# Bureau of Prisons *Federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice that administers federal prisons.* The **Federal Bureau of Prisons** (BOP, also FBOP) is the agency of the [[United States Department of Justice]] that runs the country's federal prisons and keeps federal prisoners in custody. Its officers are federal law enforcement officers.[^1] Congress created the Bureau inside the Justice Department on May 14, 1930. Congress charged it with the "management and regulation of all Federal penal and correctional institutions."[^1] Wikipedia's summary gives the Bureau's population as of December 2024 as approximately 157,504 inmates in 122 facilities.[^1] The Bureau appears once in this wiki's at-issue record. In the project's Stearns package it is the public custodian of a twenty-year sentence. The research file records that the sentence's current facility and projected release date were not confirmed against the Bureau's locator.[^2] ## Who Colette S. Peters left the directorship effective January 20, 2025. Deputy Director William Lothrop was acting director until he retired on February 28, 2025. William K. Marshall III took the oath as director on April 21, 2025.[^1] The Bureau's primary law enforcement officers are uniformed. They hold arrest powers under the United States Code and may carry firearms when off duty.[^1] Its specialty units include the Special Operations Response Team (SORT), the Crisis Negotiation Team, the Special Investigative Service and the Disturbance Control Team.[^1] ## What The Bureau classifies its institutions into five security levels.[^1] - **Federal Prison Camps** are the minimum-security tier. They have little or no perimeter fencing and comparatively few staff per inmate. - **Low-security Federal Correctional Institutions** use double fences, and inmates live mainly in cubicles or dormitories. - **Medium-security institutions** reinforce the perimeter, often with double fencing and electronic detection, and house inmates mainly in cells. - **Penitentiaries** are mostly rated high-security and have heavily secured walls or fences.[^1] Federal Correctional Complexes place facilities of differing security levels or genders on one site. Administrative Security Facilities serve special functions. One example is the Federal Medical Centers, which treat sick and injured inmates whose care exceeds what an ordinary institution can provide.[^1] Wikipedia's summary reports that the Bureau considers contract facilities "especially useful" for housing low-security and specialized groups. As of 2010, roughly 15% of Bureau inmates were held in facilities run by third parties, mostly private companies. Others were held in local and state facilities or in privately operated Residential Reentry Centers.[^1] ## When Federal prisons operated for more than three decades before the Bureau existed. During that period wardens ran their institutions with near autonomy, and a Justice Department official in Washington, the Superintendent of Prisons, held nominal authority over them.[^1] In 1891 the *Three Prisons Act* authorized the first three federal penitentiaries: USP Leavenworth, USP Atlanta and USP McNeil Island. The Justice Department supervised them only loosely.[^1] Until 1907, the Justice Department General Agent handled prison matters. In 1907 that post was abolished and its duties divided among three new offices: the Division of Accounts, the Office of the Chief Examiner, and the Office of the Superintendent of Prisons and Prisoners.[^1] The Chief Examiner's office became the Bureau of Investigation in 1908 and, in the early 1920s, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. The prisons office became the Bureau of Prisons in 1930.[^1] At its creation in 1930, the Bureau took over 11 operating federal prisons. By the close of that year it had 14 institutions holding 13,000 inmates, and by 1940 it had 24 institutions holding 24,360 people.[^1] ## How In their first year, Bureau law enforcement employees complete 200 hours of formal training. They then complete 120 more hours at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Glynco, Georgia.[^1] SORT members must log at least 96 hours of training a year.[^1] The Bureau runs a Mothers and Infants Nurturing Together (MINT) program for women who are pregnant when they enter custody. It pays for an abortion only when the woman's life is threatened, though it may permit one in other cases if the funds do not come from the Bureau.[^1] In 2018 the First Step Act barred restraining pregnant women unless the woman presents a health or security threat.[^1] The Bureau's 1996 memorandum on hygiene said "products for female hygiene needs shall be available." It did not require those products to be free.[^1] In 2017, four Democratic senators, including Kamala Harris, introduced a bill that would require free tampons and pads for female prisoners. In August 2017 the Bureau issued a memorandum requiring them to be provided free.[^1] ## How many The December 2024 population figure was approximately 157,504 inmates in 122 facilities. Of those inmates, 74.5% were aged 26 to 50.[^1] As of August 2020, 46.2% of inmates were serving time for drug offenses.[^1] As of 2010, nearly 8,000 people sentenced under District of Columbia law, held in 90 facilities, made up about 6% of the Bureau's population. As of 1999, Texas had 16 federal prisons holding 14,000 prisoners.[^1] Wikipedia's summary gives two counts of facilities holding women. It states that 27 Bureau facilities housed women as of 2015, and elsewhere gives an undated count of 28 institutions.[^1] The same summary reports roughly one corrections officer for every 12.5 prisoners.[^1] Citing ODMP, it reports that 33 Bureau officers have been killed in the line of duty.[^1] ## In the at-issue record The project's research file records a plea agreement that produced a twenty-year sentence followed by lifetime supervised release (RESEARCH_Wetterling_Diocese.md, ¶19). The file describes twenty years as the maximum on the count charged.[^2] The same entry records that the research pass did not check the defendant's current facility or projected release date against the Bureau of Prisons locator. It also records that the file distinguishes what was checked from what was not.[^2] The row's cited anchor is a January 2026 White House fact sheet on a new Justice Department division for national fraud enforcement. The record in this pack does not establish the sentence from a court filing.[^2] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - In at-issue row AI-Stearns-070 of the Stearns package, the Bureau is the public custodian named for a twenty-year sentence. The row records that the Bureau's locator was not consulted in that research pass.[^2] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Federal Bureau of Prisons* (revision 1380476553, retrieved 2026-10-27) — secondary summary of the Bureau's establishment, history, leadership, facility types, training, policies and population figures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Prisons [^2]: The White House, *Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes New Department of Justice Division for National Fraud Enforcement* (January 2026) — cited as the anchor of at-issue row AI-Stearns-070. It does not itself establish the sentence or locator status, which the row draws from RESEARCH_Wetterling_Diocese.md ¶19. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-new-department-of-justice-division-for-national-fraud-enforcement/