The Federal Bureau of Prisons is facing a monumental crisis. There are challenges hiring and retaining qualified officers and staff, an aging inventory of crumbling and deteriorating buildings, and a rise in inmates deploying more sophisticated methods to smuggle illegal items into prisons.
These challenges are difficult enough to tackle on their own. Combined, they pose a real and significant threat to the health and safety of the 35,000 federal employees who work at the agency as well as the 158,000 inmates currently in custody.
As a Bureau of Prisons employee for the past 19 years and current president of the union council that represents 30,000 BOP employees nationwide, I have seen firsthand the impact that short staffing, disregarded maintenance, and contraband has on my fellow employees and the inmates in our care.
The number of BOP officers and staff has fallen precipitously over the past seven years, from 43,369 staff at the beginning of 2016 to around 35,000 today — a 20 percent decline. But that only tells half the story, since the Bureau of Prisons can’t even maintain the lower level of staffing that Congress has authorized.
BOP has been funded at 20,466 corrections officers for each of the past four years, yet the agency has fewer than 13,000 officers currently on staff. It’s unclear how the rest of the money has been spent — but it certainly hasn’t helped recruit and retain badly needed officers.
One of the agency’s main workforce challenges is that the salaries paid to federal correctional officers pale in comparison to what employees can earn at other federal law enforcement agencies, at state and local agencies, and even some retail chains.
While the agency has approved retention pay for officers and staff in some locations to help reduce attrition, this is only a limited and temporary fix. What’s sorely needed is a more competitive pay structure that will allow BOP to compete with other federal, state, and local employers for talent. Otherwise, federal prisons will continue struggling to attract and retain individuals who can get better paying jobs elsewhere.
As my predecessor Shane Fausey told “60 Minutes” for a report on the Bureau of Prisons that aired Jan. 28, the shortage of officers and staff in federal prisons has a ripple effect across the system. Inadequate staffing levels and high turnover rates compromise safety and security inside federal prisons, making it difficult to maintain proper supervision, timely respond to emergencies, and prevent incidents such as assaults, escapes, and contraband smuggling.
Due to officer shortages, other BOP employees including nurses, teachers, maintenance workers, and counselors are regularly pulled away from their main duties to fill in for officer vacancies. This practice, known as augmentation, affects the safety of both staff and inmates. The added workload and stress can lead to burnout, as individuals are managing multiple responsibilities without proper support. Pulling employees away from their regular duties also reduces inmate access to medical staff, education programs, and rehabilitation services and hampers our ability to fulfill the requirements of the First Step Act, which Congress passed in 2018 to improve an inmate’s eligibility for early release.
Ensuring everyone’s safety inside the prison walls is a major factor behind the use of special housing units, also known as restrictive housing. These units serve various purposes in prisons, including protecting vulnerable inmates and isolating dangerous ones. As BOP Director Colette Peters acknowledged while testifying before a House subcommittee in November, a large portion of inmates assigned to special housing units are there voluntarily for their protection. The pressure to limit or eliminate the use of these housing units has had a negative effect on prison security, making it even harder to retain officers.
Outside of staffing shortages, another major challenge facing BOP is the failing condition of its facilities due to lack of investment in maintaining them.
In May, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General issued a report detailing significant health and safety concerns stemming from deteriorating conditions inside Bureau of Prisons facilities and a lack of investment by Congress in making critical repairs.
Currently there are $2 billion in backlogged repairs just for significant issues. Yet BOP receives just $100 million annually for facility maintenance. The lack of resources has led to deplorable conditions inside many of our facilities.
Allowing our federal prisons to fall into disrepair does a disservice to the employees who work there, the inmates who are housed there, and taxpayers who deserve to know their money is being spent wisely. And to be clear — the solution is not to shutter facilities but to provide BOP with the funding it needs to repair and maintain its buildings.
In addition to being shortchanged on building maintenance, not enough money has been invested in helping federal prisons crack down on the use of drones to smuggle illegal items such as cellphones into prisons.
In her November appearance on Capitol Hill, Director Peters called drones a “near daily occurrence” at federal prisons, with 180 incidents reported just this year.
More than 30 high-risk federal facilities currently have drone detection systems, while individual prisons also are piloting cell phone capturing and jamming technology. But the agency needs more money to deploy such systems and technology at every prison.
Taken together, these challenges pose a monumental threat to the safety and security of prison employees, inmates, and surrounding communities. Congress can do its part to position the Bureau of Prisons for success by passing legislation to make the agency director a Senate-confirmed position — ensuring direct accountability to Congress — and increasing independent oversight of the agency. This legislation has been introduced in the House and the Senate with bipartisan support — an encouraging sign that real change is possible.
For the sake of the women and men who risk their lives every day they go to work, and for the wellbeing of the inmates entrusted in their care, I hope we can make real progress on the many challenges facing our federal prisons. The consequences of inaction are too dangerous to imagine.
Brandy Moore White is president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 33, the exclusive representative for 30,000 correctional officers and staff in the Bureau of Prisons.