Comment Re: Ain't that bad in small doses... (Score 4, Interesting) 326
The administrative remedy process was seemingly designed by Franz Kafka to be an exercise in bureaucratic futility.
You have 15 days to file a BP-8, which you must get from your counselor. If he only visits the SHU every three weeks, you're SOL. If you do manage to file, it goes to your case manager and unit manager, who will veto it. Then you have a limited amount of time to file a BP-9, which theoretically goes to the warden. In practice, it stops at an assistant warden's desk. Denied. So you try to file a BP-10 to the regional office. You need to attach all supporting documents, including the original incident report. Good luck getting those from your counselor or case mangler. If you do manage to file it, it will come back in 4 months with a dot-matrix printed page of boilerplate reasons why your grievance is denied. Last but not least is the BP-11, which goes to BOP Headquarters in DC. By this time you're either dead or on the bus to the halfway house.
Only when the process is completed can you petition a court for action under 18 USC 1983.
It's like a bad high school production of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil".
-k.