“Today it was confirmed that at least 90 people are living with scars, known as the Thomson Tattoo, from being excessively restrained at US Penitentiary Thomson and the Bureau of Prisons Dir. Peters admitted that she had never seen a culture of abuse like the one in the Special Management Unit at Thomson in her 30+ year career. The BOP also admitted that nobody has been held accountable for the rampant culture of abuse the USP Thomson. Our investigation found that 178 people were subjected to unnecessary restraint, brutally assaulted and forced to cell with individuals known to be dangerous. Then, the same people who abused them thwarted their attempts to file grievances, threatening them with violence if they even attempted. Nothing is stopping the abusers from inflicting more trauma on people still under their control in BOP facilities and we echo Sen. Durbin’s statement that, “accountability at Thomson and across the Bureau is absolutely necessary and overdue.”

Read our report here.