Judge Compares Federal Bureau of Prisons to “Soviet Gulag”
In a ruling earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton blasted the federal prison agency for a pattern of medical neglect after officials ignored his order to schedule an appointment with a specialist for a woman at high risk of breast cancer.
In a scathing ruling, a federal judge lambasted the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for neglecting the medical needs of incarcerated people, comparing federal lock-ups to the “Soviet Gulag.”
“Outside medical referrals are like Solzhenitsyn’s sick bay in the Soviet Gulag: a coveted but nearly inaccessible refuge for which only prisoners near death qualify for admission,” U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton wrote in his order granting compassionate release to a woman on home confinement in Florida.
In 2021, the woman was sentenced to eight years in prison. In 2025, the BOP moved her to home confinement.
On January 16, 2026, she filed a motion requesting compassionate release after a doctor found lumps in both breasts and blood discharge from her nipples, according to the judge’s order.
The doctor concluded she was at high risk for breast cancer and gave her an “urgent referral” to a breast surgeon. In a letter submitted to the court, her doctor wrote that “evaluation by a breast surgeon is ‘medically necessary and urgent.’”
However, the BOP waited weeks to schedule an appointment with a general surgeon, not a breast surgeon.
The government opposed her request for compassionate release, telling the court that “there does not appear to be any documented emergency.”
In a hearing held in February, the judge disagreed with the BOP’s assessment, ordering the agency to bring her to see a breast surgeon by March 27.
“To the surprise of no one, the BOP did not do what it was ordered to do,” Dalton wrote in his order.
In a statement to The Appeal, the BOP said the agency “does not comment on pending litigation or matters that are the subject of legal proceedings,” and that “for privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss any incarcerated individual’s conditions of confinement or specific release plans.”
Unfortunately, as Dalton wrote in his ruling, her experience is far from unique. Lawsuits and government investigations have detailed numerous instances of medical neglect in federal prisons. In 2023, David Blakeney, who was incarcerated at USP-Canaan in Pennsylvania, died from a “treatable, highly preventable ulcer,” according to a complaint filed last year by his mother. At the time of his death, he was 32.
For months, prison staff allegedly ignored his worsening symptoms, including excruciating abdominal pain and rectal bleeding. The complaint alleges that as his mental and physical health worsened, staff tortured him. Shortly before his death, staff allegedly kept him chained to a bed in four-point restraints for close to two straight weeks, according to the complaint.
“They repeatedly pepper-sprayed him, sent him to solitary confinement, punched and kicked him, and left him in dehumanizing and painful restraints—all of which exacerbated the ulcer and prevented him from getting the medical care that would have saved his life,” the complaint says.
In another case in 2020, Frederick Mervin Bardell sought compassionate release based on the high likelihood that he had colon cancer, according to a government investigation into his death. Bardell’s petition for compassionate release ended up before Judge Dalton, who initially denied the request based on the BOP’s assurances that Bardell was receiving adequate care in custody.
About four months later, Dalton granted Bardell’s request and ordered his release.
But Bardell’s ordeal was not yet over. The federal agency arranged for another prisoner to drop off Bardell at the airport. He was left at the curb without a wheelchair. By the time he arrived home in Florida, his clothes were soiled with excrement and blood. He died nine days later from metastatic colorectal cancer.
After Bardell’s death, Dalton held the BOP in contempt of court for misleading him about the seriousness of Bardell’s condition. Dalton requested that the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigate “the conditions of Bardell’s confinement and treatment,” as well as any “misrepresentations” made to the Court in connection with Bardell’s case.
In January, about five years after his death, OIG released its report.
Dalton had initially denied Bardell’s petition “[b]ased, largely, on the Government’s assurance that Mr. Bardell’s condition had not been determined to be critical and that he was receiving adequate care,” according to the OIG report. However, this determination “relied on the government’s inaccurate representation about the BOP’s capabilities.”
The judge referenced the OIG report in his ruling, writing that BOP “delayed scheduling urgent medical appointments, leading to [Bardell’s] death by treatable cancer.”
When asked for comment on the OIG report, BOP told The Appeal in an email that the “matter has been carefully reviewed and is informing improvements regarding internal controls, interdisciplinary coordination, and the Reduction in Sentence (RIS) process.”
“It is the mission of the Bureau of Prisons to operate facilities that are safe, secure, and humane,” the agency said. “The BOP takes seriously its duty to protect the individuals entrusted to our custody, as well as maintain the safety of correctional staff and the community.”
Elected officials and government agencies have repeatedly sounded the alarm about dangerously substandard medical care in federal lock-ups, which has been exacerbated by understaffed prisons.
According to a 2023 OIG report, 21 percent of correctional officer positions were unfilled as of September 2022. In an attempt to address the staffing crisis, the BOP has used nurses, cooks, teachers, and others as guards, a practice known as “augmentation.” After the report’s release, Congress warned the BOP to limit its use of augmentation, and directed the agency to have at least two officers on duty in each housing unit. However, many prisons have failed to comply with Congress’s request, according to lawmakers.
Earlier this year, four Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the BOP director about the understaffing crisis, writing that it has further restricted “the availability of medical and mental health care.” Without a sufficient number of staff, many prisons rely on lockdowns that “disrupt scheduled medical treatment and impede the timely response to medical and psychiatric emergencies.”
The lawmakers wrote that they learned of one man who had a heart attack and had to wait an hour for help because of understaffing. In another case, a person’s dental appointment was rescheduled 14 times. The delays led to “more serious medical issues that could have been avoided had appropriate treatment been provided when originally scheduled,” according to their letter.
In Dalton’s ruling, he bemoaned the BOP’s refusal to change.
“Nothing seems to move the nation’s federal prison system operators to improve their response to the urgent medical needs of the federal prison population,” Dalton wrote. “Court orders go unread or ignored. OIG reports are dismissed, recommendations unheeded. Sanctions brook no change.”