Bureau of Prisons: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Restrictive Housing Practices
Fast Facts
As of October 2023, the Bureau of Prisons was housing about 8% of its prison population in restrictive housing, also known as "solitary confinement." In some cases, this includes isolating people in cells for up to 23 hours per day.
Two prior studies have given the Bureau recommendations on how to improve its restrictive housing practices. However, it hasn't implemented a number of these recommendations—such as monitoring trends in the way it uses restrictive housing. This is partly because it hasn't assigned responsibility for implementing these recommendations to the appropriate officials.
We recommended, among other things, that it do so.
The Bureau of Prisons’ Implementation of Prior Restrictive Housing Reports’ Recommendations
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has not fully implemented 54 of the 87 recommendations from two prior studies on improving restrictive housing practices. The first study, completed by a BOP contractor in 2014, had 34 recommendations (16 of which are fully implemented.) The other evaluation, completed in 2016 by the Department of Justice (DOJ), had 53 recommendations (17 of those are fully implemented). A May 2022 Executive Order on criminal justice practices directed the Attorney General to ensure full implementation of the January 2016 recommendations. BOP has made slow progress due in part to not assigning responsibility for recommendation implementation to appropriate officials and not establishing associated time frames for completion.
Examples of Two Bureau of Prisons' Restrictive Housing Unit Types
BOP has two key mechanisms—its program review process and its administrative remedy program—to gather information from facilities about restrictive housing operations. However, it is not fully leveraging either, resulting in missed opportunities to ensure compliance and enhance operations:
- BOP is not ensuring facilities' timely resolution of deficiencies after routine program reviews because it does not have a process to verify that corrective actions were implemented.
- The administrative remedy program allows incarcerated individuals to file grievances about issues such as living conditions. However, BOP does not analyze grievance data to identify trends and improve operations.
During the 2014 contracted assessment, reviewers found inconsistencies in the application of subjective criteria used to place individuals in the special management unit (SMU)—one that is designed for individuals with heightened security concerns. GAO's analysis of 2022 data appears to confirm that inconsistencies continued, resulting in equity concerns. Black individuals were 38 percent of the total BOP population but 59 percent of the SMU placements. In comparison, White individuals were 58 percent of the total BOP population and 35 percent of the SMU placements. In response to management challenges, earlier this year BOP closed its remaining SMU and has not yet decided on the future of such units. Analyzing the cause of the substantial racial disparity could inform BOP and DOJ decisions on the future of restricted housing and help ensure consistent and equitable treatment of incarcerated individuals.
Why GAO Did This Study
DOJ's BOP is responsible for confining individuals in safe, humane, and appropriately secure conditions. In certain circumstances, such as alleged or substantiated violence, BOP can move individuals to restrictive housing, and generally isolate them in cells for up to 23 hours per day. As of October 2023, BOP continued to house about 8 percent of its population (about 12,000 individuals) in these settings. Strengthening management of federal prisons was added to GAO's high-risk list earlier this year.
Among its objectives, GAO was asked to examine the extent to which BOP (1) addressed recommendations from two prior restrictive housing studies; and (2) leveraged facility information to ensure restrictive housing policy compliance and enhance operations.
GAO analyzed BOP policies and data; interviewed BOP officials; and conducted non-generalizable interviews with staff and incarcerated individuals at five BOP facilities—selected to cover a range of restrictive housing unit types.
Recommendations
GAO is making eight recommendations to BOP, including that it assign responsibility and establish time frames for recommendation implementation and identify the cause of racial disparity in SMU placements. BOP concurred with the eight recommendations but raised related concerns; GAO discusses these in the report.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Bureau of Prisons | The Director of BOP should develop and execute an approach to fully implement all the 2014 and 2016 restrictive housing reports recommendations. For each recommendation that has not yet been implemented, the approach should include assigning implementation responsibility to appropriate officials, establishing a time frame for completion, and monitoring progress. In instances where BOP does not concur with a 2014 recommendation or deems it impractical, it should document its rationale and the alternative steps, if any, it plans to take. (Recommendation 1) |
As of September 2024, BOP has actions underway to address this recommendation. BOP has developed a recommendation implementation table to set forth its action steps for implementing the remaining open recommendations. The table is designed to also document BOP's rationale for its disagreement with any open recommendations and note the alternate steps it plans to take, if any, to address those recommendations. For each recommendation BOP agrees with and that has not been implemented, BOP has work underway to develop implementation plans, including assigning implementation responsibility to appropriate officials, and establishing time frames for completion. To fully implement this recommendation, BOP must finalize the table and execute its planned approach. We will continue to monitor BOP's actions to address this recommendation.
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| Bureau of Prisons |
Priority Rec.
The Director of BOP should enhance oversight by developing and implementing a process to verify and document that facilities have implemented corrective actions that fully address all deficiencies. (Recommendation 2) |
In September 2024, BOP began reporting to us about its efforts to address this recommendation. Specifically, BOP had developed a new internal audit process to verify and document that facilities have implemented corrective actions to address deficiencies identified during internal audits. BOP issued interim guidance to facility leadership describing this new process in March 2024. According to this guidance, the new internal audit process is designed to identify causes of common findings that recur across multiple facilities and to implement a follow-up process to mitigate the recurrence of findings. As of February 2025, the new internal audit process requires the audited entity to prepare a document listing planned corrective actions for each finding and recommendation included on an audit report. This document is then evaluated by subject matter experts in the Regional Office and Central Office Division to ensure consistency with current policy or procedures and acknowledge that planned actions will reduce or eliminate the negative finding. The Program Review Division also analyzes each document and determines whether the planned corrective actions are responsive, partially responsive, or not responsive to each finding. This analysis also identifies future evidence required to be submitted at the 90-day follow up. The Program Review Division continues to assess evidence submitted for each follow up until the finding is closed by the audit authority. BOP officials told us that as they implement the new audit process, they are testing these new procedures to ensure they are sound before finalizing them as official policy. To fully implement this recommendation, BOP must finalize and approve the policy via a program statement establishing the new audit process. This will confirm the new process has been fully tested and implemented.
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| Bureau of Prisons |
Priority Rec.
The Director of BOP should develop and implement a mechanism to identify causes of common deficiencies that recur across multiple facilities and take steps to address those causes. (Recommendation 3) |
In September 2024, BOP began reporting to us about its efforts to address this recommendation. Specifically, BOP had developed a new internal audit process to verify and document that facilities have implemented corrective actions to address deficiencies identified during internal audits. BOP issued interim guidance to facility leadership describing this new process in March 2024. According to this interim guidance, the new internal audit process is designed to identify causes of common findings that recur across multiple facilities and to implement a follow-up process to mitigate the recurrence of findings. As of February 2025, BOP officials told us that the new internal audit process ensures that subject matter experts at all levels (individual site/facility, regions, and division level) are aware of the audit reports under their program areas. Regional Office and Central Office Division subject matter experts are responsible for monitoring the audit reports to identify common findings in their program areas and to determine whether appropriate corrective actions are needed within the region or agency wide. The Regional Office or Central Office Division must provide a memorandum to the Program Review Division identifying any internal controls they determine need to be implemented to address common findings identified in internal audit reports and the time frame for implementing them. The Program Review Division has not yet received any memoranda documenting that actions were taken to address common findings within a region or agency wide. Further, BOP officials told us that as they implement the new audit process, they are testing these new procedures to ensure they are sound before finalizing them as official policy. To fully implement this recommendation, BOP must first finalize and approve the policy via a program statement establishing the new audit process. Second, BOP must provide documentation that Regional Office and Central Office Division subject matter experts have monitored the audit reports in the manner described and provided a memorandum to the Program Review Division as applicable. Doing so will confirm that BOP has implemented its process for mitigating the recurrence of common deficiencies across multiple facilities
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| Bureau of Prisons | The Director of BOP should conduct an evaluation of previous SMU placements to determine and address the cause of disproportionate representation of individuals in certain racial groups in the SMU population. (Recommendation 4) |
BOP officials told us in September 2024 that it plans to evaluate SMU placement from 2018 - 2022 to determine whether there was disproportionate representation. If the evaluation results in a finding that disproportionate representation existed, BOP will assess what additional steps may be appropriate. We will continue to monitor BOP's actions to address this recommendation.
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| Bureau of Prisons | The Director of BOP should develop and implement a mechanism for routinely monitoring the extent to which facilities are applying the SMU placement criteria consistently and equitably across all BOP facilities should BOP reinstate the SMU program. (Recommendation 5) |
BOP officials told us in September 2024 that it is working to identify an appropriate replacement for the SMU program in conjunction with the ongoing National Institute of Justice study. This study is focused on the use and impact of restrictive housing in federal correctional facilities. Should BOP implement a replacement to the SMU program, we will monitor BOP's actions to address this recommendation.
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| Bureau of Prisons | The Director of BOP should develop and implement a mechanism for routinely evaluating SMU review documentation to ensure that incarcerated individuals progress through the SMU program levels in accordance with SMU policy should BOP reinstate the SMU program. (Recommendation 6) |
BOP officials told us in September 2024 that it is working to identify an appropriate replacement for the SMU program in conjunction with the ongoing National Institute of Justice study. This study is focused on the use and impact of restrictive housing in federal correctional facilities. Should BOP implement a replacement to the SMU program, we will monitor BOP's actions to address this recommendation.
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| Bureau of Prisons | The Director of BOP should develop and implement a process to routinely analyze administrative remedy program data. (Recommendation 7) |
BOP officials told us in September 2024 that it plans to incorporate a review of Administrative Remedy Program data into a broader analyses of policy concerns and issues. In particular, because the Administrative Remedy Program does not currently collect and review data for the purposes of routine analysis, BOP officials said their General Counsel and research and evaluation staff were coordinating to determine the feasibility of an approach to address this recommendation. We will continue to monitor BOP's actions to address this recommendation.
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| Bureau of Prisons | The Director of BOP should develop and implement a process to address any identified patterns of noncompliance related to restrictive housing policies and other areas of program weaknesses. (Recommendation 8) |
BOP officials told us in September 2024 that it plans to incorporate a review of Administrative Remedy Program data into a broader analyses of policy concerns and issues. In particular, because the Administrative Remedy Program does not currently collect and review data for the purposes of routine analysis, BOP officials said their General Counsel and research and evaluation staff were coordinating to determine the feasibility of an approach to address recommendation 7. Addressing recommendation 7 is closely linked to addressing this recommendation (Recommendation 8), thus no action can be taken here until recommendation 7 is implemented. We will continue to monitor BOP's actions to address this recommendation.
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