Prisons chief deflects blame for failures, angering senators

Chairman Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., questions Michael Carvajal, the outgoing director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as the Senate Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations holds a hearing on charges of corruption and misconduct at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Audio report by Rahul Bali.

With just days left in his tenure, the embattled director of the federal prison system faced a bipartisan onslaught Tuesday as he refused to accept responsibility for a culture of corruption and misconduct that has plagued his agency for years.

Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal, testifying before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, insisted he had been shielded from problems by his underlings — even though he’d been copied on emails, and some of the troubles were detailed in reports generated by the agency’s headquarters.