Just weeks ago, the D.C. government issued a warning about the prison in which notorious Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger died.
D.C. doesn't have its own in prison, so felons from the District are shipped across the country to serve time, including about 200 of them currently incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Hazelton in West Virginia, about a sixth of the prisoners at the facility.
The D.C. government gave the feds a memo warning of safety problems at the prison. Inmates reported "daily beatings or stabbings" and some security protocols not followed. At least twice since April, inmates from D.C. have been killed there.
The News4 I-Team also learned just last week a group of U.S. senators asked U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to beef up staffing at Hazelton federal prison over concerns about shortages and the risk of attack.
Michelle Bonner, the head of the DC Corrections Information Council, recently told the News4 I-Team having so many inmates at prisons like Hazelton so far from home is making it difficult for families who can’t travel to facilities in the middle of nowhere with no bus or transportation.
A federal law enforcement official said Bulger, 89, was killed at the prison but declined to offer any details. Bulger had just been moved to Hazelton Monday.
