Bureau Of Prisons Is A 'Powder Keg' With Problems

Forbes

04-04-2025

Acting Bureau of Prisons Director Hugh Hurwitz speaks during a press conference at the Justice ... More Department July 19, 2019 in Washington, DC. Hurwitz oversaw a few crises during his term at the top of the BOP and reflects on what is happening now.
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has been in a tailspin for the past 10 years. Many of the problems the Agency faces are not brought on by the people or leadership, it is neglect in funding and oversight that has put the BOP at the bottom of places to work in the government along with a host of problems. While the central problems have been staffing shortages, aging institutions and a limit in halfway house capacity, new policy decisions are angering both staff and the inmate population.
The BOP announced that non-U.S. citizens, even if they do not have an order of removal, are not allowed in prerelease custody programs (home confinement and halfway house). While there were not many non-U.S. citizens in prerelease custody anyway, now even those people are excluded meaning that people will stay in institutions longer. Earlier this week, the BOP announced that it is capping all prerelease custody under the Second Chance Act (up to a year prior to this announcement) is cut to 60 days.
Not only are minimum security inmates staying in prison longer, those with long sentences are under the same 60 day restriction for prerelease custody.
Hugh Hurwitz took over as Acting Director of the BOP after the sudden resignation of Mark Inch, Donald Trump's administration pick to head the BOP. Inch lasted less than a year in the job when Hurwitz was made Acting Director. Hurwitz was in the job until August 2019 when Jeffrey Epstein hung himself at MCC New York. Hurwitz was out and the BOP turned to Kathleen Hawk Sawyer to return as Acting Director.
'I welcomed the opportunity to take the position but over the 15 months I was in the job,' Hurwitz told me, 'I could not imagine the pressure that comes from the situations that the BOP faced.'
Everyday is an opportunity for something to go wrong and Hurwitz said that during his tenure it seemed to be one thing after another. Hurwitz oversaw the initial implementation of the First Step Act, managed the BOP through a 3-week government shutdown, had to find drugs for death penalty executions, notorious gangster Whitey-Bulger was killed by another inmate at USP Hazelton, Hurricane Michael destroyed FCI Marianna, the fire at MDC Brooklyn that left inmates and staff with no heat in the cold of winter, El Chapo was convicted and transferred to ADX Florence and, lastly, the Epstein suicide.
'Everyday I went into the office I had no idea what was going to happen,' Hurwitz said, 'and while I addressed the urgent matters, I was always wondering what was brewing that was coming next and could I do something about it.'
Things can go wrong and they can go wrong quickly. The BOP is working with nearly 6,000 fewer workers than they say they need and they have incurred over $437 million in overtime charges according to the BOP's Kathleen Toomey who is the highest ranking BOP staff member to testify before Congress in February 2025. Toomey is the Associate Deputy Director at the BOP and there is no current Acting Director. One can imagine that working double shifts takes its toll on workers.
The BOP's institutions need $3 billion in improvements. The facilities fell into such disrepair that Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) was compelled to introduce legislation, the Prison Camera Reform Act, that later passed into law, to repair and expand the use of cameras in federal prisons. Inmates complain of mold, leaking roofs, broken toilets and substandard food.
Staff, which already ranked last with the lowest morale of all government employees, recently learned that the union (American Federation of Government Employees Council 33) that represents them may be dismantled with a new Executive Order from Trump. The same group also lost their retention bonuses. Some have taken the request by the Trump administration to resign with 8-months severance to heart, preferring that over the possibility of being fired. There is concern that the $8.3 billion annual budget, which the BOP says is not sufficient, will be further cut.
'These are big problems,' Hurwitz said, 'that lead to even bigger problems. You have a situation where inmates are angry and I know from what I am hearing that staff are angry. That is not a good combination on top of the issues with poor morale, staffing shortage, pressure to cut costs from the new administration and managing all this while trying to stick to the mission of security in the prisons. Hurwitz said, 'It is a powder keg and a lot of people are worried about an big incident that may happen next.'
According to testimony from Kathleen Toomey in February, for medical care alone, BOP spent $145.5 million on overtime for almost 76,000 outside medical trips and 84,000 hospitalizations, the highest number on hospitalizations of any year since 2017. I recently wrote about the challenges the BOP faces in providing adequate care and part of the problem is that the BOP never says 'no' to housing a defendant, no matter how ill. 'The BOP does not want to lose face by saying they cannot care for an inmate,' Hurwitz told me, 'and they often cite the fact that there are 7 medical centers. However, all BOP rely on community hospital and specialist support and that is expensive.'
The BOP held town-halls across the country at its 120 prisons trying to explain the reduction in prerelease custody to 60 days under the Second Chance Act. For months, inmates have complained that their case managers were recommending them for the maximum amount of prerelease custody (365 days) under the Second Chance Act only to be told weeks later that they got far less. Capacity issues at the halfway houses that oversee prerelease custody have been a problem for years. One can imagine that there are many disappointed inmates who thought they were leaving in a few weeks are now being informed that it could be early next year.
The Trump administration has been struggling with appointing a new BOP Director, though speculation has mounted since the former Director Colette Peters was fired within hours of Trump taking office. Besides Peters, a number of top staff members at BOP's Central Office and Regional Offices have retired. There is currently no Acting Director at the BOP, something that Hurwitz called 'a tragedy waiting to happen' when an incident occurs.