Editorial: Threats from within prison

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006 | 7:48 a.m.

It could be because of President Bush's tax cuts or because of the mounting expense of the Iraq war, but for whatever reason the federal Bureau of Prisons is so short of funds that it cannot adequately monitor the mail sent and received by incarcerated terrorists and other high-risk inmates.

This alarming breach of national security was first addressed last year in a report to Congress by the Bureau of Prisons' inspector general. The report stated that the bureau had discovered that about 90 letters had been written to extremists in foreign countries by three imprisoned terrorists convicted of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

"The letters, which praised Osama bin Laden, were printed in Arabic newspapers and used to recruit other terrorists," the report stated.

Following up on the report, the Bureau of Prisons drafted regulations that recognized the threat posed to the U.S. and other countries if the mail privileges and visitation rights of terrorists and other especially dangerous federal inmates were not subjected to special restrictions.

Great care was taken in writing the new and detailed regulations so as to protect the public while not violating the inmates' constitutional rights. Through in-house powers granted to wardens upon specific authorization by federal agencies, and through "special administrative measures" authorized by the U.S. attorney general, the ability of dangerous inmates to send or receive virulent messages was curtailed - on paper.

This week, however, the Associated Press reported that a Justice Department report on the effectiveness of the new regulations revealed continued vulnerability.

"The threat remains that terrorists and other high-risk inmates can use mail and verbal communications to conduct terrorist or criminal activities while incarcerated," wrote the department's inspector general.

The report, according to the AP, urged the Bureau of Prisons to correct the security gap. It advised installing tracking systems to ensure all high-risk inmate mail is read and analyzed, the AP reported.

The AP also quoted a Bureau of Prisons spokesman, who said that while the bureau agrees with the recommendation, its budget is so barren that it does not have enough money to hire the manpower needed to implement a foolproof system.

In our view, administrators of the Bureau of Prisons should be brought before Congress and questioned at length. If it is found to be true, that the federal prison system is so bereft of funds that national security is at risk, an emergency appropriation should be made immediately.