Senators want answers in wake of AP’s prison investigations

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHAEL BALSAMO
Associated Press

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he plans to question the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons this week about why the agency continues to stand by a high-ranking official who beat Black inmates in the 1990s. An Associated Press investigation found the agency has repeatedly promoted Thomas Ray Hinkle, who is now deputy western regional director. Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters defended Hinkle in the AP article, and is also expected to be grilled about it by the Senate panel. Prison workers and union officials picketed Monday outside a Bureau of Prisons office California. They’re calling on the agency to fire Hinkle and his boss, Regional Director Melissa Rios.