In 2023, the Federal Bureau of Prisons shut down a troubled unit at the prison in Illinois. The former warden is now the director of the federal center that does specialized training of prison staff.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Last year, the Federal Bureau of Prisons shut down a troubled unit at the prison at Thomson, Illinois. This came after reporting by NPR’s investigations team and The Marshall Project exposed abuse of prisoners there. Now the man who was the warden has what sounds like an important new job. We’re going to catch up with the latest of all of this. A warning before we get into the conversation – the story does contain a description of sexual activity.
NPR investigative correspondent Joseph Shapiro has been covering this and joins us now. Hey, there.
JOSEPH SHAPIRO, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: Tell us about this latest development.
SHAPIRO: So our new reporting is on Andrew Ciolli. He was the warden at Thomson at the time of some of the worst abuse. And we reported there were several violent deaths at the prison, when prisoners were forced into cells and recreation areas with other men that they knew they’d be forced to fight. We wrote about the overuse of restraints – cuffs and chains that were put on so tight and for so long that they left marks on a prisoner’s ankles and wrists, and men called these their Thomson tattoos.
Now after a whistleblower’s complaint, Warden Ciolli has a new job. In July, he took over as director of the federal center that does specialized and continued training of staff who run the prisons. The Bureau of Prisons told us he runs the day-to-day operation of the training center but that he does not, quote, “provide or oversee the training itself.”
DETROW: OK. Not providing or overseeing the training itself – but still, it does sound like somebody who was in charge of a prison when there was bad abuse still has a job of some significance.
SHAPIRO: That’s right, but it’s not as big a job as the one he got right after he left Thomson. He was sent to run the entire prison complex at Florence, Colorado, and that’s an important job in the Bureau of Prisons.
Now, I did some new reporting with Christie Thompson and Beth Schwartzapfel at The Marshall Project. Our new reporting is based on the revelations of a whistleblower. He’s described in documents as a prison officer, a special investigative agent, working with Ciolli at that prison complex in Florence, Colorado. He alleged that the warden, when he moved to the new prison, brought some of the same abusive practices.
DETROW: Which would be a situation of abuse from one prison spreading to another.
SHAPIRO: Exactly. So again, prisoners were being placed in tight restraints for long periods of time in ways that violated the rules of the Bureau of Prisons. The whistleblower said this happened especially when men were caught masturbating. Sometimes prisoners do that in the open, in front of staff, especially women, and that’s punished as sexual harassment. But we talked to prisoners and the prison staff at the two prisons who say men who were acting privately in their cells – they were getting in trouble.
At Florence, they were pepper sprayed, put in restraints, and that wasn’t the end of it. These prisoners were then required to wear a special khaki jumpsuit and a large yellow tag around their neck that identified them as someone who committed a sexual offense. That yellow card not only shamed these men. The whistleblower said it made them targets, at risk for being attacked by other prisoners and for being extorted for sex or money.
DETROW: What happened after the whistleblower reported all of this?
SHAPIRO: Yeah. Well, we relied upon documents from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. That’s a federal agency that investigates whistleblower allegations from federal workers. The warden, Andrew Ciolli, told investigators he was unaware of the extent of the abuse, but the whistleblower said he was the one who gave the orders to start the program.
So the Office of Special Counsel found that Warden Ciolli was responsible for problems at the prison. The Bureau of Prisons ended the program that targeted prisoners and said the warden faced discipline. Still, he got that new job…
DETROW: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: …As director of the center that trains others how to run a prison.
DETROW: That is NPR investigative correspondent Joseph Shapiro. Thanks so much.
SHAPIRO: You’re welcome.
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