ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota attorney general, Keith Ellison, said he has been informed that Derek Chauvin will survive being stabbed in an Arizona orison. Ellison’s information came from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, whose protocol requires that relevant prosecutors be informed about changes in the status of inmates. Ellison led the prosecution of Chauvin for the 2020 suffocation murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The prison agency has not been forthcoming with news media about what happened in its Tucson facility on Friday and not even confirmed to the public that the victim of the attack was Chauvin.

Tucson prison violence

The stabbing of Derek Cnauvin was the second major incident at the Tucson federal prison in a year. Last November, an inmate in a low-security prison camp pulled a gun and attempted to shoot a visitor in the head. The weapon misfired. No one was hurt. The prison has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages.

Problematic federal prisons

Investigative reporting by the Associated Press news service uncovered major problems in the U.S Bureau of Prisons in recent years. AP chronicled chronic violence, deaths and suicides, and severe staffing shortages. Colette Peters was brought in from the Oregon prison system inn2022 as a reformer. She has told a Congressional oversight committee that she found archaic hiring practices. She also pledged to overhaul high-problem prisons and improve pubic transparency. But committee members gigged her for delays in answering written questions responding basic questions about agency operations, like how many correctional officers are on staff. The agency has30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, and an annual budget of $8 billion.