Top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are pressing the head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons for details on how the agency is addressing ongoing staffing shortages at correctional facilities across the country.
BOP facilities are both overcrowded and understaffed. More than 1,400 staff left the agency last year – many for Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to the higher salaries and signing bonuses being offered by that agency, four lawmakers wrote in a Feb. 10 letter to Federal Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall III.
“We are concerned that staffing issues have reached a crisis point,” lawmakers said in the letter, which was first reported by Federal News Network.
Signing the letter were Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who is ranking member on the committee; Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., ranking member on Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance; Rep. Jasmine Crocket, D-Texas, ranking member on Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Oversight; and Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo.
A March 2023 report from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General said 21% of authorized correctional officers positions were unfilled – forcing prisons to use cooks, teachers, nurses and other workers to guard inmates under a practice called augmentation. Congress has ordered BOP to ensure at least two correctional officers are on duty for each BOP housing unit containing high-security inmates, but numerous facilities are failing to comply with the directive, the lawmakers wrote.
Despite the staffing challenges, BOP eliminated or reduced staff retention bonuses, resulting in pay cuts of up to 25% for more than half of the staff.
“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 says.
The lawmakers also raised alarm over Director Marshall’s September decision to cancel the negotiated collective bargaining agreement between the agency and the American Federation of Government Employees’ Council of Prison Locals, which is the exclusive representative for more than 30,000 BOP officers and staff.
“The termination appears to be part of a broader Trump Administration policy to end collective bargaining agreements across federal agencies and rollback the rights of federal employees,” the lawmakers wrote. “When President Trump signed an executive order to effectuate this policy, labor union representatives warned that it would worsen BOP’s already dire staffing crisis. But the unilateral cancelation of the collective bargaining agreement eliminates employees’ ability to protect themselves – and the people who are incarcerated in these facilities – in the workplace and ensure that they can fulfill their mission.”
The lawmakers asked Director Marshall to respond within 30 days with details on its workforce plans, including the status of a hiring freeze announced in May, efforts to recruit and retain workers, the use of overtime and staff augmentation, and how the agency intends to protect workers’ rights and improve their working conditions following the termination of the labor contract.
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