Company Profile
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Company Overview
The Federal Bureau of Prisons was established in 1930 to provide more progressive and humane care for federal inmates, to professionalize the prison service, and to ensure consistent and centralized administration of federal prisons.
•It is the mission of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to protect society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and that provide work and other self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in becoming law-abiding citizens.
•We protect public safety by ensuring that federal offenders serve their sentences of imprisonment in facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and provide reentry programming to ensure their successful return to the community.
•The Bureau is committed to providing: A safe environment for both staff and inmates, secure institutions to confine offenders and protect the public, those skills building programs we can afford, to offer inmates the opportunity to live crime-free lives, Service and stewardship to the public and a continued tradition of excellence, Staff who are ethical, professional, well trained, and diverse.
•Over 150,000 Inmates - Our agency is responsible for the custody and care of federal inmates.
•34% Rate of Recidivism - The Bureau of Prisons provides a myriad of inmate programs to address criminogenic needs.
•Over 36,000 Employees - We ensure the security of federal prisons and provide inmates with programs and services that model mainstream values.
Company History
Pursuant to Pub. L. No. 71-218, 46 Stat. 325 (May 14,1930), Congress established the Bureau of Prisons within the Department of Justice and charged the agency with the "management and regulation of all Federal penal and correctional institutions." The federal prison system had already existed for nearly 40 years under the Three Prisons Act (1891), which authorized the first three federal penitentiaries: USP Leavenworth, USP Atlanta and USP McNeil Island, and had since grown to 11 federal prisons. The wardens functioned autonomously for the most part with limited oversight by a Department of Justice official, the Superintendent of Prisons, in Washington, DC. With the creation of the Bureau of Prisons, the agency assumed the responsibilities of oversight, management and administration of the 11 Federal prisons in operation at the time.
As time passed and laws changed, the Bureau's responsibilities grew along with the prison population. By the end of 1930, the agency operated 14 facilities for just over 13,000 inmates. In 1932 the Bureau opened USP Lewisburg, the first penitentiary built by the newly established agency. By 1940, the Bureau had grown to 24 facilities with 24,360 inmates. Except for a few fluctuations, the number of inmates did not change significantly between 1940 and 1980, when the population was 24,252. However, the number of facilities almost doubled (from 24 to 44) as the Bureau gradually moved from operating large facilities confining inmates of many security levels to operating smaller facilities that confined inmates with similar security needs.
As a result of Federal law enforcement efforts and new legislation that dramatically altered sentencing in the Federal criminal justice system, the 1980's brought a significant increase in the number of Federal inmates. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 established determinate sentencing, abolished parole, and reduced good time; additionally, several mandatory minimum sentencing provisions were enacted in 1986, 1988, and 1990. From 1980 to 1989, the inmate population more than doubled, from just over 24,000 to almost 58,000, and the number of federal prisons increased to 62. During the 1990's, the population more than doubled again, reaching approximately 136,000 at the end of 1999 as efforts to combat illegal drugs and illegal immigration contributed to significantly increased conviction rates. By the end of the decade, the Bureau was operating 95 institutions.
For the next 13 years, the inmate population continued to increase to over 217,000 in 119 institutions. In 2014, for the first time in 34 years, the population declined. A variety of legislative changes, including most recently the First Step Act of 2018, will continue to contribute to the overall decline in the inmate population. Today, the Bureau operates 122 federal prisons and manages an inmate population of over 150,000.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Highlights from the BOP's History:
In 1930, Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt hired leading prison reformer Sanford Bates to organize and operate a new centralized Federal Bureau of Prisons with Sanford Bates serving as the BOP's first Director. The BOP was established to provide more progressive and humane care for federal inmates, to professionalize the prison service, and to ensure consistent and centralized administration of the federal prisons in operation at that time. By the end of 1930, the BOP had 14,115 inmates in 14 institutions nationwide.
In 1932, USP Lewisburg opened, becoming the first penitentiary built by the BOP, followed by the establishment of BOP's first medical center in Springfield, MO (1933). Soon after, in 1934, Congress established Federal Prison Industries (FPI) - more commonly known by its tradename "UNICOR". Beginning in 1941, During World War II, FPI produced a multitude of goods for the Army and Navy and enlistment regulations are changed to permit released offenders to enter the military.
The mid 1960's brought the Prisoner Rehabilitation Act, making halfway houses, furloughs, and work/study release available to adult offenders.
In 1973, the continued growth of the BOP prompted the agency to decentralize its operations, creating regional offices to improve management of its widely scattered facilities. The first regional office, South Central, was opened. The following year, offices for North Central, Northeast, Southeast, and Western regions were opened. The last of the six regional offices, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, opened in 1990.
The 1980's and 1990's was a time of growth for the inmate population. Enactment of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (which created many new Federal crimes, abolished parole, reinstituted the Federal death penalty, and established sentencing guidelines) led to substantial increases in the BOP's inmate population. Enactment of the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997 required the BOP's absorption of the entire DC felony population. During this time the BOP also successfully resolved two major disturbances: Atlanta/Oakdale in 1987 and Talladega in 1991.
The next decade brought numerous cost reduction initiatives to the BOP as the federal government shifted budget resources from traditional criminal justice areas to supporting homeland security and counter-terrorism. In support of the Department of Justice and the Nation in the war on terrorism, in 2006, the BOP activated the Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) to assist in identifying inmates involved in terrorist activities and to provide for the coordination of translation services and analysis of terrorist inmate communications and established the Communications Management Unit (CMU) at FCC Terre Haute, IN.
The BOP established a new division in 2013, Reentry Services, to enhance oversight and direction in facilitating the successful return of inmates into their communities upon release. A year later, on May 29, 2014, the BOP and the Council of Prison Locals (American Federation of Government Employees) signed a new Master Agreement, paving the way for a new partnership in labor-management relations. (The previous agreement was signed on March 9, 1998 and was periodically amended over the sixteen years to cover policy changes.)
In 2018 The First Step Act (FSA) was signed into law promoting criminal justice reform with provisions that impact BOP inmates and their families. The law gives judges greater latitude in imposing mandatory minimum sentences allows inmates to earn increased good conduct time, increases BOP recidivism reduction programming to address inmate's needs, offers earned time credits for completion of recidivism reduction programs and/or productive activities, and expands opportunities for inmate placement into RRCs or home confinement.
After 90 years, the BOP houses 169,080 federal inmates in 122 institutions across the country and in Puerto Rico. "I am proud to serve alongside the men and women of the Bureau of Prisons," said Director Michael Carvajal. "Our staff continue to tell the story of BOP's rich history by their professionalism and hard work, and continue to honor our core values of correctional excellence, respect and integrity in our dedication to public service."