The controversial appointment of Josh Smith as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Prisons has drawn ire from employees while many inmates are supportive.
Screenshot of BOP Deputy Director Josh Smith speaking via the BOP Youtube channel in August. (Federal Bureau of Prisons/Youtube)
By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News
President Donald Trump in early June did something that no president in American history had ever done before: He named a former federal prisoner as the new deputy director of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
The appointment sparked outrage among prison guards and the guards’ union and, reportedly, rejoicing among current prisoners.
Many of us disagree with much of what Donald Trump has done as president. But this move was positively inspiring. With that said, we shouldn’t expect immediate changes in the way federal prisoners are treated. We’re simply at the beginning of a process.
Almost immediately upon Josh Smith’s appointment as the new deputy director of the federal Bureau of Prisons, BOP employees began speaking out against it, pulling no punches.
One correctional officer quoted by The Marshall Project, a think tank involved in criminal justice issues, said, “I will never accept a former inmate supervising me. I know a Marine who did a tour in Iraq who got fired for pissing marijuana. Why should he (Smith) be making six figures?”
Other correctional officers complained that the vetting process for them to be hired into the BOP was onerous, but Smith, who had served time for a drug felony, had become their boss with a stroke of Donald Trump’s pen. (Smith received a presidential pardon at the end of the first Trump Administration.)
Smith is going to have to work hard to win the respect of the people who had likely taunted and disrespected him when he was “Inmate Smith 07433-180.” But that’s not his only problem.
Many of the career BOP officials who staff the agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters say that he is simply not qualified for the job.
The BOP is the largest agency inside the Department of Justice, with more than 35,000 employees working in 122 facilities and with an annual budget of $8.6 billion. It also has a workforce that is generally under-educated, morale is low and salaries are, in many areas, not enough to live on. Absenteeism is a chronic problem, as is guard-on-prisoner violence. What does Smith bring to the table to correct that?
His online biography says that Smith, 50, grew up poor and had several felony drug arrests as a teenager. He dropped out of high school and in 1998 was convicted of federal charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and marijuana.
Facing at least 12 years in prison, he ratted out his coconspirators and received a “downward departure” from the sentencing guidelines — a five year sentence.
Because of that cooperation, he served his time in a minimum-security work camp in Manchester, Kentucky and, getting to know educated, white-collar criminals, adopted criminal justice reform as his cause.
After being released from prison, Smith founded a home repair and construction business that he sold a few years later for millions of dollars, using that money to found the Fourth Purpose Foundation, a non-profit that works with incarcerated people. He also got involved in criminal justice policy reform and was named by Tennessee’s governor to the state’s Criminal Justice Investment Task Force. In 2021, President Trump granted him a full pardon.
The BOP has a long history of incompetent leadership. The BOP director appointed by President Joe Biden, Colette Peters, was supposed to be a brilliant reformist.
The former head of Oregon’s Department of Corrections, Peters was called “visionary” by those who worked for her, saying that she had reduced violence in the Oregon prison system, increased spending on vocational training and improved morale.
She accomplished literally none of that in the BOP and was fired by Trump earlier this year. Trump then named the former head of West Virginia’s prison system, William K. Marshall III, who in turn hired Smith, having worked with him on state-level prison reform issues.
My personal view is that Smith’s appointment is a great development. The conventional way of doing business at the BOP hasn’t worked. In fact, it’s failed miserably.
Just look at the ongoing saga at FCI Dublin, the federal prison in California where most of the prison’s leadership, including the warden, the assistant warden and even the chaplain, were convicted on dozens of counts of forcible sexual assault of prisoners that they called their “Rape Club.”
And in another recent example, a BOP correctional officer at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia is now on trial for raping a prisoner and then beating her after the rape. He faces life in prison.
How is something like that even able to take place? Why not have somebody who actually understands what the problems are in the BOP take a shot at solving them, especially since everybody else has failed? Smith has put his money where his mouth is on prison reform.
He’s smart, serious, and motivated. I’m willing to give his ratting a pass if he can make the system fairer, more equitable and, frankly, more gentle. I wish him luck.
John Kiriakou is a former C.I.A. counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act — a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
“You gotta have a Plan!” Josh Smith’s beginnings w/a “downward departure” from the sentencing guidelines — a five year sentence, ending in upward mobility. Obviously, William K. Marshall III., rocks a “Success Plan!” i.e.,“Succession planning is a process and strategy for replacement planning or passing on leadership roles. It is used to identify and develop new, potential leaders who can move into leadership roles when they become vacant.” Knowledge Is Power!
Advantage, Josh Smith!!! “After being released from prison,” Smith rocked his own “Succession Plan” & banked! No doubt, leaving Josh Smith emotionally, economically, ergonomically intelligent. Obviously, fully qualified to lead the BOP. The BOP is up to their eyeballs in “alligators”& “kennels” of Corporate Canines to be rehabilitated & systems reformed “so that the people & things interact most efficiently, safely, equitably.”
….. “Why not have somebody who actually understands what the problems are in the BOP take a shot at solving them, especially since everybody else has failed?”” Hear! Hear!! “Smith has put his money where his mouth is on prison reform. Smith’s appointment is a great development. The conventional way of doing business at the BOP hasn’t worked. In fact, it’s failed miserably.” John Kiriakou
No doubt, President Donald Trump “birdied” the shot, “he named a former federal prisoner as the new deputy director of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons (BOP).” It’s time, Trump “hits the fairway,” & drives home an “Ace in the Hole,” a Full Pardon for John Kiriakou!!! “Keep It Lit!”
One small step for man, one giant leap for prisoner kind!
I think that you John have a better skill set at solving issues in The Big House (1930 Film).
Keep shining the light!
Personally, I think the idea to have well-vetted ex convicts helping reform other cons, or help address the failings in the system, is a great one. Nobody could know better, especially when those who should be acting better than the criminals they have charge over end up becoming worse than the worst of their prisoners for the addition of the gross betrayal of trust of so many, both inside and outside the penal system.
As for the current PoA, I could never trust Trump to do anything that doesn’t serve Trump and nobody on this earth could make me believe he genuinely cares if American prison systems get reformed or not as long as they stay great earners.
Perhaps he’s planning on incarcerating his enemies in the near future and needs a torturer?
Well, that’s a start.
My ex was an elected official at a time when state legislatures still had power. He did time in a Club Fed for the usual graft. Since crimes by corporate players and their sponsored pols aren’t supposedly violent–never mind the millions of lives they’ve wrecked–they get the prison equivalent of flying 1st class. He was all in favor of white collar criminals being tossed in with general prison populations. The white collar crime rate would then most likely plummet. And since these well-connected people have influential friends on the outside, I’d bet prison reform would become a much higher priority, too.
As Australians, we have heard nightmare stories about the BOP, not only from you John Kiriakou, but via the testimonies of its employees, Maureen Baird, Joel Sickler and Yancey Ellis, in the case of Julian Assange. The cruelty and consequences of its regimes of incarceration appalled us and we rejoiced that our fellow citizen was spared such a fate. It sounds like a good idea to appoint someone formerly on the receiving end of BOP treatment, albeit less severe than what you yourself endured with solitary confinement. We were told that such regimes, not fit for human habitation, drive prisoners insane, and we sincerely hope that reforms ensue with CMU and SAMs regimes under Deputy Smith. What we would also like to see is a presidential pardon for John Kiriakou, who has also done great work for prisoners.
Thanks, John. I was to assume this appointment was another travesty. But I follow you now in wishing Smith well. I, too, have experienced life as incarcerated, me just awaiting trial, and things ‘inside’ are not well. My last time inside, however, conditions were ameliorated by the large number of competent Black women serving as guards!
Me too Tedder. I was thinking it akin to putting a pedophile in charge of an orphanage. But upon reading the whole article, decided, someone who’s been there, done that and got the tshirt is probably better qualified. Time will tell.