In the News

Sen. Mike Lee (R–Utah) wrote in a social media post Wednesday that an employee at a federal prison hung up on him when he called to check on the health of an incarcerated man.

Lee’s experience is a particularly pointed example of an issue that families and criminal justice advocacy groups have complained about for years: It’s next to impossible to get information about inmates’ health from the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), and the agency frequently fails to notify families when their incarcerated loved ones are sick or even dying.