After two men from D.C. were killed within the span of three weeks at a federal prison in Louisiana, the Bureau of Prisons is moving some people from D.C. out of the facility. The deaths and resulting transfers highlight long-standing concerns about the safety of men from D.C. in the federal prison system.

In July, Mark Harris, a D.C. man incarcerated at USP Pollock in Louisiana, was found unresponsive in his cell and transferred to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to the BOP. He later died. Later that month, another man from D.C. — Lionel Stoddard — was pronounced dead after a fight among incarcerated people at USP Pollock. Stoddard’s family is seeking answers about the circumstances surrounding his death, the Washington Post reported. D.C.’s Congresswoman, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, says additional incarcerated men from D.C. have also been attacked at the facility; The BOP said it could not confirm this.

Local D.C. officials say they believe the men were targeted in part because they’re from D.C. — part of a pattern in the Bureau of Prisons, where incarcerated D.C. men say they’re at risk of harm from other residents and BOP staff.

After the series of violent incidents at Pollock, Norton requested that the BOP take immediate action. In two separate letters to the Bureau of Prisons — one sent in August and another sent last month – she sounded an alarm about violent conditions at USP Pollock and asked that everyone from D.C. be moved to a different facility.

People convicted of crimes in D.C. are sent to federal prisons because the city does not have a prison of its own: In 1997, in response to D.C.’s financial troubles at the time, the District handed the federal government vast authority over its incarcerated population. A few years later, D.C. closed the local prison it ran in Lorton, Virginia. For the past two decades, people convicted of crimes in the District – even if they’re not federal crimes — have been sent to facilities all over the country, in many cases far from home.

“What I really want is our residents to be moved to a prison perhaps reserved only for D.C. residents, closer to D.C., because that would enable them to be better prepared when they are released,” Norton said in an interview with DCist/WAMU.

The BOP said it would look into Norton’s request about a prison reserved for D.C. residents, according to Norton. The BOP also decided to transfer some D.C. residents out of Pollock.

“I am … pleased that the BOP is transferring some D.C. residents from Pollock … after two D.C. residents were killed and others attacked there,” Norton wrote in a press release. “However, I was disappointed to hear that BOP is not transferring all D.C. residents from Pollock, as I requested.”

The men from D.C. at Pollock have also voiced concern in recent days about the BOP’s decision to transfer some but not all of them out of the facility. Pam Bailey, the co-founder of More Than Our Crimes, which publishes writing by people incarcerated in federal prisons and advocates for better conditions and oversight, says she’s hearing from contacts at Pollock that the recent violence is connected to a disagreement between men from D.C. and the crips gang. They’re worried that the small number of D.C. prisoners left at Pollock will be outnumbered — and possibly in more danger.

“I cannot wait ‘til they ship us (sounds like I’m some Amazon package being shipped, huh? SMH),” wrote one man in a letter to Bailey at the end of last month. As they await transfer, the men are largely confined to their cells, with extremely limited phone access, says Bailey.

“I believe that some of the DC homies are being left behind,” the letter went on. “I haven’t a clue how they decide who stays and who goes … with so few numbers left here @ Pollock I can’t help but think ‘what if’ … what if those crips decide to attack those who were left behind. Just thoughts, but I don’t think anything will happen.”

A spokesperson for the BOP told DCist/WAMU that they could not confirm or deny that people from D.C. were being transferred from USP Pollock.

“For privacy, safety, and security reasons, the BOP does not discuss internal security practices, nor do we discuss the conditions of confinement for any inmate or group of inmates, including transfers or medical status,” the spokesperson wrote.

But news of the transfers had been trickling out of USP Pollock in the weeks prior to Norton’s meeting, in letters that men from D.C. were sending to friends back home.

In her letter to Bureau of Prisons director Colette Peters, Norton also requested that D.C.’s Corrections Information Council — a government agency whose job is to monitor conditions of confinement for incarcerated D.C. residents in both the D.C. Jail and federal prisons — be granted increased access to federal prisons, including USP Pollock.

“It is vital for CIC to have access to all parts of the facilities, so it can conduct a comprehensive review,” wrote Norton.

But it’s unclear whether increased access for the CIC would lead to better oversight. Critics have argued that the agency doesn’t have enough authority or conviction to be an effective watchdog of the BOP. The agency is also in the midst of reworking a memorandum of understanding that negotiates the terms of its visits to prison – the BOP wants final approval of any reports the CIC writes, but the agency is pushing back.

The movement of men from Pollock and ongoing attempts at increased oversight underscore the existing tensions between D.C. and the Bureau of Prisons. Earlier this year, D.C.’s Public Defender Service filed a class action lawsuit against the BOP, arguing that the BOP’s security classification puts people from the District at a systematic disadvantage. The suit claims that people from D.C. are less eligible for early release programs — and more likely to serve time in higher-security facilities. About 40% of people convicted of D.C. offenses are incarcerated in high-security facilities, compared to 12% of the overall BOP population, according to a 2020 analysis by the Council for Court Excellence.

One of the plaintiffs in the suit, Jonathan Blades, was incarcerated at USP Pollock at the time it was filed. He wrote in a declaration that he was able to take college courses during his time at low and medium-security BOP facilities, but had no access to educational programming since moving to the high-security prison at Pollock. At Pollock, he said, he was confined to his cell for most of the day, and daily life was full of danger because of heightened gang-related violence.

“Even something as simple as trying to use the phone can be deadly if I do not use it at the right time,” wrote Blades.

In the CIC’s 2019 inspection report from USP Pollock, residents they interviewed also voiced a complaint that’s common across the federal system: that staff discriminate against them because of their unique status as D.C. code offenders. Formerly incarcerated residents say this unequal treatment is also racialized, since nearly everyone from D.C. who gets sent to federal prison is Black.

“DC prisoners are always scrutinized and discriminated against more by the staff just because of where we’re from,” one resident told the CIC.

During their visit, which happened in 2017 — nearly two years prior to the report’s eventual publication – CIC inspectors also learned that earlier that year, a D.C. man had been fatally stabbed by another incarcerated resident at the facility.

Concerns about conditions in the BOP are not unique to Pollock, though – they exist across the federal prison system. In a recent report compiled by More Than Our Crimes, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated residents — including several from D.C. — described their harrowing experiences in federal prisons. They described a culture of violence and retaliation from prison staff, inadequate food and poor physical conditions, and a lack of medical and dental care. The point of the report, its authors said, was to highlight the daily injustices across facilities in the BOP.

“The level of respect staff has for us is nonexistent,” wrote one incarcerated contributor, who went by L.M. “We’re treated like roadkill or something you have stepped on.”