Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is the U.S. Department of Justice agency responsible for the custody and care of federal inmates. Congress established the Bureau on May 14, 1930, to bring the growing federal prison population, expanded by Prohibition-era enforcement, under a single, professionally run system rather than a patchwork of local jails and makeshift facilities.[1]
The Bureau's stated mission is to protect public safety by confining federal offenders in facilities that are safe, humane, and appropriately secure, and by providing programs that help people prepare for successful reentry.[2]
Scope and Structure
As of 2026, the Bureau operates 122 institutions organized into six regions (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, South Central, Southeast, North Central, and Western), along with two staff training centers and 22 residential reentry management offices. It employs roughly 36,000 staff and holds custody of about 156,000 federal inmates.[2][3]
Facilities are assigned a security level, minimum (often called a federal prison camp), low, medium, high (United States Penitentiary), or administrative, based on factors including offense severity, sentence length, and institutional history. Several BOP complexes, such as FCC Allenwood, combine multiple security levels on one campus. See Bureau of Prisons Classification Methods for how individual security-point scores determine placement.
Leadership
The Bureau is led by a Director, appointed by the U.S. Attorney General, supported by a Deputy Director. William K. Marshall III was sworn in as Director on April 21, 2025.[4] Joshua J. Smith was sworn in as Deputy Director on June 9, 2025, the first person appointed to a senior BOP leadership role after personally serving time in the agency's own custody, following a federal drug conviction and a 2021 presidential pardon.[5]
2026 White Collar Conference Keynote
Deputy Director Smith is the confirmed keynote speaker at the White Collar Support Group's 2026 White Collar Conference, a virtual event on October 10, 2026, built for people navigating white-collar federal prosecution, incarceration, and reentry. Full program: White Collar Conference 2026. See Joshua J. Smith for his full biography.
Programs
The Bureau runs work assignments, education (including GED preparation), vocational training, and UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries) employment across its facilities. Its most notable rehabilitative track is the Residential Drug Abuse Program, an intensive cognitive-behavioral treatment program that can shorten a sentence by up to a year for eligible graduates.[2] The First Step Act of 2018 expanded earned-time-credit programming Bureau-wide, allowing eligible inmates to earn additional credit toward early transfer to supervised release or home confinement through evidence-based programs.
See Also
- Joshua J. Smith
- Bureau of Prisons Classification Methods
- Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP)
- Security Levels in Federal Prisons
- First Step Act: Overview and Implementation
References
- ↑ U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, "Federal Bureau of Prisons: Its Mission, Its History, and Its Partnership With Probation and Pretrial Services," https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/federal-bureau-prisons-its-mission-its-history-and-its-partnership.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Federal Bureau of Prisons, "About the Federal Bureau of Prisons," https://www.bop.gov/about/.
- ↑ Correctional News, "Guiding the Federal Bureau of Prisons into the Future," May 12, 2026, https://correctionalnews.com/2026/05/12/guiding-the-federal-bureau-of-prisons-into-the-future/.
- ↑ Federal Bureau of Prisons, "William K. Marshall III, Director," https://www.bop.gov/about/agency/bio_dir.jsp.
- ↑ Federal Bureau of Prisons, "Joshua J. Smith, Deputy Director," https://www.bop.gov/about/agency/bio_depdir.jsp.