. Senator Salazar made the request of Attorney General Gonzales in a letter today that outlined a report issued last week by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) regarding surveillance of inmates at Bureau of Prisons facilities.

In his letter Senator Salazar listed the following conclusions from the OIG report:

  • There was a failure to read all of the mail from the highest-risk prisoners and only 1.8% of inmate mail was randomly monitored;
  • Less than 50% of the telephone calls made by Supermax prisoners on the “alert list” (which includes convicted terrorists) were monitored;
  • At seven of the 10 prisons surveyed, the monitoring of mail sent by convicted terrorists has decreased since fiscal year 2005;
  • The BOP did not hire any full-time Arabic language specialists to translate inmate communications until 2005. Those specialists, once hired, did not receive counterterrorism intelligence training during the first year of their employment – which made it difficult to analyze the mail they were translating; and
  • Intelligence-sharing between the BOP and the FBI has been inadequate.

In his letter Senator Salazar noted, “I have great faith in the hardworking men and women who staff the Supermax facility. They do difficult work at great personal risk – and deserve the best possible leadership from the BOP… I strongly urge you [Attorney General Gonzales] to take immediate steps to ensure that the BOP remedies the serious problems outlined in the OIG report and to respond to this letter detailing those steps.”

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