# The Bureau of Prisons answers to no one

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Bureau of Prisons answers to no one," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bureau-answers-to-no-one/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's summary of what he calls the hardest lesson of his incarceration: that the Bureau of Prisons sits under the Justice Department but is accountable to nobody in practice, disregarding what sentencing judges order and what its own prosecutors have agreed, and placing prisoners wherever it chooses.*

- **Parent department:** United States Department of Justice
- **Kiriakou's lesson:** "BOP answers to no one"
- **In his own case:** Judge and prosecution agreed on a camp; BOP sent him to the prison
- **Remedy:** A motion, and a hearing about two years later

**"The Bureau of Prisons answers to no one"** is how [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) states what he calls a tough lesson he learned by living it. The [Bureau of Prisons](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bureau-of-prisons) sits inside the Justice Department, and it is accountable, in his account, to nobody: *"They don't care what the judge says. They don't even care what their own prosecutors say. BOP sends people to whatever facility BOP wants to send people."*[1][2]

## His own case

At sentencing his attorneys asked for a minimum security work camp. The prosecution did not object and the judge agreed. On the appointed day he drove up with his cousin, his cousin's son, two of his eleven attorneys and a documentary film crew, and knocked on the camp door, the ordinary procedure, since camps have no fences and no locked doors.[1]

He was sent across the street to the main prison to be processed, and was told there that his paperwork placed him in the prison itself. The guard's answer to his objection was that this was not what the paperwork said.[1] It took him five days to reach a telephone. His lead attorney told him a motion could be filed but that the hearing would take about two years, by which time he would be home.[1]

## The consequence for others

Kiriakou has applied the same point directly to [Julian Assange](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange). He told Assange's lawyers in Washington and London that assurances given by prosecutors about where he would be held are not the prosecutors' promise to make, because the Bureau will put him wherever it decides to put him.[3][4]

That is not a claim about bad faith so much as about who holds the pen. In Kiriakou's description the sentencing court sets the term; the Bureau, unreviewably and at its own convenience, sets everything else.[2]

## See also

- [Bureau of Prisons](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bureau-of-prisons)
- [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)
- [Julian Assange](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange)

## Sources

1. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 03:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=230s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/
2. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 04:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=262s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/
3. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 54:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=3255s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/
4. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 54:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=3285s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/

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