GAO Issues Report on Bureau of Prisons
For years, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has warned that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is in a state of chronic dysfunction. Staffing shortages, deteriorating facilities, contraband, misconduct, and weak oversight have become familiar themes in the OIG’s annual Top Management and Performance Challenges reports. The latest report reiterates what oversight bodies have said repeatedly: the BOP’s problems are systemic, long-standing, and largely unresolved.
Now, just days later, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report that adds a troubling new dimension to that story. The GAO’s findings show that the BOP’s operational failures are not just affecting safety and conditions of confinement, but are actively undermining federal efforts to reduce recidivism and prepare people for successful reentry. Together, the two reports paint a picture of an agency struggling to carry out even its most basic responsibilities, a task that falls on the shoulders of BOP Director William Marshall III and Deputy Director Josh Smith who were appointed to their positions in 2025.
A Crisis the OIG Says Never Ends
The OIG’s most recent report once again lists the “ongoing crisis facing the federal corrections system” as one of the DOJ’s top challenges. This language is not new. Over the past two decades, the OIG has issued more than 100 reports documenting systemic problems at the BOP, and many of the same deficiencies appear year after year.
Staffing shortages remain at the center of these concerns. The OIG notes that vacancies in correctional officer positions force the Bureau to rely on mandatory overtime and staff augmentation, pulling teachers, counselors, and medical staff into security roles. This practice erodes programming, delays medical care, and increases fatigue and safety risks for everyone inside federal prisons.
Infrastructure problems are equally persistent. Aging facilities suffer from failing plumbing, electrical systems, and safety equipment, with billions of dollars in deferred maintenance. These conditions are not merely inconvenient; they directly affect inmate health, institutional security, and staff morale. Yet the BOP still lacks a comprehensive, long-term strategy to address its infrastructure crisis.
Contraband, misconduct, and inadequate surveillance systems round out the OIG’s familiar list of concerns. Despite repeated recommendations, many facilities still lack sufficient camera coverage, creating blind spots that hinder investigations and accountability. These weaknesses have been linked to violence, staff misconduct, and inmate deaths.
The GAO Steps In and Looks at Recidivism
While the OIG focuses on management and operational failures, the GAO’s new report examines how those failures affect the BOP’s ability to implement the First Step Act of 2018. Congress passed the Act to reduce recidivism by requiring the BOP to assess individuals’ risk levels, identify criminogenic needs, and provide evidence-based programming that can lower the likelihood of reoffending.
GAO found that the BOP has struggled to meet even the most basic requirements of this mandate. The Bureau failed to complete required risk and needs assessments within statutory timeframes for a significant portion of incarcerated people, citing technology issues, staffing limitations, and data problems. Without timely assessments, individuals cannot be properly matched to programs intended to reduce recidivism.
Even more concerning, GAO found that the BOP lacks accurate and reliable data on program participation. Staff use inconsistent methods to record whether individuals declined or completed recommended programs, and data entry errors are common. As a result, the BOP cannot determine whether it offers sufficient programming to meet the needs of its population or whether those programs are being delivered as intended.
When Reform Exists on Paper but Not in Practice
The GAO report highlights a recurring theme also seen in OIG findings: reforms exist largely on paper, but execution falls short. The BOP reports that it offers programs addressing all 13 needs identified under the First Step Act, yet GAO found that data inaccuracies make it impossible to verify whether those programs are accessible, effective, or adequately resourced. This is something Director Smith said many of the failings of the First Step Act was because of the prior administrations misallocation of funding under the program.
In late 2025, Director William Marshall launched the “Transparency Talks” podcast to address deep-rooted mismanagement and corruption affecting the First Step Act. Marshall exposed that funds intended for inmate rehabilitation and reform were misappropriated or misused, leading to failures in implementing the Act and poor staff, inmate, and public outcomes.
Program review meetings, intended to guide incarcerated individuals toward appropriate programming, are often perfunctory. Interviews cited by GAO describe meetings lasting only a few minutes, with little meaningful discussion of progress or future needs. This raises serious questions about whether individualized reentry planning is occurring at all.
The BOP’s struggles also affect earned time credits, a key incentive under the First Step Act. GAO found that while the BOP generally applied time credits toward supervised release, it often failed to apply them toward prerelease custody, such as halfway houses or home confinement. This inconsistency undermines both congressional intent and incarcerated people’s trust in the system.
Oversight Bodies Reaching the Same Conclusion
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the timing of these reports is how closely their conclusions align. The OIG describes an agency overwhelmed by staffing shortages, weak data systems, and poor planning. The GAO independently concludes that those same weaknesses prevent the BOP from implementing one of the most significant criminal justice reforms in recent history.
GAO previously added the BOP to its High-Risk List, citing long-standing challenges with managing staff and resources and evaluating programs. The new report reinforces that designation, showing limited progress despite years of recommendations, new funding, and legislative mandates.
This convergence matters. When both the OIG and GAO, using different lenses, reach the same conclusions, it signals that the problems are deeply rooted and unlikely to be solved through incremental fixes or pilot programs.
What It Means Going Forward
The combined message from the OIG and GAO is hard to ignore. The Bureau of Prisons is not simply facing a series of isolated challenges. It is struggling with a fundamental breakdown in management, data integrity, and accountability that affects safety, rehabilitation, and public trust.
Congress has appropriated billions of dollars and passed sweeping reforms like the First Step Act. Yet without reliable staffing models, accurate data, and sustained leadership attention, those investments cannot achieve their intended impact. As GAO notes, without complete and accurate information, even Congress lacks the tools it needs to oversee the system effectively. There are also rumors of the BOP’s budget being cut despite the gains widely publicized about the Big Beautiful Bill.
A Familiar Ending, Unless Something Changes
Taken together, the latest OIG and GAO reports tell a familiar story. The BOP remains trapped in a cycle of identifying problems, announcing reforms, and falling short on implementation. Now, those failures are not only compromising prison safety and conditions, but also undermining national efforts to reduce recidivism and improve reentry outcomes.
There is tremendous pressure on this BOP leadership to do more with less and the past has shown that that such an approach does not end well. Unless the Bureau demonstrates real progress in addressing the root causes identified by both oversight bodies, next year’s reports are likely to sound very much like this year’s. And the costs of that stagnation will continue to be paid by staff, incarcerated individuals, and the public alike.
The BOP responded to the report by stating, “The BOP will continue to prioritize the full implementation of FSA and address the issues identified in this report.
Read the full article here
