Tag Archives: BOP

Contraband and Lousy Food – Update for February 27, 2026

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

A REMARKABLE ADMISSION… AND A WARNING

BOP Director William K. Marshall took to video last week to describe with uncommon candor the BOP’s losing battle with contraband in its facilities.

In a 5-minute video posted on the BOP website, Marshall said BOP staff is confronting a steady stream of drugs, weapons and drone drops, some of which is being introduced by corrupt BOP employees.

In the last 10 months, BOP staff have used Narcan in more than 500 apparent overdose incidents. Drugs found in facilities include fentanyl, methamphetamine, marijuana, liquid-soaked papers, Suboxone strips, amphetamines, mushrooms and vapes. In the same time period, Marshall noted, the BOP has intercepted 228 drone drops, seized nearly 17,000 cell phones, confiscated 4,300 weapons, recovered nearly 50 lbs. of methamphetamine, and stopped 231 visitors with contraband.

Notably, Marshall disclosed that the BOP has conducted contraband investigations involving 260 staff members. He recounted one case in Texas where a staff member was caught smuggling tobacco into a facility. 

It is both evidence of the severity of the problem and of Marshall’s willingness to recognize reality that he acknowledged that some of the contraband problem is staff-driven. (But then, in the past 10 months, Marshall has proven himself to be a very different director. He is the director who looked at a plate of expired dining hall food being served to an inmate during a facility visit last summer and asked a warden, “Would you eat that? If the answer is ‘no,’ then don’t serve it. Period. That’s` not just about food safety, that’s about human decency”).

As for the contraband problem, Marshall said, “These numbers represent real threats stopped by real people. But for every attempt we catch, others are still trying.” And he had a warning: “We are prosecuting anyone, whether a visitor, a staff member, or an inmate who attempts to introduce contraband into our facilities. This unified approach sends a clear message – criminal activity in or around federal prisons will not be tolerated, and those responsible will be held accountable.”

William Marshall, Growing Threat of Contraband in the Bureau of Prisons (February 17, 2026)

 

Forbes, “Would You Eat That? A Leadership Question at the Bureau of Prisons (February 11, 2026) 

~ Thomas L. Root

Who Wants to Be A Prison Guard? – Update for February 25, 2026

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

BOP SHORT STAFFING WAS A HOT TOPIC LAST WEEK

In a finding that rivals Newton’s conclusion that gravity makes apples fall to the ground, a Congressional Research Service report last week determined that non-competitive pay and difficult working conditions are main causes of longstanding understaffing at the Bureau of Prisons, a problem that has persisted despite paying recruitment and retention incentives, using shortcut “direct hire” authority, and promising student loan repayments for employees.

The BOP had always run vacancy rates in the 10-12% range, but that jumped to the 17-18% range over 2018-2021, and then again to the 22-25% range after the pandemic. Over the six years ending in 2002, overtime costs more than doubled to $275 million even while the number of correctional officers fell 22% from about 19,000 to about 15,600.

“There are questions about whether pay for federal COs is competitive with other federal law enforcement agencies and the private sector,” the report said. “Candidates for CO positions who have college degrees might also consider seeking entry-level law enforcement officer positions for which they qualify with other federal agencies, which might pay more.”

The differences have grown greater recently, CRS said, as agencies – including CBP and ICE – have offered larger incentives while the BOP has “paused offering new recruitment incentives and have ended some retention incentives due to budgetary constraints.”

Last Friday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee demanded details on BOP plans to address these “major and long-time staffing shortages,” Federal News Network reported.

In a letter sent to BOP Director William K. Marshall III from top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee warned that workforce issues have reached a “crisis point,” leading to operational challenges and unsafe conditions in the federal prison system.

“By far, the most significant challenge to BOP’s ability to fulfill its public safety mission is its pervasive shortage of critical staff — particularly of correctional officers, healthcare professionals and mental health specialists,” the letter stated.

While the BOP inmate population fell slightly last year, “it still exceeds BOP’s capacity,” the letter asserted. “Moreover, any population reduction likely is offset by the influx of thousands of immigrant detainees BOP agreed to accept. Despite the obvious need to retain its workforce, in March 2025, BOP cut pay to frontline officers by as much as 25% [and] institute[ed] a hiring freeze in May 2025.”

Although the BOP received $3 billion in additional funding in last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill, “it appears that BOP only recently posted open correctional officer positions to the public. Further, reporting revealed that the Bureau has lost more than 1,400 staff members as a result of heavy recruitment for positions that come with generous salaries and signing bonuses from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One BOP official told ProPublica, “We’re broken and we’re being poached by ICE.”

The letter asks the BOP to report the efforts it has undertaken to attract and recruit qualified candidates and retain current employees. The Democrats are especially interested in the number of BOP COs lost to higher-paying ICE jobs.

Unsurprisingly, BOP employee unions last week endorsed H.R. 7033, the bipartisan Federal Correctional Officer Paycheck Protection Act of 2026 introduced last month. The bill aims to boost BOP staff recruitment and retention by raising pay for BOP employees working in custodial settings with direct inmate contact by up to 35%.

Sam Metcalf, president of AFGE Local 0701, told Corrections1 last week that higher pay is needed to reduce the heavy use of augmentation — a practice in which non-custody staff are reassigned to cover correctional officer posts. 

FEDWeek, Report Lays Out Causes, Effects of Bureau Understaffing (February 19, 2026)

Federal News Network, House Democrats Press Bureau of Prisons leadership on staffing ‘crisis’ (February 20, 2026)

Letter from Jamie Raskin to William K. Marshall III, February 20, 2026

HR 7033, Federal Correctional Officer Paycheck Protection Act of 2026

Corrections1, Union backs bill proposing 35 pct base pay increase for federal correctional officers (February 20, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root 

Pardon and Punishment – Update for February 19, 2026

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

JUSTICE, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STYLE

Pardons for the Right People:    President Trump last Thursday pardoned five former professional football players — including Super Bowl champions, a Hall of Famer and a Heisman Trophy winner — for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking.

footThe pardons of ex-NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon were announced by White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson.

“As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation,” Johnson wrote on the social media site X, as she thanked Trump for his “continued commitment to second chances.”

Of course, for the thousands of people serving sentences for drug and violent crimes who do not happen to have been NFL players, the action – which excuses prior criminal conduct because of the athletic prowess of the recipient – only underscores the fact that the price of admission to Trump clemency continues to be fame, fortune, or political affinity with the President.

Nevertheless, writing in his Sentencing Law and Policy blog, Ohio State law professor Doug Berman was a little puzzled by the announcement: “Ever the showman and the sports fan, I am a bit surprised that Prez Trump did not announce these pardons himself, and I am even more surprised that he did not seek to get attention by issuing these pardons in the week leading up to the Super Bowl rather than during the week after when the spotlight has turned away from football.”

Punishment for the Wrong People:      One of Trump’s first executive actions a year ago was to order that 37 death row inmates whose sentences President Biden had previously been commuted to life imprisonment without chance for release be “imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”

US District Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued a preliminary injunction against a plan to transfer the 37 to ADX Florence.  The judge noted that BOP policy allows assignment to the supermax in only two circumstances: when ”placement in other correctional facilities creates a risk to institutional security and good order or poses a risk to the safety of staff, inmates, others, or to public safety” or when an inmate’s status is such that he “may not be safely housed in the general population of another institution.”

The judge said public statements by Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi had guaranteed that the men would be transferred to the supermax facility because Trump wanted it, regardless of the BOP designation standards.

“It is likely that the [administrative review ]process provided to Plaintiffs was an empty exercise to approve an outcome that was decided before it even began,” Judge Kelly wrote.  He said Bondi and other officials “made it clear” to BOP that the inmates “had to be sent to ADX Florence to punish them, no matter what result the originally BOP process might have yielded.”

Forgiveness for Favorites:   The Dept of Justice last week moved to dismiss criminal contempt of Congress charges against Trump acolyte Steve Bannon, who served four months in the BOP for the conviction.

Although Bannon has done his time, his petition for certiorari is pending before the Supreme Court. The case relates to Bannon’s refusal to testify before the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He was convicted in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for a deposition and declining to produce documents requested by the committee.

The DOJ wrote in its motion to dismiss the case, that “[t]he government has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice.”

The New York Times, Trump Pardons Klecko, Jamal Lewis and Other Former N.F.L. Players (February 12, 2026)

Politico, Judge halts transfer of former federal death inmates to ‘supermax’ prison (February 11, 2026)

Memorandum Opinion, Taylor v. Trump, Case No 25-cv-3742 (DDC, February 11, 2026)

Associated Press, Trump pardons five former NFL players for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking (February 13, 2026)

Brief for the United States, Bannon v United States, Case No. 25-453 (Supreme Court, filed February 9, 2026).

~ Thomas L. Root

Shocking News from GAO! BOP Has Messed Up FSA Placement! Who’d Have Guessed? – Update for February 17, 2026

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

GAO PAINTS PICTURE OF DEADBEAT BOP’S CHAOTIC HALFWAY HOUSE MANAGEMENT

The Government Accountability Office painted a bleak picture of the Bureau of Prisons’ halfway house placement program, a chaos of mismanagement that deprives inmates of First Step Act credits they have earned and halfway house operators of payments they are owed.

The 7-year-old First Step Act encourages federal prisoners to complete programs proven to reduce recidivism by promising them earned time credits that can shorten sentences and extend their time in prerelease custody in Residential Reentry Centers or RRCs (which we know as halfway houses) and on home confinement. Writing in Forbes last week, Walter Pavlo said, “Lawmakers understood what correctional professionals have long known. The last months of a sentence should focus on reconnecting people to jobs, housing, and families, not warehousing them in prison.”

Reality, however, is muted. The GAO reports that not only has the BOP not consistently moved eligible inmates into halfway houses on time, but often, the BOP does not even know how many people are eligible for and entitled to placement.

The Report said that “BOP officials said they do not know because the dates individuals are eligible to transfer are not readily available… GAO found that BOP did not apply all the earned time toward placement in RRCs and home confinement for 21,190 of 29,934 individuals reviewed, for reasons such as insufficient RRC capacity and court orders. However, the full scale of this issue is unknown due to the lack of readily available data on eligibility dates.”

The problem has been due in part to limited capacity in BOP-contracted halfway house and home confinement spaces, BOP officials told GAO. However, the Report stated, “BOP does not know the full extent of this shortage because it has not comprehensively assessed its capacity and related budgetary needs. Without these assessments, BOP cannot ensure it has enough space for incarcerated individuals to transfer on time. BOP could also miss opportunities to increase revenues and decrease costs to the federal government.”

As of September 30, 2024, the BOP was using 91% of its contracted halfway house beds and 121% of its contracted home confinement space. A full 38% of halfway houses were at or above 95% capacity, and 62% were at or above the 95% capacity for halfway house slots. In fairness to the BOP, since William K. Marshall III assumed the Director’s slot, the agency has prioritized home confinement through the alternative Federal Location Monitoring program, managed by the US Probation Office instead of halfway house staff.

GAO also found that the BOP has been a deadbeat on a scale that would get a defendant on supervised release sent back to prison. From 2022 through March 2025, the Bureau “made roughly 65,000 late payments to contractors, including to RRCs,” according to the Report. “As a result, the agency paid $12.5 million in interest penalties as part of $2.8 billion in payments to contractors. In addition, GAO found that BOP paid RRCs late about 70% of the time, from fiscal years 2023 through 2024.”

It should be unsurprising that halfway houses would be less than enthusiastic about working with the BOP to expand their businesses: the Report said that as a result of late payments, halfway houses “face hardships due to the late payments — needing private loans to pay staff. One halfway house representative said late payments have made some halfway houses reluctant to bid for new BOP contracts, which can further complicate BOP’s plans to expand capacity.”

Pavlo wrote, “The BOP understands that it has a problem and after years of not addressing it now realize that the solution is going to take time.” A BOP spokesman said, “[T]he Bureau has actively posted Requests for Information… in more than 20 locations nationwide to expand RRC and home confinement services… With respect to home confinement, the Bureau is transferring individuals as quickly as possible once they reach their Home Confinement Eligibility Date and meet all statutory and public safety criteria. We are committed to ensuring individuals are not held longer than necessary when they are appropriate for home confinement placement.”

Government Accountability Office, Bureau of Prisons: Actions Needed Better Achieve Financial and Other Benefits of Moving Individuals to Halfway Houses on Time (February 11, 2026)

Forbes, GAO Critical of Bureau of Prisons Use of Halfway Houses (February 12, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

Where the Boys Aren’t – Update for February 6, 2026

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

JUDGE BLOCKS BOP ON EXPOSING TWO WOMEN TO TRANS FEMALES

The Bureau of Prisons last week agreed to a permanent injunction keeping biological male inmates who identify as female separated from two female inmates at FMC Carswell, the BOP’s medical center for women in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Two named female plaintiffs sued the BOP last year, seeking an order that they would not have to “interact in private spaces with the male inmates housed at FMC Carswell. Those inmates include at least four sex offenders, a murderer, and a violent armed bank robber whose goal was to overthrow the United States government on behalf of the ‘Aryan Republican Army’,” according to the website Legal Insurrection.

The Order requires that as long as the two named plaintiffs are housed at  Carswell, the BOP is “permanently enjoined from permitting any male inmate to enter or remain in any privacy area (including showers, restrooms, changing areas, and dormitory spaces) to which either Plaintiff has access, such that Plaintiffs are not exposed to male inmates while showering, toileting, dressing or sleeping.”

Stipulated Order of Permanent Injunction (ECF 137), Fleming v. United States, Case No 4:25-cv-157 (NDTX, February 2, 2026)

Legal Insurrection, Texas Judge Issues Permanent Injunction in Case Keeping Males Away From Incarcerated Women (February 2, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

A Short Rocket – Update for January 29, 2026

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

Today, some short takes from last week…

ICYMI…

Money, That’s What I Want – Bipartisan bills have been introduced in the Senate and House (S.3626 and H.R.7033) to address what sponsors called “historic and persistent staffing shortages at federal prisons” by providing a 35% salary increase to Bureau of Prisons correctional staff nationwide.

Sponsors are Sen Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and David McCormick (R-PA) in the Senate and Reps Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) in the House.

S.3626, A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to improve recruitment and retention of Federal correctional officers (January 13, 2026)

H.R.7033 – Federal Correctional Officer Paycheck Protection Act of 2026 (January 13, 2026)

FedWeek, Bills Proposed to Boost Bureau of Prisons Pay by 35% (January 20, 2026)

The Plot Thickens – Last week, I reported on a handful of clemencies issued to some fraudsters, some people with long-forgotten offenses, and a few drug defendants. One was a commutation granted to James Womack, whose 96-month meth distribution sentence was cut short after only a couple of years.

When I wrote the piece last week, Jim’s commutation didn’t seem to me to fit the “clemency for the rich and famous” theme coming from White House in the last year. But it turns out it does. Jimmy’s dad is Rep Steve Womack (R-AR), “a long-time Trump ally who was endorsed by the president during his most recent re-election campaign,” according to Daily Beast.

To make matters more complex, the White House said the commutation was in part due to Jim’s mother’s cancer diagnosis. Jim was released on Jan 15. His mother died three days later. While the circumstances are sad, federal prisoners losing parents, siblings and children while being imprisoned is all too common, while furloughs for final goodbyes and funerals – let alone commutations because of the loss – as rare as hen’s teeth.

Daily Beast, Trump Frees MAGA Rep’s Meth Dealer Son in Pardon Spree (January 17, 2026)

KATV, Terri Womack, wife of Arkansas Congressman Steve Womack, dies at 68 (January 20, 2026)


Justice Jackson Dissents IFP Denials – Last week, the Supreme Court denied Danny Howell, an Indiana state prisoner, leave to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), holding that because “the petitioner has repeatedly abused this Court’s process,” he could not file any more petitions unless he prepaid the $300 filing fee. The decision is one of hundreds following the Court’s 1992 decision permitting such bans in Martin v DC Court of Appeals.

Martin was an abusive filer, submitting 54 IFP filings in 10 years. But Martin dissenters feared that what started as a rare step would turn out to be “merely the prelude” to a more habitual shutting of the courthouse doors.

Pointing out that Danny Howell had only filed six petitions over 14 years, Justice Jackson last week wrote that “[b]y my count, the Court has now invoked Martin hundreds of times to prospectively bar indigent litigants from filing in forma pauperis. We no longer wait for a petitioner to inundate the Court with frivolous filings. Instead, we reflexively ‘Martinize’ petitioners after only a few petitions… In my view, such a restriction foolishly trades a pound of values for an ounce of convenience… the Court now blocks indigent incarcerated individuals from ever more accessing our courthouse, just to avoid a minor administrative burden.”

Indiana ex rel. Howell v. Circuit Court, Case No 25-5557, 2026 U.S. LEXIS 495 (Jan 20, 2026)

Martin v. District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 506 U.S. 1 (1992) (per curiam).

~ Thomas L. Root

Something for the Ladies – Update for December 26, 2025

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

THE WOMEN ARE RESTLESS…

More Dublin Lawsuits Expected:  Nearly 300 women who were incarcerated at the now-closed FCI Dublin prison are expected to file sexual assault claims against the Bureau of Prisons, after 103 women won an unprecedented $116 million from the agency exactly one year ago. 

AUSA Jevechius Bernardoni told US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (ED Cal.) last week that the BOP expects a Round 2 “total of 280 cases” to be filed within the next six months against the agency and individual correctional officers, bringing the total of Dublin sex abuse cases to nearly 400.

Deborah Golden, an attorney representing dozens of the women claiming abuse at FCI Dublin, said, “There could even be a Round 3.” Then-BOP Director Colette Peters ordered FCI Dublin closed and the inmates moved to other facilities in April 2024, expressing frustration at the BOP’s inability to change the abusive nature of the facility.

KTVU-TV, FCI Dublin: Nearly 300 more women expected to file sex assault claims vs. BOP (December 17, 2025)

Associated Press, US to pay nearly $116M to settle lawsuits over rampant sexual abuse at California women’s prison (December 17, 2024)

FMC Carswell Prisoners Missing Dialysis, Report Alleges:  Women prisoners at FMC Carswell allege in court filings, medical records, expert reviews and interviews that the Bureau of Prisons is providing inadequate dialysis care, putting their lives and health at risk, according to the Marshall Project. 

Carswell is the BOP’s only women’s medical center and its only facility providing in-patient dialysis for women.

Lawyers, doctors, former prison officials and incarcerated women describe missed or shortened dialysis treatments, broken or poorly maintained machines, water system failures, inadequate patient education and serious infection risks. Medical experts who reviewed the allegations said the conditions described could be preventable and potentially fatal.

Despite these concerns, the complaints allege, the BOP operates with little external oversight of its medical care. The Marshall Project said that judges overseeing compassionate release requests have said they lack authority to intervene broadly even when testimony raises significant concerns.

The Marshall Project, Women Are Sent to This Federal Prison for Dialysis. They Say It’s Killing Them. (December 16, 2025)

~ Thomas  L. Root

Journalist ISO BOP Source – Update for December 12, 2025

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

PROPUBLICA LOOKING FOR BOP WHISTLEBLOWERS

The investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica is inviting BOP employees and others with “sensitive information” about the agency to provide their stories to ProPublica.

Reporter Keri Blakinger, who has been investigating the federal prison system for several years, wrote that she is “especially interested in tips about the leadership’s priorities, contracting and budget decisions, and concerns about wrongdoing or abuses of power. And I’m always interested in any documents or data you can share to paint a fuller picture of what’s going on inside the bureau.”

Blakinger broke the story several weeks ago that BOP correctional officers were abandoning the agency after bonuses were canceled, the union contract was scrapped, and the staff was deprived of basic needs from toilet paper to food. Many were lured away by better pay at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Three weeks ago, Blakinger reported that Deputy Director Joshua Smith’s video announcing the return of “significantly enhanced” retention incentives and one-time bonuses, paid for in part from savings from the canceled union contract – angered BOP union officials, who said the video was “designed to create a narrative that the union was the problem” and that canceling the contract somehow “fixed” it.

Blakinger wrote, “If you are a current prison employee or you have particularly sensitive information to share, you can contact me directly through Signal at KeriB.123.”

ProPublica, Do You Work at a Federal Prison? Help ProPublica Investigate the Federal Prison System (November 26, 2025)

BOP, Video Message from the Deputy Director: A Bureau on the Brink (November 19, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root

BOP To Close Terminal Island – Update for December 1, 2025

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

TERMINAL ISLAND CLOSING AS BOP RAMPS UP INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIR

The Federal Bureau of Prisons is closing FCI Terminal Island – located near Long Beach, California, near Los Angeles – over concerns about crumbling infrastructure, according to an internal memo obtained last week by the Associated Press.

Director William K. Marshall III told BOP staff on Tuesday that the agency is suspending operations at Terminal Island, a low-security prison south of Los Angeles that currently houses 952 inmates. The decision to close the facility “is not easy, but is absolutely necessary,” Marshall wrote, calling it a matter of “safety, common sense, and doing what is right for the people who work and live inside that institution.”

Marshall said if the prison remains open, falling concrete in tunnels that deliver infrastructure could hurt workers or create a prison-wide emergency. “There is a very real risk that falling concrete could strike the steam lines,” he wrote. “If that happens, heat to the institution could be lost instantly, creating an emergency that could require the evacuation of nearly 1,000 inmates in a matter of hours. We are not going to wait for a crisis. We are not going to gamble with lives. And we are not going to expect people to work or live in conditions that we would never accept for ourselves.”

The 87-year-old Terminal Island facility is the latest prison to be targeted for closure as the BOP struggles with mounting staff vacancies, a $4 billion repair backlog, and an expanded mission to support President Trump’s immigration crackdown and to invest billions in a rebuilt Alcatraz prison.

In a statement to Government Executive, a BOP spokeswoman said efforts to protect staff and inmates at the facility will begin immediately. “A strategic and targeted approach will be used to relocate inmates currently housed at FCI Terminal Island to other locations across the agency,” she said. “Several placement options are being evaluated, with a priority on keeping individuals as close as possible to their anticipated release locations.”

BOP said decisions regarding what to do about the facility, including whether and how to repair it, will wait until a “further assessment” of the situation there. News of the planned evacuation came just days after the agency touted $2 billion in funding to address deferred maintenance priorities across the federal prison system from this year’s budget reconciliation law.

According to the Los Angeles Times, an assessment last year revealed that Terminal Island needs $110 million in repairs over the next 20 years, raising questions about whether the BOP will ever be in a position to move inmates back to the facility.

In late 2024, the BOP announced that seven other facilities would be shuttered. The decision to close one, FPC Duluth, was reversed, but the others have been decommissioned.

The report that Terminal Island will close came only a few days after BOP Deputy Director Joshua Smith released a video message to BOP staff reporting that $2 billion had become available for repair of BOP infrastructure. He said the BOP hasn’t

wasted a minute. We began with the simplest most commonsense step imaginable. We looked at how money was actually being spent, and what we found was jaw-dropping. Entire complexes that included two USP’s getting only $1.8 million, while a standalone USP somehow got $2 [million]. No rhyme, no reason, just the same old good old boy system deciding whose friends got taken care of.

Smith said that facilities, functions planning, construction, maintenance, and environmental energy – roughly 2000 positions within the institutions – will report to his office. “This isn’t bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake,” Smith said. “That’s how we get things done, centralized oversight, national prioritization, real accountability, and the kind of data-driven decision making that finally lets us attack the backlog instead of just talking about it.”

The infrastructure program will depend on training inmates in skilled trades and having them work on infrastructure repair in positions that pay on a scale with UNICOR.

Associated Press, Federal Bureau of Prisons says falling concrete is forcing it to close a prison near Los Angeles (November 25, 2025)

Government Executive, Bureau of Prisons to ‘suspend operations’ at California penitentiary (November 25, 2025)

KABC-TV, San Pedro prison to suspend operations amid concerns over falling concrete (November 25, 2025)

Los Angeles Times, Crumbling ceilings in underground tunnels force closure of Terminal Island prison (November 26, 2025)

BOP, A New Era For Facilities (November 22, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root

Bureau of Prisons Slipping on ICE – Update for November 25, 2025

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

THAT GIANT SUCKING SOUND…

Remember H. Ross Perot? During his unsuccessful third-party bid for president in 1992, he warned that the “giant sucking sound” we all heard was the sound of jobs going to Mexico.

It turns out that Bureau of Prisons director William K. Marshall III is hearing one of his own, the sound of BOP correctional officers quitting for the gold-plated working conditions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Last week, Pro Publica reported that “ICE has been on a recruiting blitz, offering $50,000 starting bonuses and tuition reimbursement at an agency that has long offered better pay than the federal prison system. For many corrections officers, it’s been an easy sell.”

By the start of November, the BOP had lost at least 1,400 more staff this year than it had hired, according to ProPublica. “We’re broken and we’re being poached by ICE,” one union official told ProPublica. “It’s unbelievable. People are leaving in droves.”

The exodus comes amid shortages of critical supplies. Staffers told Pro Publica that some facilities had even stopped providing basic hygiene items for officers, such as paper towels, soap and toilet paper.

Fewer corrections officers result in more lockdowns, less programming, fewer health care services for inmates, greater risks to staff, and more grueling hours of mandatory overtime. Prison teachers and medical staff are being forced to step in as corrections officers on a regular basis.

In a video posted last Wednesday afternoon, Deputy Director Josh Smith said that the agency was “left in shambles by the previous administration” and would take years to repair. Staffing levels, he said, were “catastrophic,” which, along with crumbling infrastructure and corruption, had made the prisons less safe.

He also frankly appraised the agency’s approach to the First Step Act:

The First Step Act was sabotaged by the Biden DOJ and BOP.  They have mismanaged millions meant for FSA implementation – building a time credit calculator that has never worked right – and FSA programming required by the law never materialized. Instead, they hired an outside contractor that blocked every outside program submitted by some of the most impactful faith-based organizations. They only approved internal BOP classes, and, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars, the BOP still only added 100 halfway house beds in six years… all while reentry services division lost over 90 critical positions.

They diverted hundreds of millions of First Step Act funding into non-FSA programming and unrelated projects that they just labeled ‘FSA.’ This mismanagement squandered taxpayer money and undermined public safety. Lockdowns and collective punishment have become knee-jerk reactions… BOP has been consistently voted the worst place to work in all the federal government… This is the hand that we’ve been dealt, a Bureau on the brink scarred by decades of failure…

The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4th, could offer some financial support for the agency’s staffing woes, as it will route another $5 billion to the BOP over four years — $3 billion of which is specifically earmarked to improve retention, hiring and training. Yet exactly what the effects of that cash infusion will look like remains to be seen: Pro Publica reported that the “Bureau declined to answer questions about when it will receive the money or how it will be spent.”

Pro Publica, “We’re Broken”: As Federal Prisons Run Low on Food and Toilet Paper, Corrections Officers Are Leaving in Droves for ICE (November 20, 2025)

BOP, Video Message from the Deputy Director: A Bureau on the Brink (November 19, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root