Prison Life

An Effort in Futility Part 3

Another thing is that the Warden does not even answer the grievance; he just signs it to give it an official appearance of propriety. By policy the person reviewing the complaint is supposed to be fair and unbiased, not having a stake in the matter or outcome. But in reality the same department head who answered the BP 8 1/2 answers the BP 9 and then sends it back to the Executive Assistant, who rubber stamps it denied and gets the Warden's signature. I believe these BP 9s are denied in batches, there is no impartial review, and the issues being addressed in the complaints are not even considered. It is a culture of deny, deny, deny in the BOP. They will not admit guilt, complicity or wrongdoing in any matter, even if they are dead wrong. With the department being filed on writing the reply, there is no way to get the grievance addressed effectively and impartially, because whatever the issue is they will deny it even if the prisoner filing it is in the right. "I see about five percent winning," the law clerk says, "because they don't make any review, do no research on how the admin remedy works, practically they do it on their own needs, but they don't see above that. It’s a revolving door; it never ends. A lot of people do their admin remedies with anger, no law, they don't know the rules, they ask questions of the wrong people. Sometimes they try to resolve it with the Lieutenant or AW, breaking the chain of command."