Atlanta Court Challenges Federal Prison System to Keep Prisoner Safe

An appeals court in Atlanta has overturned the federal prison system's decision to reject a prisoner's plea for a safer facility after he allegedly was beaten and coerced into sexual relations, according to the Daily Report.

The prisoner, under the pseudonym “John Doe,” was convicted in the District of Columbia in 2004 for charges related to possession of firearms. Because the District of Columbia doesn't have its own prison system, the prisoner has been admitted to various facilities run by the federal Bureau of Prisons.

In his first year of confinement, Doe alleges he was mistreated while at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. An investigation into the matter resulted in the officer’s resignation, and Doe was promised he would be transferred to a lower-security prison and kept safe. He was incarcerated at a low-security facility in Alabama but later high-security prisons, including the one in Atlanta where he said he was beaten and later admitted to an emergency room. He alleges the beatings occurred because he developed a reputation as being a snitch among inmates and guards. Guards at a high-security facility in Florida even placed him in a cell with two known sexual offenders, he says.

Doe filed a lawsuit in 2007, claiming a violation of his Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. In the suit he calls for the BOP from incarcerating him in any high-security BOP facility.

But while the suit was pending he suffered additional attacks at high-security facilities. He attempted suicide after the second attack, Judge Beverly Martin wrote for the 11th Circuit panel.

According to Courthouse News, when the BOP filed proof Doe was transferred to the Colorado Department of Corrections, a federal judge dismissed Doe’s case. The judge said he couldn’t find a “substantial likelihood” that he would be placed in a high-security prison again.  

However, the 11th Circuit reversed that decision today. “We note that the BOP has never said Mr. Doe will not be transferred back to a high-security facility," Judge Beverly Martin wrote for a three-judge panel, as reported by Courthouse News. "On the record before us, the reasons given by the BOP for Mr. Doe's move do not establish that it intended to respond to Mr. Doe's concerns. And there is simply no indication that the BOP 'intends to hold steady in its revised course.”