DE-NJ NLG Prisoners’ Legal Advocacy Network (PLAN) Challenges Deplorable Prison Conditions at USP Beaumont

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 11, 2017

Contact: Paul Stanley Holdorf, Esq.
908-591-1589 | plan@nlg.org

The Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network (PLAN) administered by the National Lawyers Guild’s Delaware-New Jersey Chapter has convened a legal response team to investigate and challenge deplorable conditions in Beaumont, Texas prisons in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

On Monday, September 11, 2017, NLG attorneys will serve the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) with notice of the reports of unconstitutional conditions of confinement pouring in from U.S. Penitentiary (USP) Beaumont prisoners and their loved ones.

USP Beaumont prisoners’ friends and family will gather at the FBOP South Central Regional Office in Grand Prairie, Texas at 2:30PM today.  This action will coincide with PLAN’s hand delivery of this notice to the Office of the Regional Director.

More than two weeks after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, dozens of prisoners and their family members report that many USP Beaumont prisoners remain without toilet and showering facilities, with some units reporting continued lack of access to adequate food and water.  There are compelling indications that disruptions to mail delivery and other communications channels also remain ongoing.

There are widely corroborated reports of missed meals, lack of adequate access to water, and suspended dispensation of prescription medication in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

PLAN has received dozens of independent reports, both from eyewitness observers and family members in direct contact with prisoners and prison personnel, some of them signed affidavits executed under penalty of perjury. Indicative prisoner and prisoner family statements are enclosed as exhibits to today’s filing.

Says Paul Stanley Holdorf, co-chair of the NLG Delaware-New Jersey Chapter and supervising attorney for PLAN project, “We are appropriately concerned by the grievous human rights violations corroborated by numerous independent eyewitness reports.  The remarkable consistency in these allegations establishes convincingly both the seriousness of the situation at USP Beaumont, and the fact that rights-violating conditions persist even weeks after the storm.  As the Beaumont region is known to be situated in a coastal floodplain vulnerable to tropical storms, FBOP’s inadequate preparation for this foreseeable event constitutes a clear failure to uphold their most basic due diligence obligations to ensure safe and humane conditions for the human beings entrusted to their care.”

PLAN continues to consolidate facts and evidence in relation to the conditions at USP Beaumont.  Concerned prisoners and their loved ones can contact PLAN by email: plan@nlg.org.

A parallel effort is proceeding in relation to the prevailing conditions at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (TDCJ) Stiles Unit in Beaumont. PLAN will be filing a separate notice with TDCJ later this week.

9/11/17 NLG DE-NJ PLAN Notice to FBOP on Post-Harvey Conditions [PDF]

#   #   #

Image: Screenshot of USP Beaumont page on BOP website with the announcement: “All visiting at this facility has been suspended until further notice” (9/11/17).

Posted in Announcements, News and tagged , , , .