Washington, DC — Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lucy McBath, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight, and Rep. Joe Neguse, are demanding Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director William Marshall immediately remedy ongoing staffing shortages that have jeopardized the safety and security of both prison facilities personnel and inmates. Chronic understaffing—combined with pay cuts, hiring freezes, and high attrition—has pushed many BOP facilities into crisis conditions.
The letter follows a 2025 oversight hearing held jointly by the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance and Subcommittee on Oversight, where Members examined long-standing challenges at BOP, including underfunding and staffing shortfalls spanning multiple administrations. Despite the seriousness of those concerns, the Majority declined to call a BOP witness to testify.
“We are deeply concerned that these developments compromise the safety and security of both inmates and staff. The shrinking existing workforce has been left to contend with an ever-growing use of overtime, which leads to fatigue, burnout, and increased attrition. Insufficient staffing levels have led to lockdowns, heightening tensions among inmates, increasing instances of violence, limiting access to recidivism-reducing programming, further restricting the availability of medical and mental health care, and hindering institutional response to institutional emergencies such as assaults and suicide attempts,” the Members wrote.
Chronic staffing shortages across the BOP have undermined the agency’s ability to carry out basic safety and security functions, forcing facilities to rely heavily on “augmentation”—assigning non-custody staff to guard housing units—instead of trained correctional officers. This practice, which also extends to critical healthcare and mental health staffing gaps, persists despite repeated congressional warnings to limit its use and ensure adequate staffing levels at federal prisons.
Just three years ago, a Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (OIG) report found that 21% of authorized correctional officer positions were unfilled, forcing BOP to rely on non-custody staff—such as teachers, nurses, and cooks—to guard housing units. Rather than rectifying its shortcomings, BOP cut wages by as much as 25% for frontline officers, instituted a hiring freeze, canceled a collective bargaining agreement with over 30,000 federal correctional employees, and ceded experienced personnel to other law enforcement agencies offering higher wages, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One BOP official told ProPublica, “We’re broken and we’re being poached by ICE.”
Whistleblower reports frequently highlight the consequences of undercutting reform and dismissing credible complaints. According to ProPublica’s reporting, BOP staff and inmates alike lack basic personal hygiene products, and several facilities have fallen behind on utility bills and lack adequate access to food.
Likewise, extended lockdowns due to understaffing have interfered with necessary—and in some cases, lifesaving—medical care, as well as re-entry programming required under the bipartisan First Step Act.
The Members are requesting responses within 30 days on hiring practices, attrition rates, recruitment efforts, staff losses to ICE, compliance with the First Step Act, the use of augmentation, and plans to protect employee rights and improve safety following the cancellation of the collective bargaining agreement.
Click here to read the letter.