COVID vaccines (Bureau of Prisons)
| Multi Request | COVID vaccines |
| Submitted | Jan. 22, 2021 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Emma North-Best
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
* Files, including letters, memos and emails, describing or discussing policies, guidance and procedures for providing COVID-19 vaccines to prisoners/inmates and/or staff.
* Files mentioning or describing the number of vaccines given to prisoners/inmates and/or staff.
I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities, with some reaching over 100,000 readers in outlets such as Gizmodo, MuckRock, Motherboard, Property of the People, Unicorn Riot, and The Outline, among others. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. In addition, I discuss and comment on the files online and make them available through non-profits such as the library Internet Archive and the journalist non-profit MuckRock, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself.
As my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available, I request that fees be waived.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Emma North-Best
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 22, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Bureau of Prisons
Ms. North-Best,
Please be advised a search is being conducted for records responsive to your request.
Once records have been located, they will need to be processed. Additionally, requests are processed in the order they were received. Also, due to necessary operational changes as a result of the national emergency concerning the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, there may be some delay in the processing of your request.
Please feel free to check the status of your request at https://www.bop.gov/foia/index.jsp#tabs-6 by entering the number of your request and clicking the "search button".
Respectfully,
S. Arellano
Government Information Specialist
Department of Justice
Office of the General Counsel
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From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 22, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Bureau of Prisons
Dear Emma North-Best:
Good morning. On February 22, 2021 at 11:47 AM, I emailed you the below and have not heard anything back from you. Nothing further has been done with regards to this request while BOP is waiting to hear back from you. Please advise based on the below message. Thanks much. Sincerely, Gene Baime, Supervisory Attorney
Dear Emma North-Best:
Good morning. Earlier today, you sent in request for a status update on FOIA Number 2021-02028. I believe the information you seek is already available on BOP.GOV. In your request, you seek:
* Files, including letters, memos and emails, describing or discussing policies, guidance and procedures for providing COVID-19 vaccines to prisoners/inmates and/or staff.
* Files mentioning or describing the number of vaccines given to prisoners/inmates and/or staff.
BOP's "COVID-19 Vaccine Guidance" is available at https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/ This is a comprehensive plan detailing BOP's guidance and procedures for providing COVID-19 vaccines to inmates and staff.
Additionally, information responsive to the second portion of your request can be located at: https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/ BOP updates this page each weekday and contains the number of staff and inmates who received the full set of inoculations and the number of doses both distributed and administered.
Please advise whether this is responsive to your request and, if not, what additional information you wish for BOP to provide.
Additionally, please advise whether you still wish for BOP to conduct an email search. Please note if we conduct an email search, due to the number of COVID requests, staffing concerns related to both COVID and FOIA, BOP's backlog, and the anticipated volume of emails containing relevant search terms, it may take a year or longer until we are able to process any emails.
This is an interim response, and, based on your response to the above, BOP will issue a final response and/or search for any remaining records you seek.
Respectfully,
Gene Baime
Supervisory Attorney
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