Four House Democrats asked the top official at the Federal Bureau of Prisons to explain how he plans to address “persistent and unsafe conditions” and a “widespread shortage of essential personnel” caused in part by corrections officers fleeing the bureau for more lucrative jobs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Described in a six-page letter sent Friday to BOP Director William Marshall III, lawmakers’ questions come after a ProPublica investigation found that federal prison workers from Florida to California were lured by ICE’s $50,000 starting bonus and higher pay, which more than doubled its number of officers and agents last year during the Trump administration’s months-long recruiting drive. The Bureau of Prisons, for its part, lost a net more than 1,800 workers last year.
“We are deeply concerned that these developments compromise the safety and security of inmates and staff,” Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Lucy McBath of Georgia, Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Joe Neguse of Colorado wrote in their letter. “The existing shrinking workforce faces an ever-increasing reliance on overtime, leading to fatigue, burnout and increased attrition. »
Officials said understaffing has, in turn, led to more lockdowns, more violence and reduced access to recidivism reduction programs for inmates. Their letter also raised questions about the cancellation of the union contract, which critics say “appears to be retaliation,” and the continued use of “raising” — the practice of forcing nurses, teachers and plumbers who work in prisons to substitute as corrections officers — to fill staffing gaps.
“We believe these deeply troubling questions require concrete answers,” the lawmakers wrote. They set a deadline of 30 days for the office to respond in writing.
Prison union officials also pressed the cause, urging lawmakers to insist that Marshall and his deputy, Josh Smith, testify before Congress on the issue.
The prison agency declined to answer ProPublica’s questions about the lawmakers’ letter, saying it would respond directly to Congress.
In a statement, a spokesperson said the BOP “continues to prioritize efforts” to increase staffing levels, adding that some staff members will still be required to step in as corrections officers “for the safety and security of staff, inmates and the public.”
The BOP has long struggled to hire and retain enough workers to staff its facilities, where approximately 34,700 employees are responsible for more than 138,000 prisoners. In 2023, union officials said about 40% of corrections officer positions remain vacant. That same year, staff shortages helped put the prison system on the government’s list of high-risk agencies serious vulnerabilities.
As part of a long-term hiring campaign, the office turned to signing bonuses, retention compensation and a accelerated hiring process. Although those efforts brought in more than 1,200 people in 2024 — the bureau’s largest increase in staffing in a decade — the cost of hiring incentives, along with raises, overtime and inflation, have strained an already stagnant budget.
Early last year, the agency suspended hiring and retention incentives to save money, a move that threatened to undo staffing gains from the previous year. Still, financial difficulties persisted, and by fall, dozens of staff and prisoners were speaking to ProPublica about what was happening. unusual shortages at facilities across the country. Some prisons have fallen behind on utility bills and waste, while others have run out of basic foods, including eggs and beef. At one point, a Louisiana prison nearly ran out of food days before union officials stepped in and urged agency leaders to fix the problem.
In their letter last week, the representatives said they were “alarmed” by financial shortfalls reported by ProPublica, as well as deteriorating staffing levels. Last year, the bureau’s net loss of employees was greater than any other year since 2017, according to ProPublica data. obtained through an open records request.
With a shrinking workforce, the office’s overtime costs have skyrocketed. According to a Recent Congressional Research Service report, in 2025 the federal prison system spent more than $387 million on overtime, a figure surpassed only once in the past decade.
Several prison officials who asked to remain anonymous told ProPublica this month that officers at some facilities are often forced to work two to four double shifts a week, sometimes working so much overtime that prisoners have expressed concern.
“The only ones who like it are predatory inmates,” one correctional officer told ProPublica. “Inmates don’t like super cops, but they at least want to feel like if they’re attacked, someone will see it and arrest it as quickly as possible. You won’t get that with a duplicate commander who can barely keep his eyes open.”
At the same time, lawmakers said they were “gravely concerned” about some of the ways BOP leaders attempted to save money and minimize the use of overtime, including closing facilities and skimping on staff, which lawmakers say the office then tried to cover up.
When the Office of Inspector General visited a facility last year, the housing units were all adequately staffed, “a trick,” lawmakers said, that was only accomplished by overusing the raise. “It appears that following the visit, the facility immediately returned to its understaffed units,” the lawmakers wrote. “Committee staff reviewed housing unit staffing and augmentation lists, documenting this apparent effort to mislead the OIG.”
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Last year, prison employees worked over 700,000 hours increasethe largest number in a single year in at least a decade, according to the Congressional Research Service report.
“That’s why I left,” a former prison official told ProPublica last year, explaining that he chose to retire instead of being forced to abandon his duties resolving discrimination complaints to work as an officer in a housing unit two days a week.
