The Bureau of Prisons honors the fallen with “Eternal Gratitude.”

May 7, 2024 began as a gray day on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Park in Washington DC, where the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) honored 26 correctional officers and contractors who lost their lives within the line of duty. The two most up-to-date victims were Eric J. Williams and Osvaldo Albarati, who were killed on consecutive days at two different facilities in February 2013. Williams died while working at USP Canaan, where he was attacked and killed by an inmate and Albarati was ambushed and killed as he was driving home from work. After an investigation, it was determined that Albarati’s shooting was carried out with the help of federal inmates housed at MDC Guaynabo, who passed information via cell phones to attackers outside the prison.

This is National Correctional Officers Week and the American Federation of Government Employees reminded its BOP members of the challenges and potentially dangerous conditions faced by 30,000 correctional officers across the country. “We must recognize the sacrifices and challenges these men and women endure daily as they often work in stressful environments with limited resources,” said Brandy Moore White, president of the AFGE Council of Prison Locals. “While their role is often overlooked, it is invaluable to the functioning of our justice system and the betterment of society.”

We search for events that unite us quite than divide us, and the ceremony in Washington DC brought out the very best of the BOP. The solemn memorial ceremony was held in a stupendous park where BOP Director Colette Peters and Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Marshall Miller addressed over 100 attendees. Miller said of the Job BOP’s efforts: “Every day, correctional officers enter unpredictable and potentially dangerous environments… And in doing so, they pursue a common goal: to create safe and humane prison conditions and to help prisoners reenter.” Become a component of society and change into productive members of the community.”

Retired BOP Director Charles Samuels was so touched by the dedication of BOP employees that when he announced his retirement in June 2015, he listed each of the 26 BOP employees who had lost their lives. No other employees have been killed within the line of duty since Samuels’ retirement. In his final letter to the agency, Samuels wrote, “Take care of each other, take care of our beloved agency, and never forget our fallen heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the American people…”

The BOP faces many challenges. The most vital of those is ensuring that there are enough personnel to perform the duty of monitoring and caring for over 150,000 federal prisoners across the country. Ceremonies like this not only provide a way of remembrance for the fallen, but in addition exhibit the BOP’s commitment to recognizing the difficult work they do day by day. Director Peters said: “Today we also remember and support those family members who have lost a loved one in the line of duty. We come here to mourn, comfort one another and pay our respects to the fallen.”

Because of those tragedies, improvements have been made to guard BOP employees. After the death of Eric Williams, the BOP implemented a program for prison staff to hold pepper spray for self-defense. On March 9, 2016, President Barack Obama signed The Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act of 2015 was signed into law. The bill authorized the Director of the BOP to issue pepper spray to correctional officers and other employees in all federal prisons except minimum and low security facilities. The death of Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati has been linked to using cell phones by prisoners to coordinate an attack. Now Congress is considering laws to accomplish that make the penalties more severe for the introduction of mobile phones in prisons and for his or her use Jamming devices This makes the phones unusable.

Twenty-six roses were placed on a National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial seal by an honor guard because the names were read one after the other. As each name was pronounced, a single bronze bell was rung in remembrance.

The National Police Officers Memorial positioned within the 400 block of E Street, NW, Washington, DC, is the national memorial to law enforcement officials who died within the line of duty. The monument consists of two curved, 304-foot-long blue-gray limestone partitions. Engraved on these partitions are the names of greater than 23,000 officers who died within the line of duty throughout U.S. history, starting with the primary known death in 1786.

The BOP is usually criticized for its lack of transparency, but someday it did a wonderful job of remembering those that made the last word sacrifice and showing members of the family that those lost should not forgotten.

As the ceremony got here to an in depth, the skies cleared and we were all reminded that despite our differences, the things that unite us, akin to honoring service to our country, are traditions that bring us together in order that we will tackle the issues of the day.