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The Federal Bureau Of Prisons (BOP)

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The Federal Bureau of Prisons was established in 1930 and is a subdivision of the United States Department of Justice. This agency is also recognized by its abbreviation of BOP. The bureau is based out of its central office located in Washington, DC. The BOP is responsible for “management and regulation of all Federal penal and correctional institutions.” This responsibility, in 1930, was carried out through the administration of the 11 federal prisons that were in operation throughout the United States at that time. The Bureau of Prisons mission is “to protect society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and that provide …show more content…

This act abolished parole, reduced good time and established determinate sentencing. With this act, the inmate population increased by more than fifty percent from 24,000 to 59,000. Throughout the 1990’s, the population doubled once again to 136,000 inmates at the end of 1999. Increased conviction rates were mainly due to the recent combat against illegal drugs as well as illegal immigration. The Bureau of Prisons is “structured for success”. It has inmates confined in many different facilities that are spread throughout the United States. Each individual facility must report to a regional office, which provides close oversight and support to that specific facility. At the BOP headquarters, different national programs are created and functional support is provided across the entire agency by each “division”. The head of the agency is the Director, followed by the Deputy Director which operate the ten different divisions spread throughout six different regions across the United …show more content…

The largest internal challenge that the Bureau of Prisons faces is adequate levels of bed space and staffing in order to safely manage the population of prisons. The crowding of prisons has been identified as a material weakness and is highly recognized by the Department of Justice, which is the agency in which the Bureau of Prisons is run under. There recently has been a reported decline in the federal prison population, yet it still remains over crowded by thirty percent. This has caused the BOP to increase its inmate to staff ratio, but officer’s safety continuously remains at

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