Federal Prison Chief Expected to Resign Soon Due to Illness

J. Michael Quinlan, director of the federal bureau of prisons since 1987, is suffering from a serious illness and is expected to resign soon, a government source said Thursday.

Quinlan, 51, whose illness was described as not life-threatening, has won top awards from the White House and attorney general. He is highly regarded by correctional officials.

A Justice Department official, declining to confirm Quinlan’s departure, said that his “circumstance” is unrelated to allegations that he muzzled a federal prisoner who sought to make potentially damaging allegations against Vice President Dan Quayle during the 1988 campaign.

Richard J. Harkinson, the Justice Department’s inspector general, is investigating to determine why the prisoner, Brett Kimberlin, was prevented from conducting a press conference four days before the 1988 election.

Kimberlin, a convicted marijuana smuggler who is in prison for planting several bombs that exploded near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, alleges that he sold marijuana to Quayle during the 1970s, a charge the vice president has denied. The prisoner has filed a lawsuit claiming that his free-speech rights were violated.

Quinlan said at the time that he denied the press conference because of threats against Kimberlin. But Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) concluded in a report that Kimberlin was silenced and placed in punitive confinement for “political purposes.”

Quinlan, who could not be reached for comment, has been on sick leave for about three weeks, officials said. They refused to say what illness afflicts him.

Quinlan began his career with the federal prison system in 1971 as an attorney in the bureau’s central office. He held a wide range of posts, including executive assistant to the director, superintendent of the federal prison camp at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., warden of the correctional facility at Otisville, N.Y., and deputy director of the bureau.

Quinlan is only the fifth head of the federal prison organization since its establishment in 1930. The post is regarded as career and does not automatically shift with administrations. It was not clear who will succeed Quinlan.