Washington, DC — A multi-year investigation by the Justice Department Office of Inspector General (IG) released this week declares that federal prison industry that recycled computers and other electronics systematically violated health, safety and environmental laws. Despite findings that officials willfully endangered thousands of prison staff and inmates, none will be prosecuted and most of the officials have retired without any sanction, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
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“In the long tradition of prison labor, these operations employed inmates with hammers but instead of rocks they were breaking computer components with no containment or protective equipment,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization aided Smith “Coated in toxic dust, prison staff and inmates worked for years, in many cases trailing heavy metals back to their homes and cellblocks.”
The IG stated that most of the violations had abated by mid-2009 but the most hazardous activity, glass-breaking of cathode ray tubes, ended due to “economic considerations” not safety concerns.
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“It appears that no responsible official will be held to account for what happened here and this fat report will simply sit on a shelf,” added Ruch, noting that the IG referred some BOP officials for criminal prosecution but those referrals were declined by the Justice Department. “If these violations had been committed by a private business, people would be going to prison but here they still run the prisons.”
[PEER]
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