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Report details major health and safety concerns inside federal prisons

All 123 federal prisons in the United States need an estimated $2 billion worth of maintenance, the report says

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Three of the prisons are in such dire need of repair that they are fully or partially closed.

DOJ IGO

By Sarah Roebuck
Corrections1

WASHINGTON — A recent report from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General details major health and safety concerns inside federal prisons, stemming from deteriorating conditions.

All 123 federal prisons in the United States need an estimated $2 billion worth of maintenance, the report says. Three of the prisons are in such dire need of repair that they are fully or partially closed.

Over half of the BOP’s 123 institutions are more than 30 years old and less than 5% of the institutions were constructed in the last 15 years, the report said.

The report states the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ infrastructure planning efforts were impacted by two major factors: the absence of a well-defined infrastructure strategy and a mismatch between available and needed funding.

As of May 2022, the estimated cost for necessary major repairs by the BOP was nearing $2 billion. However, the DOJ’s audit revealed that the BOP consistently requested budgets significantly lower than its own assessments of required resources. For example, in fiscal year 2022, the BOP approached Congress with a request of less than $200 million for infrastructure needs, while Congress approved $59 million.

“This results in increasingly costly maintenance and, in the most extreme circumstances, having to shutter institutions and relocate inmates due to unsafe conditions,” the report states.

The report goes on to say that at the same time, the DOJ found out that Congress has allocated more than $1 billion to the BOP for the construction of two new facilities. However, these funds have remained largely untouched, as the projects have been in the planning phase for over 10 years. BOP has asked Congress to cancel one project, but that request has not been acted on.

To better understand the impact the infrastructure issues have on inmates, staff, BOP leadership and the DOJ IG visited five BOP facilities: the Correctional Institution in Taft, California; the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City; the Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island in San Pedro, California; the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia; and the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

For a detailed audit of each facility, click here.

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