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Two Case Studies: the Volunteer, the Wife and How PERA Helped

Jack Donson on October 3, 2025

One of PERA’s unique benefits in the criminal justice space is our deep familiarity with BOP policy, how the agency works and our ability to use that knowledge to resolve conflicts for family members, incarcerated people and others. It is our team of advocacy-minded BOP experts from multiple disciplines who allow us to provide guidance, reach out to the right contacts and obtain positive outcomes. Two recent victories, which may seem small to some but were significant to those involved, demonstrate how we can work with the BOP in a positive and professional manner.

Visitation denied

The first case involved an older inmate who reached out to More Than Our Crimes, which referred him to us. His wife and codefendant had been denied visiting privileges, even though she had been out of prison for several years, compliant with the conditions set and was now off paper. After reviewing their specific circumstances, we reached out to an official in the BOP central office.

Within a few days, his wife was added to his visiting list. He messaged

“Hello Jack, this is a great morning for me! Because yesterday I was getting ready to mail my BP-11 [grievance form] into the central office when my new case manager came up to me and told me that my wife was put on my visitation list. Whatever you did worked. I appreciate you and Pam Bailey [More Than Our Crimes] more than you will ever know.”

The BOP has a lot of discretion when it comes to visiting privileges; it can deny individuals, but it also can approve them. The primary considerations are institutional security and the nature of the relationship. In this case, the wife had paid her dues, and the husband had maintained a good record. Given his age and release date, it was possible the couple would never see each other again if she could not visit. If he had filed a grievance, it would have cemented an adversarial relationship. And on the prison’s part, the culture too often instills staff indifference toward the needs of their incarcerated charges. We are encouraged that the new BOP administration is listening, then acting with sound correctional judgement when contacted.

Unfair dismissal of a volunteer

The second case involved a retired BOP employee with an exemplary track record, who then volunteered in one of the prisons. However, he was later abruptly dismissed when he questioned the warden’s decision to strip search and demean inmates without justification, just to send a message. Again, we contacted the central office, and the volunteer was reinstated:

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart, If it wasn’t for you taking the time to connect the BOP with this situation, I would be forever barred from volunteering and offering training in any BOP facility.”

I believe Director William Marshal and Deputy Joshua Smith recognize that wardens are often the source of dysfunctional institutional culture. In fact, on Aug. 25, the director announced on the agency’s website that he is overhauling how wardens are selected: “Warden selections are among the most important decisions we make, and it’s time we raise the standard… Our selections will be guided by objective evaluations, not just resumes or based on a system of ‘it’s who you know.’ Applicants will be interviewed and tested on their ability to lead through crisis, inspire their teams, and drive the kind of cultural change we need across the bureau.”

The BOP used to be progressive, with the leadership consisting mostly of college-educated professionals with a correctional programs background and a treatment orientation. But during the tough-on-crime era, when the federal prison infrastructure boomed, the emphasis shifted to incapacitation and punishment, with far less accountability. This, in combination with an inability to fill leadership positions, lowered the bar for candidates and created conditions ripe for abuse. One result was a “daddy” system in which ”yes people” follow their bosses throughout the BOP and then into the private sector of the prison industrial complex. 

Wardens should no longer have carte blanche authority to deviate from policy like some unchecked king. While there are some executives who live up to the standards laid out in the regulations, it is clear currently, there are not enough of them.  

Prison Unions: a ‘Two-Edged Shank’

Jack Donson on October 2, 2025

The dramatic move to terminate the master union agreement by the new bureau administration caused quite a stir in BOP land this week. I am an AFGE-CPL Local 33 member and have paid yearly dues since retirement. I’ve both negotiated one of the master agreements on the union side of the table and occupied management positions, so I can speak to lived experience on both fronts.

I want to say at the outset that I’m strongly in support of employee rights — including a BOP union and a master agreement that encompasses all the locals. The focus of PERA is primarily the need for reform of the bureau and the slow and painful evolution of BOP management. However, the union has often acted as an impediment to reform. And that’s partly why the new BOP management terminated the union contract. (President Trump paved the way, however, when he issued an executive order in March, citing a provision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act to ban unionization at most federal agencies under the auspices of national security. Intense litigation has ensued, but federal appellate courts have—with one exception—allowed the administration to proceed with implementation while those lawsuits work their way through the courts.) In a blog post on the BOP’s website, Bureau Director William Marshall said he “comes from a pro-union family,” but “when a union becomes an obstacle to progress instead of a partner in it, it’s time for change.” 

He is right that some union officials are their worst enemies and often act as obstacles to needed change. It was widely reported that resistance from the union, and her fear of it, was a major roadblock for former BOP Director Collette Peters.  And I certainly witnessed poor judgement when I worked inside: For example, union officials  would often leave their posts, allegedly for official union business, but mostly hung out in the office, etc. Meanwhile, other workers had to cover their posts  a real problem when there is a severe staffing crisis. Another concern I often hear about is the yearly trips to conferences by local union officials on the members’ dime, which appeared to involve more partying than meaningful business.

Unions also have a track record of overly protecting rogue staff and deliberately slow-walking approval of new policies. (Union officials are part of the review process when policies are updated and can invoke the right to negotiate if they believe the policy update will affect its members – which many  will, since they staff the prisons.) This has historically caused significant delays in policy implementation but also gave dysfunctional BOP management a reason to maintain the status quo and blame the union for the inertia. This lack of progress on policy revisions has increased the BOP practice of managing by internal memoranda, which are frequently not publicly available (in contrast to official policies). A stark example of this is the policy governing placement in halfway houses (residential reentry centers, or RRCs), which has not been updated for nearly 30 years despite significant changes in the law (the Second Chance Act of 2007 and most recently the First Step Act of 2018).

However, dysfunction in the union/management relationship also occurs on the management side. Consider the process through which negotiations and other communications occur between local bargaining unit officials and management. When I was involved in negotiating the master agreement, workers were represented predominately by correctional officers and a few other line staff members, who sat across from a warden, associate warden and several department heads. That puts GS-8 correctional officers in a precarious position, since they must deal with people several levels above their boss. Political suicide often occurs, and management intimidation can impact negotiations, with one misstep wrecking a person’s career in the BOP “good ol’ boy” network (where promotion is not based on merit but the ability to be a good follower and boot lick).

Unfortunately, union officials predominately reflect the typical law-enforcement mentality of correctional officers, in which incapacitation trumps treatment. I could write a blog post just on this philosophical concept, but it can be summarized as “us vs. them.” In other words, the inmates are the enemy. This dichotomy is unnecessary and makes prisons more dangerous for both staff and the incarcerated. When the agency had stronger leadership in the 1980s and early ‘90s, the mantra was “firm but fair.” But that no longer seems to be the dominant practice, and PERA advocates for changing this mindset from the very beginning, when new hires are oriented at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Academy. Creating positive custodial and treatment relationships foster safe environments for everyone and reduces recidivism.   

Such a behavioral shift requires culture change, as well as real accountability. And the latter won’t be possible unless there is a truly independent ombudsman’s office. Creation of an ombudsman function was included in the recently enacted Federal Prison Oversight Act. However, it has not yet been funded. What a lost opportunity!

Here is a radical idea: Maybe the union rank and file should align with the incarcerated population. Despite the current divide, they share something critical: They are the ones living and working at ground zero of our prisons, and thus bearing the brunt of the risks (think high suicide rates and stress-related medical conditions) while management makes questionable decisions in their central and regional office crystal palaces. 

How Many More Reasons Will the BOP Find to Lock People Down?

Jack Donson on July 27, 2025

One of PERA’s priority most concerning advocacy topics is the abuse of restrictive housing. I have written on this subject extensively and it has been the focus of Congress and the DOJ’s Inspector General for decades. Yet there has been little if any changes in the BOP’s restrictive custody practices. In fact, SHUs that are filled to capacity are now being cited as excuses for modified lockdowns across the system – often paired with commissary restrictions for everyone in the entire unit,

The growth in lockdowns

Lockdowns, for any reason, were not always endemic in the BOP.  In 2012, there were 159,501 prisoners and 32,735 staff across the agency; lockdowns were imposed infrequently, mostly due to institutional emergencies. There was also a conscious effort to resume normal facility operations as soon as possible. Today, the BOP website states that there are 154,853 prisoners and 35,577staff on board – fewer inmates and more employees than in 2012. Yet lockdowns have become almost the norm. Why?

In part, it is due to fewer correctional officers. But mostly, it is a leadership issue, in combination with no centralized policy or reporting requirements, particularly for modified lockdowns (partial days). Thus, the practice of augmentation (in which non-custodial staff occupy correctional posts to maintain operations) has become common, resulting in less access to rehabilitation programs and fewer opportunities for family visits. That impacts re-entry and, more broadly, institutional security

The lockdown-SHU connection

Now, in addition to “short staff,” we are increasingly hearing a new reason for lockdowns at the unit level: a full SHU. If staff wants to send someone to the SHU but they cannot be transferred due to “no room at the inn,” the individual’s entire unit is locked down.  The question should be asked, why is the SHU full, and so frequently? And why aren’t alternatives to lockdowns considered?  The negative consequences of prolonged Isolation have been well documented in numerous audits and congressional hearings over the past few decades. Yet in its latest report on the BOP’s use of the SHU, the GAO reported that  SHU placements have increased since 2016 (when the agency’s previous report on the subject was issued), with approximately 8% of all of its prisoners – 12,000 individuals – now confined there. The GAO went on to say that many of the recommendations it had made in 2014 and 2016 have not been implemented. This failure is due, in part, the report said, to the BOP’s failure to assign responsibility to appropriate officials. Now, that is a simple failure of leadership. 

This situation reminds me of a BOP practice in the mid-2000s when the leadership attempted to deter inmates from “checking in” (for protective custody) by mandating clean conduct in the SHU before transferring the person to a new prison. When someone was cited with even a minor infraction, the clock for the transfer started over again. As a result, it was common to for prisoners to live in the SHU for nearly a year. This practice was soon stopped, most likely due to legal challenges.  

The SHU was never intended as a long-term housing arrangement. Yet, we regularly hear of people languishing in the SHU for many months, sometimes for over a year, without even being charged with a violation of the code of conduct. Consider the case of Robert Aguon: He was confined to the SHU at FCI Hazelton in West Virginia for nearly two years while he was allegedly under investigation – not for any wrongdoing he committed, but for what staff thought he knew about a contraband smuggling ring. It wasn’t until PERA intervened that Robert was finally released and transferred to another prison. And, despite the fact that no charge was ever brought against him, Robert continued to be harassed at his new prison, with emails often delayed for many days or not delivered at all.

What is so concerning about cases like this one is that prison management, from the warden on down, are supposed to conduct a weekly case-by-case status review of everyone in the SHU. If someone is in the SHU week after week with no charge or other resolution, wardens should be questioning why there have been no developments. I believe that simply requiring that these weekly reviews take place, and be conducted with serious intention, would quickly alleviate crowding in the SHU.  Other simple actions that would quickly cut SHU populations include mandating deadlines for investigations, discouraging SHU placement for low and moderate violations, and encouraging participation of the prisoner in the seven- and 30-day reviews. 

Abuses of the SHU are endemic within BOP culture and are well known by both Congress and the DOJ’s inspector general for the agency. However, after corrective recommendations are made, there is little accountability. Two, three and more years later, many remain uncompleted.  

“SHU malpractice” could be corrected almost overnight with proper leadership. Prolonged isolation negatively impacts mental health, detracts from correctional treatment and makes facilities less safe for all. The time for leadership on this issue has long passed! 

The FSA-SCA Confusion Continues: Reality vs Rhetoric

Jack Donson on July 11, 2025

In the wake of the new BOP director’s press releases and internal memorandum directing staff to maximize community-placement opportunities, we continue to receive complaints from people who are past their home detention eligibility date yet sitting in K2-laden residential reentry centers (RRCs). Another situation that is still depressingly common is individuals still in prison who are long past their RRC eligibility date. 

Anyone who has closely followed BOP issues over the years became quickly aware that the only news in the BOP director’s press release was that he stated that, “Residential re-entry center bed availability/capacity shall not be a barrier to home confinement when an individual is statutory-eligible and appropriate for such placement.” That’s a big deal because, up until now, that was the main impediment to the application of FSA (First Step Act) pre-release credits. Congress underfunded the First Step Act from the beginning, so contract quotas limited capacity in most parts of the country – leaving people in prison and RRCs longer than intended. We can only hope that the $500 million that was allocated to the cancelled Letcher, KY, prison or a cut of the $5 billion designated for the BOP in the “big beautiful bill” will be diverted to expand the RRC/HC infrastructure, rather than funneling it to the reopening of Alcatraz! That would be true leadership.

Something else that is concerning and requires leadership is an issue related to the calculation of home detention eligibility dates (HDED). I never thought about this before or received previous complaints, but a recent complaint indicates it may be a new issue. The individual provided the corresponding SENTRY and FSA time credit-assessment forms, and, after review, I am certain there is problem issue with the calculation. In this case, the BOP determined the HDED based on the SENTRY-projected FSA release date rather than on the conditional release date on the assessment form. This calculation reduced the home detention allotment from 10% of a person’s sentence (or six months, whichever is less) to approximately 3%.  In other words, this individual, who has a 30-month sentence, should have already transferred to home confinement. SENTRY, however, reflects an August 29 HDED due to the failure to apply FSA credits. That’s yet another FSA glitch to add to the previous ones! 

A final, related issue to watch is an effort to get the BOP director to realize that the agency is acting outside the scope of law and its own repeated assertions by not allowing FSA credits to continue to accrue and be applied once individuals are transferred to the community. We hope that all the rhetoric and PR turns into action. It’s encouraging that just this week, RRM offices were instructed to clear out the facilities for people who are eligible for home confinement. In addition, RRC case managers were instructed to fill their beds asap. The next few weeks should be an indicator of talk vs action if this is true.    

Context and history of home detention eligibility

Prior to the First Step Act, a person’s six-month/10% HDED was calculated based on their full sentence, to allow transfer to home confinement prior to the individual’s projected GCT release date. 

Historically, the projected GCT-based release date never changed unless a person lost time for misconduct or won a sentence modification in court. After the FSA went into effect, the GCT release date was renamed the “statutory release date” in the SENTRY database, and the projected actual release date is now calculated based on the FSA (if the person is eligible). However, it doesn’t incorporate the application of FSA time credits after the individual transfers to the community.  

This situation could be corrected without a lot of work. What’s required is for the BOP to include a conditional HDED in the FSA time-credit computation. Then, a person could go to home confinement at six months, or 10% prior to the FSA conditional release

I am hoping the BOP is not intentionally depriving people of home confinement time. The courts have given the BOP broad discretion on these issues; let’s not forget that in the past, the BOP held to its guns and insisted on basing the 15% GCT on a person’s net (full term minus good conduct time) instead of gross sentence. And it prevailed at the Supreme Court. The only way it was able to be corrected was with legislation (the FSA).

‘Dawn of a New Era,’ or More Rhetoric that Doesn’t Match Reality?

Jack Donson on June 20, 2025

A BOP press release is causing quite a stir in the advocacy world. Some individuals with influential voices are heralding it as a change that will free many more people via early, supervised release. “Halfway house bed space is NO LONGER an excuse,” crowed one person on Facebook. “If someone qualifies for [halfway house] or home confinement, they should be placed—period.” But there are lots of reasons to be skeptical. 

I can’t say that I blame lay people for their lack of caution, given the triumphalist wording of the press release: “This is the dawn of a new era, one in which the Bureau of Prisons will realize the full potential of the First Step Act (FSA) and Second Chance Act (SCA)…” Specifically, the release stated that SCA benefits and FSA earned-time credits “will be treated as cumulative and stackable.” 

The wording sounds like eligible individuals could get transferred to the community a year earlier than their release date under the SCA (although it has always been discretionary) and another year with the accumulation of FSA time credits. But not so fast. An internal memorandum disseminated by the new BOP director on May 28 states that due to statutory limitations in the SCA, individuals who earn the full 365 days of early release available under the FSA cannot get more than 12 months of community placement (RRC or home confinement). Perhaps the press release simply fails to say that while benefits under the two acts can only be stacked up to a year. 

First Step Act confusion is one of the more exploited issues in the predatory consulting world. Too many people fall for Google ads or Facebook postings implying that the sponsor can get a loved one out of prison early in return for thousands of dollars.  FSA is also misunderstood in the legal community. 

The reality:  Aside from the early days following the passage of the FSA, very few people who were serving a lengthy sentence have been awarded SCA time stacked on top of earned FSA pre-release credits. In addition to the claimed statutory limitation, there is simply insufficient bed capacity in residential reentry centers (halfway houses) and contract limitations on the staff and equipment required to place more people in home detention. The underfunding crisis developed quickly following implementation of the FSA. (The same shortfall occurred in 2008 after the enactment of the SCA, which is one reason why the potential of a full year of community release was elusive before the FSA.) 

With the significant budget deficits and cuts that are in the news, I’d like to know how or where the BOP would obtain the funding to pay private contractors to exceed their pre-set quotas. In fact, the BOP has not been able to place people in RRCs or home confinement even for the time earned under the FSA! And recently, DC’s District Court rejected the argument by the ACLU and its partners that “shall means shall,” ruling instead that the FSA does not compel the BOP to transfer every prisoner to community release on the date of their eligibility.

“Section 3632(d)(4)(C) [of the FSA] is best read as a directive that identifies what group of prisoners the BOP must transfer into prerelease custody, not as establishing an immutable date by which the BOP must effectuate individual transfers,” the judge ruled.

So, unless the ACLU team appeals and wins, or there are other favorable circuit court decisions, I guess “shall” doesn’t mean shall anymore!

A review: It takes about 27 months in prison before an FSA-eligible person begins to earn credits toward a year of early release. Those credits ordinarily accumulate at the rate of 15 days a month, which requires over two additional years to get to the maximum 365. So, that’s 27 months, plus 24 months to hit the statutory maximum community placement under the SCA, as stated in the director’s internal memorandum.

The broader, systemic issue that no one is paying attention to is this: People ineligible for FSA credits due to the nature of their charge and who are most in need of community transition  are getting shorter RRC placements because there is a shortage of beds, since they are occupied by lower-risk FSA-eligible individuals.  

Readers who have followed my monthly Sentencing Partner articles for the past 10 years know that changes in policy are required to be disseminated as “Change Notices,” according to the BOP’s own policy on directives management. Governing by internal memo or press release lacks rigor and transparency and leads to inconsistency, confusion and exploitation.  

Another issue flying under the radar is the fact that once sent into the community, people are not continuing to earn time credits under the FSA. That’s because once a person is transferred to an RRC or HC, there is no way to apply the credits because they are already in the community. Since the BOP is already using its discretion to apply the first 365 credits toward early supervised release, it could also front load all projected credits so they could transition into the community even sooner.

Reset, Reform or the Same Old Song and Dance?

Jack Donson on May 22, 2025

Aside from the regular BOP chaos, including increasing lockdowns and continuing First Step Act issues, it’s been relatively quiet since William Marshall was named the new director. I truly hope he brought some of his own staff from outside the agency (he previously headed the West Virginia Department of Corrections). Otherwise, his fate will likely be the same as the two others hired from the outside (Colette Peters, from the Oregon system, and Mark Inch, who was chosen from the military corrections and investigation branch). 

I have never seen so many vacant leadership positions at the top of the BOP (10 as of this writing) for such a long time, and my intuition is that the silence signifies that something big is about to drop. Will Marshall be up to the task? The West Virginia prison system is small (5,900 prisoners and about 3,000 employees) compared to the BOP (156,600 and 35,000), and much more geographically dispersed. And the number and degree of crises within the BOP is unprecedented. (Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Charleston anymore!) 

Mr. Marshall recently participated in his first TV interview since his appointment, with Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, on Fox News. It was both disappointing and encouraging. On the disappointing front, he said he was “excited” to assess the president’s  proposal to reopen Alcatraz as a working prison. Yes, he is new and was talking to the president’s daughter-in-law. But he surely didn’t have to embrace a patently unrealistic proposal so enthusiastically.  Let’s hope he also raises concerns about the new Letcher prison planned for Kentucky, because the rank-and-file understand that the government does not need another unstaffed prison in the middle of nowhere.   On the encouraging front, Marshall talked about his plans to “walk the prisons” and emphasize transparency and accountability. He also said he wants to equip prisoners’ tablets so that they can be used to access educational programming during lockdowns. That would be a significant reform, but it should be paired with a reduction in lockdowns.

If the director realizes the need and is ready for decisive action, there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit that could give him instant street credibility. However, it’s unlikely it will be pointed out by the current central office administration (thus I hope he really does “walk the prisons” and talk to the rank-and-file below the wardens). Renaming what incarcerated people are called and holding listening sessions for the usual cast of nonprofits is ineffective theater. It’s time for changes to be made on the treatment/program side of the system. 

Rein in the wardens

I’d free up funds for these changes by eliminating the six regional offices and reining in the wardens. Too many wardents run their facilities like kings with little accountability, leading to arbitrary exercises of power. The BOP actually has good policies, but too many staff members simply don’t follow them. I believe that’s mostly due to poor leadership, extending to the warden level. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that the central office has failed to keep its policies current via change notices and/or issue operations memoranda. Blaming budget shortfalls, staff shortages and an incalcitrant union for the chaos within the BOP has gotten old. It’s time for action. 

Get serious about accountability

The administrative remedy process is fundamentally failing at its mission to provide incarcerated residents a fair and reliable method of seeking redress. Complaints range from being refused the necessary forms, to frivolous rejections, to failure to even respond – even after a receipt is issued with a due date. The new director could gain some instant credibility by tackling the first step of that process, an attempt at informal resolution that requires the filing of a BP-8 form. Many of the incarcerated people I correspond with tell me they sometimes must beg for the BP-8 (and BP-9) forms for days before the counselor will provide it. Then it’s rejected for timeliness, no reply is received, etc. A simple solution would be to use the Trulincs email system for submitting a BP-8, similar to cop-outs. This would allow them to be tracked. Tracking and setting a time frame for informal resolutions would greatly reduce rejections and disappearances.  

Where are the policies?

One of the most egregious examples of outdated policy is PS No. 7310.04, “Community Correction Center Utilization and Transfer Procedures,” which has not been updated since before the Second Chance Act was adopted by Congress in 2007. That act made significant changes to halfway house placement and it is unacceptable that such a critical policy has been ignored. At least part of the confusion and missed opportunities for early release to the community is the growing practice of “governing via internal memoranda.” It lacks transparency and does not comply with the Directives Management Manual, which lays out how policies are supposed to be developed and maintained. 

Answer the phone!

Other, more micro changes that the director could quickly implement to make a significant difference include assuring that each facility has a process that assures calls from family members and attorneys are promptly answered, protecting private legal communication, and updating facility websites to include current visiting policies (including days and hours), prisoner handbooks, mail procedures, etc. PERA trains attorneys around the country and the anger at the BOP that is evident is indicative of the lack of respect many BOP staff members have for the right to protected legal communication. 

At the heart of the way federal prisons operate, including the relationship staff have with prisoners, is how units are managed – a process that has been broken for many years. The failure to engage incarcerated individuals in regular team meetings, as required by the recently updated Program Statement 5321.09, impedes rehabilitation and makes both prisons and communities less safe. Likewise, it would not be hard to assure that thorough and meaningful weekly reviews are conducted for every person in the special housing unit (SHU), to make sure no one stagnates there for months at a time “pending investigation.” 

[Note that the BOP finally restored its program statements to the public website that were removed due to altered language required by President Trump’s executive orders. However, the lack of transparency continues. Just the other day, I noticed the BOP removed most of the forms used to initiate early-release review under RDAP (Residential Drug Addiction Program). They also removed the transgender and MAT clinical guidelines even before the executive orders.]

Needed: leadership and money

Critical, but more complex issues, like inadequate health care and crumbling infrastructure, will require money and bold leadership to address — both scarce for many years. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Marshall can exercise the leadership and if Congress and the Trump administration will put money where their mouths are. (Speaking about money, Congress could start by approving funds to implement the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which would provide a significant step toward mandating greater accountability for the BOP. The law, passed last year declared that “it is the sense of Congress that the amount allocated to the Inspector General and the Ombudsman to carry out these activities should equal 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent of the annual appropriation for the BOP.” That language fell just short of mandating the funding, however.) 

PERA was established to help fill the current accountability gap. Please support us and spread the word as we grow our alliance and initiatives.      

Collective Action Works

Jack Donson on May 22, 2025

Last month, the BOP announced that it would limit to 60 days placements in residential reentry centers (RRCs, or halfway houses) earned under the Second Chance Act (SCA). The reduction to two months from a maximum of 12 was significant and would have negatively impacted reentry for many. However, after less than a week of loud outcry from the federal justice community, the bureau retracted its memo. That’s a true testament to the influence we can have when we act collectively. (Now we need to do this more intentionally, and more often. There are so many issues with BOP operations that cry out for it!)

There has always been a misunderstanding of the SCA, which lacks the stronger statutory requirements for community transition found in the First Step Act (FSA). A class action suit recently filed by the ACLU focuses on the inability of the BOP to honor FSA-mandated pre-release credits due to a lack of RRC bed space. Another, related consequence of too few RRC spaces is that higher-risk people don’t get the longer stays that would be most beneficial for them. Instead, the beds are occupied by low-risk people who need RRC time the least. While most people think the solution is to send low-risk individuals to home detention, that also requires money for the monitoring infrastructure. The BOP should, however, make more use of it. 

Meanwhile, government resources continue to pour into an increasing reliance on private operators, and it’s not only for ICE detention centers. It is my belief that privatization is a cancer in the justice system that has metastasized into other methods of exploitation like fees to use the telephone and prison email system, charges for tablets, etc. It took decades for advocates to achieve federal regulation of phone fees, and now the industry has pivoted to exploitation via tablets.  

ICE, BOP and Private Contractors: an ‘Unholy’ Alliance

Jack Donson on March 14, 2025

It’s difficult to keep up with the chaos in the federal prison system that has ensued over the past few weeks. Among them are the welter of issues caused by the administration’s heavy-handed focus on migrants. 

A top focus of concern at the recent House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the BOP was the Trump administration’s decision to hold ICE detainees at five bureau facilities: FDCs Miami, Philadelphia and Atlanta, and FCIs Leavenworth and Berlin. However, that list may grow. On March 12, NBC News reported that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigrant detention centers are at capacity and officials are working with the Marshals Service, Department of Defense and the BOP to increase bed space.

This reminds us of when a BOP central office official circulated a memorandum directing the transfer of noncitizens to privately run facilities, just before he retired and joined the GEO Group, one of the largest prison contractors. GEO is the same company that has close ties to Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who lobbied for the company when on the team of Ballard Partners. And now, GEO was just awarded a $1 billion fixed-priced contract from ICE to adapt its immigration-processing center for adult males in Newark, NJ, so it can house “mixed populations” (thus fueling internal BOP rumors that privatization will not be limited to ICE detainees). Let’s watch to see where all those recently retired BOP executives end up… 

Referring to the BOP’s new contract with ICE, Rep. Grace Meng, the ranking Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee, remarked, “The BOP has so many problems, and this just complicates its operations even more. It also raises legal questions about housing civil detainees with criminals.” 

Deputy Director Katheen Toomey sought to alleviate such concerns, noting that ICE will pay all the costs and that immigration detainees “are put in separate housing units and don’t interact with the rest of the population at any point.” 

What makes no sense to PERA is that the BOP is already understaffed. Adding ICE units to existing facilities will stress already limited resources. What’s even more concerning is that DHS is reimbursing the BOP at a rate equivalent to the annual cost of incarceration: nearly $45,000 per person. Yet Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has reportedly offered access to 4,000 vacant prison beds for the federal government’s detention of illegal immigrants. Detainees only require short-term housing and are not offered programs, so maybe our dealmaker president should have negotiated that contract for ICE! That’s something for DOGE to look into for sure. 

FSA benefits for noncitizens

And then there are the inconsistencies in how First Step Act (FSA) time credits are applied to noncitizens. For example, consider the case of Michael Harriot v. Warden J.L. Jamison: Harriot was in the country illegally when he was given a life sentence for narcotics distribution. In 2021, a U.S. District Court (South Carolina) judge granted his request for a sentence reduction (to 360 months) under the FSA. Two years later, the BOP informed Harriot that it would apply the 365 days of credit he had earned under the FSA toward early release, resulting in a one-year advancement of his projected release date. Meanwhile, ICE lodged a detainer against Harriot, requesting that the BOP inform the DHS of his impending release at least 48 hours before. 

As a result, one month later, the BOP informed Harriot that he was no longer eligible for early release. In its ruling, the judge rejected that reasoning, saying “the BOP erred by relying solely on the contents of the detainer to deny application of Harriot’s FSA credits.” Thus, he should have been released on March 12, 2024 – well before the bureau was notified of an old Notice and Order of Expedited Removal (filed in 1997, after which Harriot illegally reentered the United States), followed by a notice of intent to reinstate the order. And unfortunately, it was on that basis that the judge refused the remainder of Harriot’s petition.

Trevor Parkes (counsel and project director for the NACDL’s First Step Act Resource Center), points out this other interesting comment from the judge: “Harriot may, therefore, have a plausible claim for money damages for false imprisonment for each day that he was imprisoned in BOP secure custody.” Such relief could be sought, he noted, by bringing a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

It has been a common practice for the BOP to award noncitizens 365 days of FSA time credits, only to abruptly rescind them shortly before an individual’s scheduled release. PERA has been tracking noncitizen issues like this for many months and has also received descriptions of people being taken to an area of the prison where ICE agents tell them to sign paperwork without representation or interpreters.  

This is an evolving concern that PERA will watch closely.

DOGE: Target the BOP, but First Talk to People Who Have Been in the Trenches

Pam Bailey and Jack Donson on March 5, 2025

Union sources tell us that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is closing two of its six regional headquarters as part of cost-cutting moves – the two offices most recently opened (Mid-Atlantic and Western). That’s a smart place to cut. But the bureau shouldn’t stop there. 

In addition to the regional offices, there are 10 divisions in its Washington, DC, headquarters – each with probably more than 100 employees. Prison staff will tell you that these administrative layers (especially at the regional level) have become bloated at the expense of correctional and other specialized personnel at individual facilities. General Mark Inch, BOP director before Colette Peters (who was also the first director hired from outside the bureau), understood this and had planned to close at least two regional offices before his abrupt resignation. Rather than closing camps, as the BOP recently announced, the DOGE team should look at the burgeoning “overhead” staff.

 The stated goal of the new Department of Government Efficiency is a “more transparent, accountable and efficient governance system.” The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is desperately in need of that kind of focus, as evidenced by the more than two years of near-constant negative disclosures – from the “rape club” culture at one of its women’s prisons, to the suicide of supposedly heavily guarded prisoners, to the forced closure of one unit due to rampant violence.

The BOP accounts for the largest chunk of the Department of Justice budget: The bureau’s FY 2025 budget request is for nearly $9 billion, mostly for the salaries of 37,706 employees – nearly 2,000 more than it had in the mid 2000s, with roughly the same number of people in custody. Yet, at the same time, a shortage of staff is the most common justification by the BOP for almost all its ills.

The real problem is how the BOP budget is spent and where the positions are allocated. Among the best sources for exposing fraud, incompetence and inefficiency in our federal prisons are rank-and-file case managers, clinicians and other “in-the-trenches” workers who take both the security and rehabilitation missions of the prisons seriously. And, surprisingly to some, prisoners themselves often know from where the corruption stems, as well as which vital functions are actually underfunded.

Reform-minded former BOP employees have come together to form the federal Prison Education and Reform Alliance (PERA). It collaborates closely with More Than Our Crimes, a network of thousands of individuals incarcerated in the federal system, who have an untapped view on what works and what doesn’t.

The same lack of balance can be seen in executive bonuses at the bureau. An analysis obtained a few years ago by USA Today via FOIA showed that upper management at BOP were paid nearly $2 million in bonuses over a two-year period. And those excesses are continuing. FOIA documents recently shared in a private Facebook group document large bonuses for wardens who manage some of the most dysfunctional prisons in the country. 

Another area of operations ripe for DOGE analysis is employment of adults in custody (AICs). At one time, some of the more meaningful jobs that are now being performed by staff were done by incarcerated individuals, which allowed them to both develop work skills for re-entry and earn income (although wages for prisoner labor are inequitably low, given the fact that they must pay for so many essentials themselves). The transfer of additional jobs to AICs, along with fair pay, would allow more staff members to focus on program delivery (such as education) and direct correctional duties.

A similar improvement with multiple additional benefits would be to capitalize on an under-tapped element of the First Step Act (which President Trump signed into law) and expand UNICOR (the federal prison industry) to include the sale of contemporary products and services to non-federal markets. The result would be profits that could be funnelled into programs like medical care or infrastructure improvements (so many federal prisons have leaky roofs and mold infestations), while giving more prisoners an income, a productive use for their idle time, and work skills required for re-entry. DOGE could provide a real benefit by insisting that current gold standards for business be applied to prison industries as well.

The elephant in the room in DOGE’s endeavour will be medical care. This is an area in which resources should actually be added. Delays in diagnostic testing and medical treatment are among the most common civil rights abuses in federal prisons. Capacity can be cost-effectively increased if the BOP heeds the recommendations of the National Academy of Public Administration. For instance, permanent modular clinics stationed within secure facility perimeters would reduce the manpower needed to take incarcerated people out of the prison for medical care.

The message to DOGE: The BOP needs more transparency, efficiency and accountability.  Bring it on! But this task would be best served by listening to people who have lived or worked in the depths of the “swamp,” and who want to see the bureau become a better version of itself.

The ‘Trump Effect’ begins to emerge

Jack Donson on January 23, 2025

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The ‘Trump Effect’ begins to emerge

Before word spread of BOP Director Colette Peters’ resignation, the various Facebook groups for agency employees were abuzz with comments welcoming her departure.  In combination with some of President Trump’s first executive orders, her resignation may be telling about the direction of prison reform under the new administration.

First, consider that the acting director named to step into Peters’ shoes until a permanent replacement is chosen has a correctional services (“custody”) background, similar to former Director Michael Carvajal, who was forced out in 2022 due to rampant corruption and abuse. Interim Director William Lothrop began his BOP career in various non-professional, corrections officer positions, which are more focused on the incapacitation of incarcerated individuals at the expense of rehabilitation. And he worked his way up from those ranks as a lieutenant, captain, etc.

This choice for interim director is somewhat concerning, given the steady stream of recent disclosures of troubling behavior in the federal prison system, including rapes at FCI Dublin and physical abuse at USP Lee. An interesting subliminal message is found in Lothrop’s introductory statement on the BOP website, which returns to  the term “inmates.” Director Peters had replaced it with the term “adults in custody” (AICs). Semantics, however – while important – should take a back seat to the myriad needed reforms.

Peters’ legacy

It’s unfortunate that during her tenure, Director Peters focused more on public appearances and the image of reform than on attainable and relatively easy improvements that would have given her credibility with advocates for change, the federal justice community, and the rank and file. It’s not rocket science to operate a functioning appointment-and-telephone system for legal calls, a notification system to protect family visits from the frequent last-minute and/or lengthy visiting closures,  and stop wardens from operating carte blanche outside the scope and intent of policy, with little accountability and transparency.

Likewise, how hard is it to keep policy directives current and post updated and accurate information on facility websites? Why must AICs still complete archaic, carbon copy forms to file a complaint (which often must be submitted by hand to the very people who are the subject of the grievance), when they could be initiated electronically? These types of “low-hanging fruit” of easily correctable issues would have given her some serious street credibility. Instead, she was surrounded with an entrenched clique from yesteryears who ran the agency into the dirt.

If President Trump and his Attorney General-in-waiting Pamela Bondi want to leave a different legacy and appoint a BOP outsider (albeit someone with serious technical experience in carceral systems), they must avoid the mistakes that crippled both Director Peters and Mark Inch, the only other previous director who came from outside the agency. Directors who are not BOP insiders must be allowed to bring their top deputies with them, rather than be limited to the entrenched biases of the “old guard.”

President Trump wastes no time

As Director Peters left, Trump also announced a 90-day hiring freeze, ordering the directors of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) to develop a plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce. The only exempted positions are military personnel, and employees focused on immigration enforcement, national security or public safety. The BOP is not included in those exemptions, and the Office of Personnel Management has already instructed its management to identify employees currently on probationary status or administrative leave. Probationary employees are typically new hires brought on after extensive recruitment efforts. In addition, Lothrop has issued a memorandum prohibiting the filling of vacant positions and revoking all current offers.

This will be disastrous for the BOP. There is without a doubt many cuts that could be made within the BOP. For example, the six regional offices (each with 100 or more employees) are wasteful, as is the ill-deserved executive bonuses. And that new prison in Letcher County, Kentucky? Not needed. But what is needed in federal prisons are more correctional officers and medical/mental health treatment professionals. Shortages in those positions are causing lengthy lockdowns that prevent rehabilitative programming and unnecessary, harmful delays in medical testing and treatment.

Meanwhile, several other executive orders signed by President Trump on the first day of his second term promise to make the needed culture change within the BOP much more difficult. Several of the orders signal a return to a harsh regime that will both feed mass incarceration and condone mistreatment behind the walls and fences:

Death penalty reinstated

Trump ordered the attorney general to pursue the death penalty for “all crimes of a severity demanding its use” – specifically calling out crimes involving the murder of a law-enforcement officer and any capital crime committed by individuals who did not legally enter America. (Keep in mind that besides murder, capital crimes also include robbery and burglary!)

Reinforcing this call for the harshest of sentences is a new charging and sentencing policy issued this week by the interim attorney general. The memo effectively reverses the policy set under President Obama, which for the first time encouraged federal prosecutors to use their discretion to seek what seems proportionate and just, rather than push for the highest charges and longest sentences.

Draconian treatment condoned

One of Trump’s executive orders that didn’t get much public attention calls for the individuals whose death sentences were commuted to life without parole by President Biden to be imprisoned in “conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes.” Specifically, he instructed the attorney general to “evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement” for each of these 37 people, with the intent of assuring that they are sufficiently horrible. Sure, the order also carefully states that the actions taken should be “lawful and appropriate,” but the BOP is often given wide leeway in court. Plus, the abuses at Dublin and Lee illustrate that there are corrupt staff members who could see that order as tacit permission for abuse.  

Welcome back, profit motive

Trump rescinded Biden’s order that barred contracts between the Department of Justice and private detention centers. That should be regarded with caution, since the opportunity for corruption is rife with privately run detention centers. Consider the case in 2018, when the bureau’s assistant director for correctional programs sent a memorandum tasking prison leaders with identifying  people who could be transferred to private facilities. A few months later, he announced his retirement and began working at the GEO Group as its director of operations. The company is one of the largest contractors for privately operated prisons. And a 2015 analysis of private prison contracts found that two-thirds included requirements that governments keep the facilities filled or pay for unused, empty beds.

Withdrawal of consideration for transgender people

Trump’s executive order states that “sex” refers to an “individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.” The order goes on to bar the federal government from funding gender-affirming care, mandate that trans women be housed in men’s prisons, and remove protections for transgender people from the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Current BOP policy (in place since 2016) allows individuals who identify as the opposite sex to not only receive gender-change treatment, but also be housed in a prison that matches their chosen gender. (Despite this policy, the agency already had started to back off on the directive. Criticism had been harsh from some members of Congress, and the policy was targeted in some Trump campaign ads. Likewise, some female prisoners have charged that they were being sexually harassed by transgender individuals who had not yet completed the sex-change process.)

According to the BOP website, there are currently 1,538 transgender females in its custody and 750 transgender males. If Trump’s executive order prevails, what will happen to these individuals? A February report from the Vera Institute of Justice and Black and Pink National reported that out of nearly 300 incarcerated trans people surveyed, 31% said violence from fellow prisoners is the principal reason they feel unsafe. Likewise, more than half have reported being sexually assaulted during their current prison sentences.

This is a battle that will be fought in the courts.

Many of Trump’s executive orders are a boon for lawyers and will require all hands on deck across the BOP (and among stakeholders such as PERA) due to the potential for abuse. Stay tuned.

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