Aug 3, 2026 · 36 min · 9 segments
IN THIS EPISODE When he first arrived at Loretto Federal Prison to start serving his 30 month term, John expected to serve that term where the judge and prosecutor both advocated that John be in the…
John KiriakouHost
I tried to keep in my lane and let as much of the prison bullshit as possible roll off my back.
One of the first lessons I learned on my first day at Loretto was that the officials running the prison could and can do virtually anything they want to the prisoners under their charge.
That's supposed to allow prisoners the opportunity to challenge wrongs against them and to have them corrected, like when their constitutional rights are being trampled.
But the remedy process is as corrupt as the Bureau of Prisons is, and that's saying something.
For starters, the BOP regularly ignores its own rules, and they definitely ignore their own rules as they pertain to the administrative remedy process.
For instance, the BOP refuses to abide by the time restrictions placed on it for responses, and I've never heard of anybody ever, ever winning an appeal.
In fact, the whole purpose is to give the BOP a fig leaf so they can throw out every single prisoner complaint based on technicalities, usually that the prisoner didn't file in time.
For the BOP, the whole cynical point of the exercise is the hope that the prisoners lose interest in pursuing justice for themselves and just simply give up, or the remedy process takes so long and demands so much hoop jumping that the prisoner gets released, having served their sentence, and their appeal dies, having never even made it to court.
Even more cynically, it's all just a paperwork exercise to pretend to show the courts that the BOP is doing something to address prisoner grievances.
As I told you at the very beginning of this part of the story, when I arrived at Loretto, I expected to be placed in the minimum security camp literally across the street from the prison.
But it turned out that the Bureau of Prisons gave me a PSF, a Public Safety Factor designation.
That meant that I was considered to be so dangerous by the BOP and such a threat to the public safety that I would never be allowed to serve any of my sentence in a minimum security camp, not a single day.
That was despite the fact that my sentencing judge, a Clinton appointee with 20 years experience on the bench, had recommended that I serve my time in a minimum security camp, and it was despite the fact that the US attorney who represented the government in its case against me also recommended camp, not prison.
I tried to keep in my lane and let as much of the prison bullshit as possible roll off my back.
One of the first lessons I learned on my first day at Loretto was that the officials running the prison could and can do virtually anything they want to the prisoners under their charge.
That's supposed to allow prisoners the opportunity to challenge wrongs against them and to have them corrected, like when their constitutional rights are being trampled.
But the remedy process is as corrupt as the Bureau of Prisons is, and that's saying something.
For starters, the BOP regularly ignores its own rules, and they definitely ignore their own rules as they pertain to the administrative remedy process.
For instance, the BOP refuses to abide by the time restrictions placed on it for responses, and I've never heard of anybody ever, ever winning an appeal.
In fact, the whole purpose is to give the BOP a fig leaf so they can throw out every single prisoner complaint based on technicalities, usually that the prisoner didn't file in time.
For the BOP, the whole cynical point of the exercise is the hope that the prisoners lose interest in pursuing justice for themselves and just simply give up, or the remedy process takes so long and demands so much hoop jumping that the prisoner gets released, having served their sentence, and their appeal dies, having never even made it to court.
Even more cynically, it's all just a paperwork exercise to pretend to show the courts that the BOP is doing something to address prisoner grievances.
As I told you at the very beginning of this part of the story, when I arrived at Loretto, I expected to be placed in the minimum security camp literally across the street from the prison.
But it turned out that the Bureau of Prisons gave me a PSF, a Public Safety Factor designation.
That meant that I was considered to be so dangerous by the BOP and such a threat to the public safety that I would never be allowed to serve any of my sentence in a minimum security camp, not a single day.
That was despite the fact that my sentencing judge, a Clinton appointee with 20 years experience on the bench, had recommended that I serve my time in a minimum security camp, and it was despite the fact that the US attorney who represented the government in its case against me also recommended camp, not prison.
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