Bureau of Prisons: Management of New Prison Activations Can Be Improved
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is behind schedule activating all six new institutions—the process by which it prepares them for inmates—and does not have a policy to guide activation or an activation schedule that reflects best practices. BOP is behind schedule, in part, because of challenges, such as staffing, posed by the locations of the activating institutions. According to BOP officials, delays in receiving congressionally directed activation funding can exacerbate these challenges (see fig.). None of the six institutions is fully activated, or at rated capacity, as they do not house the number of inmates they are designed to safely and securely house.
Schedule Slippages for Institutions in the Activation Process
BOP does not effectively communicate to Congress how the locations of new institutions may affect activation schedules. BOP officials said that when directed by Congress to investigate a location, they consider this as direction to focus on construction at that site. DOJ and BOP could more effectively manage activation timelines and costs by using the BOP annual budget justification to communicate to Congress the factors associated with certain locations that can delay activations, such as challenges hiring staff and placing inmates in institutions. Also, BOP officials said they review staffing data system-wide, but they have not prioritized an analysis of such data at the institution level. Analyzing staffing data on institutions in the activation process could help BOP assess its progress in staffing and tailoring effective mitigating strategies. Finally, BOP lacks a comprehensive activation policy to guide activations, as well as an activation schedule that reflects best practices, and it has largely relied on staff's past experience to complete ongoing activations. Developing and implementing a comprehensive policy and a schedule that reflects best practices, could better position BOP to meet its estimated timeframes and activation costs.
DOJ purchased Thomson to help reduce crowding among inmates requiring high levels of security. Once it is fully populated, it will reduce BOP-wide crowding by 16 percent at the high-security level. Thomson will cost about $160 million annually to operate once fully activated, adding to BOP's system-wide costs. BOP officials said Thomson will provide benefits, such as high-security bed space, which outweigh the costs associated with the institution.
Why GAO Did This Study
The federal inmate population has increased over the last two decades, and as of July 2014, BOP was responsible for the custody and care of more than 216,000 inmates. To handle the projected growth of between 2,500 and 3,000 or more inmates per year from 2015 through 2020, BOP has spent about $1.3 billion constructing five new institutions and acquiring one in Thomson, Illinois. BOP is activating these institutions by staffing and equipping them and populating them with inmates.
GAO was requested to review BOP's activation process of newly constructed and acquired institutions. GAO reviewed, among other things, (1) the extent to which BOP is activating institutions within estimated timeframes and has an activation policy or schedules that meet best practices, and (2) why DOJ purchased Thomson and how the purchase affected system wide costs. GAO reviewed BOP budget documents from fiscal years 2008 to 2015 and assessed schedules against GAO's Schedule Assessment Guide. GAO conducted site visits to the six institutions, interviewed BOP officials, and reviewed staffing data from fiscal years 2010 through 2013.
Recommendations
GAO recommends that DOJ use its annual budget justification to communicate to Congress factors that might delay prison activation, and that BOP analyze institution-level staffing data and develop and implement a comprehensive activation policy and a schedule that reflects best practices. DOJ concurred with all of GAO's recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Justice | To ensure that the challenges that BOP faces activating new institutions are clearly conveyed to decision makers, in future activations, the Attorney General should use DOJ's annual congressional budget justification for BOP to communicate to Congress factors that might delay activations, such as challenges hiring staff and placing inmates associated with the locations of new institutions. |
We found that DOJ could more effectively mitigate activation challenges and better meet BOP's needs by clearly communicating to Congress the factors that might delay activation through their annual budget justification. As a result, we recommended that DOJ use its annual congressional budget justification to communicate to Congress these factors. In response, DOJ communicated the prison activation challenges it faces to Congress by including this information in its fiscal year 2018 annual budget justification. As a result, congressional decision makers are better positioned to take these factors into account when communicating priorities to BOP.
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| Bureau of Prisons | To better address obstacles that occur during the activation process and to help ensure that institutions are activated within estimated timeframes, including those institutions that do not currently have inmates, such as Administrative U.S. Penitentiary (USP) Thomson and USP Yazoo City, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons should direct the Central Office to analyze staffing data at individual institutions in the activation process to assess their progress toward reaching authorized staffing levels and use that assessment to develop effective, tailored strategies to mitigate those challenges. |
We found that BOP was encountering obstacles during the activation process with hiring sufficient staff to help ensure that institutions would be activated within estimated timeframes. As a result, we recommended that BOP should analyze staffing data at individual institutions in the activation process to assess their progress toward reaching authorized staffing levels and use that assessment to develop effective, tailored strategies to mitigate those challenges. In November 2015, BOP filled the 7 new positions it created for a national recruitment coordinator and six regional recruitment specialists to assist in better managing recruitment Bureau-wide and to help, in part, develop a more strategic approach to recruiting. In addition, in the months since our report's release, BOP has developed a tracking system to monitor vacancy rates Bureau-wide, and now color codes institutions according to the percent of authorized positions filled. BOP's recruitment coordinator monitors these percentages each pay period and each quarter, BOP makes decisions about how to better target its resources toward the institutions facing the greatest challenges reaching authorized staffing levels. In so doing, BOP staff have engaged in a number of strategies to fill positions at the newly activated institutions. These included sending representatives to job fairs, posting position announcements online and in print, and targeting specific local colleges and military bases to announce positions it planned to fill. In addition, BOP had recruiters complete after-action reports to capture the nature of the recruiting activity, its cost, and how many candidates reached, among other indicators. As a result, in September 2016, BOP demonstrated reductions in vacancies at each one. BOP is now better positioned to analyze staffing data, target strategies to help mitigate existing recruitment challenges, and help reduce vacancy rates. This recommendation is closed as implemented.
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| Bureau of Prisons | To better address obstacles that occur during the activation process and to help ensure that institutions are activated within estimated timeframes, including those institutions that do not currently have inmates, such as Administrative USP Thomson and USP Yazoo City, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons should develop and implement a comprehensive activation policy that incorporates the knowledge of staff with experience activating institutions. |
We found that BOP lacked a comprehensive activation policy to guide activations, as well as an activation schedule that reflected best practices, and that it had largely been relying on staff's past experience to complete ongoing activations. We also noted that developing and implementing a comprehensive policy and a schedule that reflects best practices, could better position BOP to meet its estimated timeframes and activation costs. As a result, we recommended that BOP develop and implement a comprehensive activation policy that incorporates the knowledge of staff with experience activating institutions. In September 2016, a multidisciplinary workgroup that BOP had previously assembled released its final Activation Handbook, which is both comprehensive in its detail and inclusive of the knowledge that staff with previous activation experience had shared. As a result of the workgroup's efforts, BOP now has a documented approach to guide its activation efforts. This recommendation is closed as implemented.
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| Bureau of Prisons | To better address obstacles that occur during the activation process and to help ensure that institutions are activated within estimated timeframes, including those institutions that do not currently have inmates, such as Administrative USP Thomson and USP Yazoo City, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons should develop and implement an activation schedule that incorporates the four characteristics of scheduling best practices. |
We found that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) did not have an activation schedule that incorporates best practices. As a result, we recommended that BOP develop and implement an activation schedule that incorporates the four characteristics of scheduling best practices-that the schedule be: (1) reflective of all activities; (2) continuously updated using logic, durations, and actual progress to realistically forecast dates for program activities; (3) planned so that critical project dates can be met; and (4) inclusive of data on risks and opportunities for the project, and a level of confidence in meeting a project's completion date based on those data. In August 2018, BOP notified us of revisions to its Activation Guideline Handbook to include a schedule that incorporates the four scheduling best practices. These revisions are consistent with our recommendation.
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