Shackled For Days and Weeks: A Federal Report Finds Widespread Abuse in Prisons

Filed
5:00 a.m. EDT

07.11.2025

The report, by the Justice Division’s inside watchdog, comes after an investigative sequence by The Marshall Venture and NPR uncovered related abuses.

One individual died in federal jail after being stored in restraints for greater than two days. One other was held in restraints so tight that, afterward, a part of a limb needed to be amputated. A 3rd individual was confined in restraints for 12 days, then 30 days, after which once more for 29 days.

These abuses are outlined in a brand new report from the Justice Division’s Workplace of the Inspector Normal, which is extremely vital of the federal Bureau of Prisons’ use of restraints on prisoners.

The report concludes that federal jail officers violated their very own guidelines, shackling prisoners to beds and chairs for hours — and even days — typically utilizing restraints on each wrists and ankles. Moreover, they violated a separate rule that prohibits the usage of restraints as punishment.

In response to the inspector common’s findings, the bureau acknowledged it agreed with the report’s suggestions and would revise its insurance policies and practices shifting ahead.

The report follows an investigative sequence in recent times by The Marshall Venture and NPR, which uncovered abuse in federal prisons, together with the overuse of restraints and shackles so tight that prisoners report scarring and everlasting harm.

The OIG reviewed six years of bureau information and located hundreds of situations of abuse. These included “hundreds of incidents of inmates held in restraints for 16 hours or longer, tons of of which had been held in restraints for greater than 24 hours and a few for over every week or weeks.” Nevertheless, the investigators famous that their work was restricted by insufficient record-keeping at prisons.

“Clearer and extra strong insurance policies would help the BOP in defending inmates from abusive therapy, shielding employees from false allegations, deterring misconduct by employees, and holding employees who interact in misconduct accountable,” says the report from William Blier, performing Inspector Normal to William Marshall, the brand new Director of the Bureau of Prisons.

The report doesn’t determine particular prisons or prisoners nor disclose their gender, however a number of the particulars are disturbing.

The one who died had been “positioned in a restraint chair with restraints on each wrists and each ankles for greater than 2 days,” in response to the report. Lower than two hours after being launched, they had been sprayed with pepper spray “following an alleged altercation with a cellmate” and positioned again into the restraint chair. 5 hours later, the prisoner was discovered unresponsive and later pronounced lifeless.

An post-mortem concluded that the individual died from a painful blockage of blood circulation, a extreme results of sickle cell illness, which was sophisticated by being pepper sprayed and positioned in“extended restraint”.

The bureau’s guidelines enable the usage of restraints when a prisoner’s habits poses an instantaneous danger to themselves or others. However the guidelines explicitly prohibit restraints from getting used “as a way of punishing an inmate” or in “a fashion that causes pointless bodily ache or excessive discomfort.”

Officers at Thomson federal penitentiary in Illinois maintain a person in a four-point restraint, with wrists and ankles secured to limit motion.
U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, Northern District of Illinois

The Marshall Venture and NPR revealed related misuse of restraints. On the Particular Administration Unit within the federal penitentiary at Thomson, Illinois, prisoners described what they known as their “Thomson tattoos,” — the lasting and typically everlasting marks on their wrists and ankles from restraints utilized too tightly and left on too lengthy.

On the federal jail at Lewisburg, Pennysylvania, The Marshall Venture and NPR reported that Sebastian Richardson was punished for objecting to being positioned with a brand new cellmate he feared. He was put in restraints for 28 days, throughout which era he was uncuffed solely as soon as. In consequence, he was unable to make use of the bathroom and infrequently pressured to sleep on the ground of his cell.

Following experiences of widespread abuse, the Division of Justice shut down the disciplinary models at each Lewisburg and Thomson.

In response to the memorandum from the Inspector Normal, the bureau acknowledged that it “is dedicated to addressing these points and implementing significant enhancements,” and welcomed the report’s suggestions as “an important alternative to boost company practices and make sure the humane therapy of all inmates.”

A Bureau of Prisons’ spokesperson informed NPR that the company can not remark additional right now as a result of it’s nonetheless finishing a evaluate of the Inspector Normal’s “a number of suggestions and requested revisions.”

Nevertheless, the bureau knowledgeable the Inspector Normal it might take steps to forestall the extended use of restraints, and conduct extra frequent checks and thorough documentation of prisoners in restraints.