Thomson Prison inmate: ‘Cruelty is just something you expect’

Jasper Rivera has spent most of his life in some form of incarceration. While behind bars, he has witnessed violence, perpetrated it and been its target.

Earlier this week, Rivera, 46, claimed he has “never seen the level of violence and abuse” he’s witnessed at the United States Penitentiary in Thomson.

“The violence and the abuse was tool for the COs (corrections officers) here at Thomson,” Rivera said. He made the allegations while on a Federal Bureau of Prisons phone inside Thomson. “Cruelty is just something you expect. The cruelty is everywhere in this place.”

Rivera’s words joined a chorus of voices airing grievances against the prison and its management.

Thomson’s recent history is plagued with turmoil. There have been complaints about prisoner treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic and union concerns about cuts to staff and low morale. A year ago, local legislators led the drive for pay raises at the prison. Last week, the same elected officials led the call for a Department of Justice investigation of allegations that include the abuse and torture of prisoners.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General’s Office opened an investigation into Thomson Federal Prison amid ongoing allegations of abuse, the overuse of solitary confinement and the deaths of seven inmates over a two-year period.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced the investigation June 9 and called for the immediate replacement of Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal. Despite Cavajal’s announcement in January that he would resign, he remains in his post.

Durbin, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, requested a federal investigation by the Department of Justice following publication of a report May 31 by The Marshall Project and NPR that describes serious abuse of inmates by correctional officers.

The lawmakers sent a joint letter June 1 to U.S. Inspector General Michael Horowitz demanding immediate action.

Last week, American Federation Government Employees Local 4070 President Jonathan Zumkehr welcomed an investigation.

Rivera said he was not surprised the prison was under DOJ scrutiny.

“This has been going on for quite a while,” Rivera claimed. “It was just a matter of time before all this boiled over and people started talking about it.”

Representatives from Thomson declined to comment on the state of the prison after the investigation was announced. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not comment on the investigation, and its public affairs office said: “Humane treatment of the men and women in our custody is a top priority. Allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated and appropriate action is taken if such allegations are proven true, including the possibility of referral for criminal prosecution when appropriate.”

The report published May 31 by The Marshall Project and NPR described correctional officers intentionally pairing inmates together who are known to attack each other and staff encouraging assaults against sex offenders and informants.

Other claims focused on abusive shackling that leaves scars known as the “Thomson tattoo,” often in a room known as the “torture room,” where men were shackled to a bed for hours in their own urine and feces without food or water.

Rivera claimed he might have been one of the first prisoners at Thomson who endured the Thomson tattoo.

“I think I might have been the first,” Rivera said. “Mine was a four-point shackling. I was on my stomach. The COs hit me in the face — and the thing that really hurt was when they ran a bar across my shins.

“It was torture. There is no other way to describe it.”

The Marshall Project Report included an incident in which staff allegedly laughed and joked at the expense of a Jewish man they were guarding as he lay dying in a hospital following an assault that occurred after staff placed him in a recreation cage with known white supremacists.

Thomson currently houses 929 inmates: 797 in the maximum-security facility and 132 at the adjacent minimum-security camp.

“If these reports prove accurate, they describe conduct that would almost certainly contravene numerous BOP policies, as well as infringing the civil rights of individuals in BOP custody and possibly violating federal criminal statutes,” the lawmakers wrote in last week’s news release. “The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is responsible for protecting the integrity of Department of Justice components, including BOP, as well as the health and safety of the people in BOP custody. The NPR and Marshall Project report raises serious and troubling allegations about the conduct of staff at USP Thomson.”

In recent months, corrections officers at Thomson also have aired grievances about the state of the prison.

Union representatives for correctional officers and staff at Thomson demanded the reinstatement of the prison’s search team after Tim Kaufman, spokesman for the AFGE Local 4070, claimed a staff member was assaulted after finding the inmate in possession of a contraband cellphone.

In March, AFGE Local 4070 representatives claimed two officers at Thomson required medical attention “after being exposed to illegal drugs” sent to prisoners in the mail. The union alleged one corrections officer became sick and vomited after being exposed to a letter “soaked in methamphetamine.”

In a March press release, Local 4070 asked the Bureau of Prisons to restore positions in both the search- and shake-down teams at the prison to help detect drugs. The positions were lost in staffing cuts.

Concerns about staffing levels and the safety of corrections officers and other Thomson staff were raised in 2021.

Bustos, Duckworth and Durbin sent a joint letter April 16, 2021, to Carvajal and Kathleen McGettigan, acting director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, asking for an increase in compensation for Thomson employees.

Rivera said he didn’t think correction officers and staff at Thomson “have the easiest life, either.”

“I notice all these COs have a lot of tattoos. These folks are tatted up,” Rivera said. “I asked one CO why that is and he told me ‘There’s nothing to do in Thomson but drink and get tattoos.’

“Maybe things are bad for everyone here.”