The recent brutal murder of Federal Correctional Officer Jose Rivera by two prison inmates at the United States Penitentiary at Atwater, Calif., illustrates the fact that Bureau of Prisons (BOP) institutions are becoming increasingly violent and dangerous places to work because of serious correctional officer understaffing and prison inmate overcrowding.
More than 200,000 inmates are confined in the 114 BOP correctional institutions today, up from 25,000 in 1980, from 58,000 in 1990 and 145,000 in 2000. By 2010, it is expected there will be 215,000 inmates incarcerated in BOP institutions.
This explosion in the federal prison inmate population is the direct result of Congress approving stricter anti-drug enforcement laws involving mandatory minimum sentences in the 1980s, as documented in the History of Mandatory Minimums, a study produced by the Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation (FAMM).
The number of federal correctional officers and staff who work in BOP institutions, however, is failing to keep pace with this tremendous growth in the prison inmate population. The BOP system is currently staffed at an 86.6 percent level, as contrasted with the 95 percent staffing levels in the mid-1990s. Moreover, the current 86.6 percent staffing level is less than the 90 percent staffing level that BOP believes is the point at which the safety and security of correctional officers and staff, as well as federal prison inmates, could be in jeopardy.
In addition, inmate overcrowding is an increasing problem at BOP institutions despite the activation of new prisons over the past few years. The BOP prison system today is overcrowded today by about 37 percent, up from 31.7 percent as of Jan. 1, 2000.
These serious correctional officer understaffing and inmate overcrowding problems are resulting in significant increases in prison inmate assaults against correctional officers and staff, and against other inmates. In December 2006, the BOP Intelligence Section of the U.S. Department of Justice issued a report documenting that: (1) inmate-on-inmate assaults (armed and unarmed) in FY 2006 had increased 15.5 percent from the previous fiscal year, and (2) inmate-on-staff assaults (armed and unarmed) in FY 2006 had increased 6.0 percent from the previous fiscal year.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents the 34,000 federal correctional officers and staff who work at BOP institutions, is extremely worried about the safety and security of its members. Unfortunately, the president and Congress seem unwilling to provide BOP with the necessary funding to solve these serious correctional understaffing and inmate overcrowding problems. Indeed, it would appear the president and Congress are more likely to provide federal funding to help law enforcement officers apprehend criminals than to help the law enforcement officers who work inside BOP institutions confine and control those very same criminals.
The AFL-CIO encourages all of its affiliated unions and organizations to inform the president and Congress that to secure the safety and security of their brothers and sisters who work at BOP institutions, they strongly support providing BOP with the necessary federal funding to solve its serious correctional understaffing and inmate overcrowding problems.