The Bureau of Prisons' casual cruelty to families of those who die behind bars

Bureau of Prisons is shirking both its policy and its moral duty to give a bare minimum of courtesy to families.

NPR reported in January that the BOP was misclassifying deaths as "natural," which prevents further investigation and leaves families in the dark.

Families describe delays in being notified that their incarcerated loved one had been hospitalized or even died.

The Bureau of Prisons ' official policy says inmate's serious illness is of immediate concern to the inmate's family.

Vanessa Washington's son, Shawn Melendez , also died at FCC Coleman , in July 2023 .

The BOP listed Melendez 's cause of death as fentanyl overdose, which never sat right with Washington .

Valencia says it took roughly two weeks for the BOP to return her son's body to her.

Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) is supposed to guarantee prompt access to government records.

Families who request prison and medical records wait months , often years, to receive them.

The only way to get the BOP 's attention is to sue it, an attorney says.