Judge Holds Federal Bureau of Prisons in Contempt for Allowing Man To Waste Away From Untreated Cancer
In a scathing opinion, a federal judge held the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in civil contempt and levied sanctions against the agency last week for allowing an incarcerated man to waste away from untreated cancer, as well as for willfully ignoring and misleading the court.
U.S. District Judge Roy Dalton for the Middle District of Florida wrote that the BOP should be “deeply ashamed” of how it treated the now-deceased inmate Frederick Bardell. Its actions, he said, were “inconsistent with the moral values of a civilized society and unworthy of the Department of Justice of the United States of America.”
Bardell was convicted in 2012 of downloading child pornography from a peer-to-peer file sharing website and sentenced to 151 months in federal prison. But he was not sentenced to death by medical neglect, and he was ostensibly protected by the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, as are all incarcerated people, no matter how heinous their crimes. That includes the right to basic health care behind bars.
A lot of us have been saying this for years, decades even. Nice to see a federal judge finally gets it.
I also liked his high degree of motivation and attention to this case as illustrated by his directives following the order. They were both specific and time-constrained for when actions would be expected. Very on point!
Before this, I didn’t even know there was an office of the inspector general. I wish more of us and those with incarcerated loved ones knew there was an external grievance channel for abuses by our federal and state prisons.
On a side note, I often wonder how the government is allowed legally appeal outcomes of cases. With all of their virtually unlimited resources, it unfairly tips the balance of power in their favor because they can simply out-resource their adversaries. A great example is petitioning to get off the registry. The state cares not how much money they spend to win or the financial damage they inflict on petitioners with required lawyer’s fees, evaluations and expert testimony. If they lose, they can simply appeal and get another shot at it until they run out of courts. By then, most people would have lost years of their life and become financially destitute in the process, all with no assurance of having their petition granted.
This is not what justice looks like. Our founders would be appalled.
This statement made me tear up, “Judges carry the heavy burden of depriving individuals of their liberty. ” If only our nation’s judges understood the gravity of this to the extent expressed in this opinion. Seeing as we have the largest incarcerated population in the world, I suspect the philosophy of our actual justice system is precisely the opposite.
For my part, I’ve seen prosecutors laughing and having a good time amongst themselves between cases while defendant after defendant comes through and has their life stripped away from them. The inhumanity of it all impressed on me in a way I will never forget.
This just proves that maybe the best medicine of all for calloused, indifferent people like these is a good force-fed dose of empathy. Maybe one day these scum will be subject to the very systemic destruction of their lives in the same manner they destroy lives day in and day out without ever losing a moment’s sleep.
I say the same thing for all those who support the registry and think there’s no restriction or stigma too crippling.
It’s about time. My son Died four time while in BOP’s custody in October of 21 and went 30+ minutes without oxygen according to the hospital records. He is now having issues with his kidneys which are not being addressed. He has a defibrillator in from having a massive heart attack at 28 and medical won’t even see him unless it’s to give him his medication.
I am wondering if the nature of the offense plays a part in the way this poor man had been treated. I wouldn’t put it past those involved in this heinous murder to have been motivated by the idea of “Let him die! He’s a pedophile who gets off looking at images of children being molested! We’re better off as a society without his kind.”