Time Frame- Next 12 Months
START Categories: Staffing & Treatment of Inmates
If you haven’t already, everyone should read the Office of Inspector’s General(OIG’s) reports they have issued these past 5 years to get a baseline on BOP Operations. While many reports are location specific, they tend to consistently address each location’s issues as ” enterprise wide” as well. Themes such as low staffing levels, follow thru on medical treatments and appointments, old age of facilities to name just a few.
My take is all the BOP’s constituents are asking too much of the BOP Leadership and its staff, and as a result, few seem satisfied with the BOP’s performance. While the BOP has plenty of issues it should address(more later), I’m not sure the present situation can be solved without a clear, 10 year Transformation Plan, START, as I previously mentioned.
To eradicate the “Dublin’s” of the system, the medical issues outlined at Sheridan by the OIG and so forth, the first thing I would do during the first year is get inmate headcount inline with staffing levels. Here at Lompoc, just this weekend I witnessed at least 2 guards work double eight hour shifts and our counselor worked as a guard due to insufficient number of guards. Matching inmates levels to staffing levels would reduce overtime (over $350mm in 2023), improve employee morale, improve inmate treatment, and more. Some of this is hiring related for sure, especially these past few years with a hot labor market, but statistics from the OIG show this issue being consistent over a very long time period. Both guard and medical staffing, per OIG,measured as a % of inmate level being 20% low for medical and 30% low for guards, consistently these past 10+ years. That is truly significant!
How would you do that by chance? First of all, recognize that long term understaffing reflects some significant cultural and historical staffing talent issues(lowest common denominator etc.) that are clearly difficult to over come. So if hiring isn’t a one year cure, reducing inmate headcount is the alternative, and I’d submit to you the BOP can get much closer to 100% staffing levels by reducing inmate count by 30,000 low risk/minimum risk inmates in one year! Let me list the ways:
1) Pursuant to U.S. Section 3621, send everyone at camp(minimum security) who has been there at least 2 years without incident to home confinement for the remainder of their term- almost a CARES ACT follow-up from 2020/21 where zero recidivism was experienced- Not only would this save the BOP money, but the U.S. Treasury would pick up most of these folks as taxpayers! Estimate 15,000+ inmates
2) On an ongoing basis for 12 months, require use of “Projected FSA Credits during Halfway House” and require adding minimum 6 months Second Chance Act home confinement time to First Step Act credits for all eligible inmates to their “Best Case Date” transfer. Then enforce transferring on those dates. Immediately transfer inmates either to half way house(if available) or home confinement without delay- estimate 5-10,000 inmates
– If no Halfway House availability, mandatory transfer to Home Confinement, no delay of transfer date
3) Eliminate any management variable on inmates in medium or low custody who otherwise qualify for camp and move them to camp immediately as well as BOP policy that inmates can only be transferred from one security level to a lesser one at a time- 1000 to 5000 estimate
4) Transfer all illegal immigrant felons to an ICE facility(even private prison would work) for deportation or manage 100% dedicated ICE facilities within BOP as a management service on behalf of ICE. If manage on behalf of ICE:
– eliminate overtime due to understaffing and increase lockdown time periods at these facilities
– limit programming to English as a second Language for programming under FSA
– don’t include these ICE facility costs and inmate statistics in BOP performance metrics
– work with Homeland Security/ICE and have them deported ASAP
– estimate 10-20,000 inmates
5) Define plan to reduce BOP locations by 15%(15-20 facilities) to realize cost savings from inmate headcount reduction. Implement plan in Year 2. Clearly plenty of 50+ year old facilities should be shuttered, like here at FCI Lompoc II, with management staffs(Wardens,Assistant Wardens, etc.) eliminated and guards transferred to remaining facilities to attain staffing level percentages.
– BOP should target worst 15% employee performers in all positions in their Reduction in Force(based on historical performance reviews)
6) Rebalance medium, low and camp populations based on availability and security level/risk of recidivism according to current standards. Continue Steps 1,2,4 continually until START is more fully implemented for low and minimum security inmates.
In my view, with some tweaks by BOP Leadership, this would bring staffing in line with headcount, reduce pressure and stress/operational issues within the “BOP System”, while we address the numerous other projects required in the START transformation project. With eliminating most of $340mm in BOP overtime this past year, plus reduction of 30,000 inmate related direct costs, this would easily save $1 Billion+ annually, almost 15% of the annual BOP budget.
Done properly and communicated well, these steps would show the incoming Administration and Congress the BOP is committed to its mission with tangible actions, and serious cost cuts so important to both of them. Step #2 in next weeks blog!
