politics
Sen. Mike Lee: Federal Prison Employee Ended Call on Inmate's Health Inquiry
Sen. Mike Lee stated that a U.S. Bureau of Prisons employee hung up on him while he inquired about an incarcerated constituent's son with untreated health conditions. The incident occurred on April 15, 2026, amid broader reports of communication failures in federal prisons. Sens.
Apr 15, 4:30 PM·2m read1 source
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# Sen. Mike Lee Encounters Resistance from Federal Prison Staff Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote in a social media post on Wednesday that an employee at a federal prison hung up on him when he called to check on the health of an incarcerated man.
Lee called the prison on behalf of a constituent whose son was incarcerated and had not been heard from in several days. The son suffered from multiple, potentially life-threatening health conditions that are going untreated in prison. When Lee called the prison's main switchboard, a BOP employee scolded him for calling 'too fucking late' and refused to provide any information beyond claiming that the inmate was alive and receiving appropriate medical care.
When Lee persisted in asking for the employee's name, the staffer hung up. "Sadly, this is not the first time I've had this experience when talking to people from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on behalf of constituents with an incarcerated family member suffering from a severe medical condition."
Incidents Highlight Communication Issues Kesha Jackson's
husband, John Jackson, died at a low-security federal prison in Arkansas in 2019.
On the day John Jackson died, Kesha Jackson received a call from John's sister who said she needed to call the prison right away because something had happened and staff wouldn't tell the sister anything. Kesha Jackson did not get through when she called the prison that day, as the phone just rang and rang.
A chaplain called Kesha Jackson several hours later to break the news of John Jackson's death.
2020, the daughters of a woman who died at a federal women's prison in Alabama had been calling for weeks to try and get help for their mother's deteriorating health, but the prison staffers were hanging up on them.
One of the daughters stated that the prison staffers laughed at their mother and told them she was too young to be having a heart attack. The father of one incarcerated woman stated that the BOP never informed him that his daughter had been in a coma for more than a week.
