With 2023 drawing to a close, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) completed its first full year under the leadership of Director Colette Peters. Peters replaced controversial director Michael Carvajal who took over leadership of the BOP just as COVID-19 ripped across the country and brutally attacked prison populations across the country. Peters, who promised a more humane approach to prisoner care stating, “Our job is not to make good inmates. It’s to make good neighbors.” With that promise, challenges remain.
The BOP has huge responsibilities in the care and feeding of over 150,000 prisoners in its care and over 36,000 staff. It has an $8.7 billion annual budget and houses some of the most infamous criminals in the United States. It also houses nearly 50,000 inmates who are low and minimum security prisoners, many of whom are eligible for earlier release due to the First Step Act, a 2018 law that can decrease a sentence term by up to a year and potentially increase the amount of time the prisoner spends in community confinement.
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