Retaliation In The Work Place? Allegations Within The Bureau of Prisons

 By: Max Rodriguez, Backgate Website,

Is TDCJ any different?? Employee grievance records prove no. With more employees, TDCJ fares worse then the feds when it comes to employee beefs with the admin. See our ongoing story coming in the weeks to come.

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By :Walter Pavlo, Contributor

 One would think that working for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has its risks; like being attacked by some tattooed covered inmate.  However, a report from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Office of Federal Operations (OFO) says that “widespread retaliation” is a problem in the BOP.

Carlton M. Hadden, Director OFO, came to his conclusion after a lengthy process that resulted in a final report issued to the BOP on November 24, 2010.  The BOP is responsible for the custody and care of more than 214,000 federal inmates and has over 35,000 employees.  In August 2007, the OFO sent a letter outlining concerns it had about employment related retaliation complaints at the BOP that were significantly higher than in any other branch of the government (In FY 2005 complaints containing retaliation allegations at the BOP were 73.7% compared to 39.1% government wide).  It took OFO three (3) years after it began its initial investigation to publish the report after disagreements with the BOP over the results.

The study consisted of a combination of a survey sent to all Bureau of Prison employees and site visits (3 prisons) to conduct interviews.  The survey had under a 10% response rate, something the BOP argued about prior to the formal release of the report by saying that the use of “widespread retaliation” is not accurate since so few participated.  One retired corrections officer, who asked that I not reveal his identity, told me that the survey required that the employees provide their name on the survey (see EEOC report in Exhibits), they would have no anonymity.  Probably something OFO should have considered when the study involves employees who fear retaliation!  The OFO countered that even with the small number of surveys received, the on site investigations/interviews provided similar results indicating an environment of intimidation.

See the rest of the story here !