WASHINGTON, DC – July 23: Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters speaks through the House … [+]
“You inherited a mess. I mean, you inherited a mess,” Congresswoman Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) said to Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters during her testimony Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Oversight for the Federal Bureau of Prisons oversight hearing. For Peters, it was her first testimony because the House and Senate passed the Federal Prison Supervision Act Congress is given more say in learn how to solve the myriad problems facing the BOP. The Oversight Act allows the Office of Inspector General unannounced and unfettered access to the BOP’s 122 facilities across the country and creates the position of ombudsman to gather information from staff, prisoners, and their families about problems inside the prisons. Once problems are identified, the BOP must fix them.
Director Peters said she welcomed the oversight and a prepared handout provided a frank and disturbing picture of the state of the BOP. Peters took over the crisis-ridden agency with the challenge of recruiting staff to deal with the staffing shortage and in addition to enhance the dilapidated, decades-old facilities. The help it needs is money, and numerous it. The BOP currently accounts for the biggest item within the Justice Department’s budget at $8.8 billion.
Peters said, “…our staffing crisis is very costly because we rely on overtime, augmentation and incentives to keep our prisons running. Last year alone, we paid more than $128 million in incentives and more than $345 million in overtime. I also want to mention the human cost of overtime and augmentation, which we know puts an incredible strain on the physical and mental health of our correctional officers.” The BOP ranks last in worker satisfaction amongst government agencies.
During a 60 minutes interview Earlier this 12 months, Peters was bowled over when she was asked concerning the understaffing problem but was unable to say what number of vacancies have to be filled. At this hearing, she was in a position to provide more information, explaining that a brand new automated staffing tool developed in response to a Government Accountability Office audit finding projects that the BOP needs about 3,000 additional correctional officers (COs), a 21% increase over our current staffing level of 14,900. Staffing is much more critical because the identical tool also projects that the BOP needs about 3,000 additional medical positions, a 72% increase over our current staffing level of three,600.
According to Director Peters, FCC Butner, which has a men’s medical center, two medium-security facilities, and one low-security facility, has been unable to rent enough COs and medical professionals. In 2023, the BOP began offering a ten% group retention incentive for all eligible positions at FCC Butner. This proved insufficient to substantially increase staffing levels, which remain at 80% overall and 75% for COs, in addition to 70% for clinical medical positions. The shortage of medical staff and COs go hand in hand. As there are more medical professionals, the necessity to take prisoners to medical appointments also increases, requiring more COs to look after prisoners in the neighborhood after they have those medical appointments.
One strategy to relieve pressure on the agency is to cut back the variety of inmates in prisons. This might be completed through full implementation of the First Step Act and the Second Chance Act. Director Peters noted that the prison population has increased barely in recent times despite the laws. These two laws, each passed and signed under Republican administrations (Donald Trump and George W. Bush, respectively), allow many low- and minimum-security inmates to have their sentences reduced by up to 1 12 months and in addition place them in the neighborhood (halfway houses) for longer periods of time.
A NBC News investigation found that the BOP shouldn’t be housing as many individuals in the neighborhood because it could. The result’s that many prisoners remain in correctional facilities far longer than mandatory, although less restrictive and inexpensive pre-release confinement (transitional custody/house arrest) ought to be available. However, a known shortage of space in transitional facilities prevents the BOP from housing more people in the neighborhood. Hugh Hurwitz, retired acting director of the BOP, said, “Since the First Step Act was signed, the BOP knew it needed more capacity, but nearly 6 years later, space in transitional facilities is still a problem.”
In addition to the staffing situation, the BOP’s aging institutions are also a serious problem that is dear to repair. Director Peters identified that the BOP has 122 facilities totaling over 64 million square feet, and over a 3rd of those facilities are over 50 years old and over half are over 30 years old. The BOP has temporarily closed three facilities and 13 housing units in 11 facilities on account of hazardous conditions. These closures represent a lack of over 4,000 beds at each security level, further exacerbating overcrowding within the remaining facilities.
Aaron McGlothin, president of AFGE CPL-33 Local 1237, FCI Mendota, California, welcomed the director’s comments but fears it’s a little bit too late. “I think Director Peters has struck the right tone,” McGlothin said, “but she should have started doing this earlier in her tenure.” McGlothin also said FCI Mendota was the main target of an unannounced inspection by the Office of the Inspector General in June. “McGlothin said, “I spoke with them for over two hours [OIG] and I can let you know, that was not picture for the BOP.”
McGlothin recently explained that the kitchen at Mendota Federal Penitentiary was closed on account of a scarcity of staff. Meals for camp inmates are actually prepared on the principal prison and dropped at the camp. The facility has also been closed almost repeatedly, each on account of staffing issues and what appears to be out-of-control contraband (cell phones, alcohol and tobacco are probably the most commonly seized items).
McGlothin said the food on the camp, which houses just over 120 inmates, shouldn’t be temperature controlled and inmates eat their meals in a dormitory on the camp where “there are major problems with rodents, vermin and unsanitary conditions.” The Office of the Inspector General is currently investigating food service at Mendota and five other facilities (USP McCreary, MCC Chicago, FCC Allenwood, FCC Pollock and FCI Marianna). McGlothin also said there are ongoing problems with staffing extra time. This practice is meant to deal with staffing shortages through the use of administrative and skilled staff, akin to medical and psychological staff, to fill vacant correctional officer positions. “Management wants correctional officers to be staffed with professionals for eight hours a day,” McGlothin said. “This is not staffing overtime, this is reassignment.”
It may take a while for the BOP to show things around. The 2024 budget is ready and no funds are earmarked for the brand new law.
