Investigators probing disgraced former sports doctor Larry Nassar’s stabbing Sunday at a federal penitentiary in Florida are lacking a key piece of evidence: video of the assault.
Nassar was attacked inside his cell, a blind spot for prison surveillance cameras that only record common areas and corridors, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. In federal prison parlance, because of the lack of video, it is known as an “unwitnessed event.”
It’s the second time Nassar, the former U.S. women’s gymnastics team doctor, has been assaulted in federal custody while he’s serving decades in prison for sexually abusing athletes and possessing explicit images of children.
The attack, which left Nassar hospitalized in stable condition with injuries including a collapsed lung, underscored persistent problems at the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Despite the Biden administration’s vow to fix the broken prison system — with new leadership and an emphasis on turning prisoners into “good neighbors” — the agency has continued to struggle with violence, understaffing, abuse and misconduct.
Nassar’s stabbing, just weeks after “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski’s suicide at a North Carolina federal medical center and amid lingering fallout from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 jail suicide, also highlighted the agency’s inability to keep even its highest profile prisoners safe.
“This kind of violence in our federal prisons is inexcusable,” said Daniel Landsman, the deputy director of policy at the criminal justice advocacy group FAMM, or Families Against Mandatory Minimums. “The failures that led to this assault are not isolated — too often we see similar incidents impact incarcerated people across the country.”
“The assault of Larry Nassar raises a number of questions regarding safety in in federal prisons,” Landsman said.
The Bureau of Prisons did not respond Tuesday to AP’s questions about Nassar’s stabbing, and violence, low staffing levels and other…
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