BOP Is behind Schedule Fully Activating New Institutions, and Does Not Have an Activation Policy or Schedules That Meet Best Practices

BOP is behind schedule in fully activating, or reaching rated capacity for,  all six institutions in the activation process. According to BOP officials,  delays in receiving congressionally directed activation funding are outside  BOP’s control and can exacerbate existing challenges with staffing or  populating an institution with inmates. On our site visits to these institutions, we found that the locations of these  institutions posed challenges related to staffing institutions and populating  them with inmates within schedule estimates. In contrast, BOP’s annual  According to BOP officials, when BOP is congressionally directed to  investigate a particular location, BOP generally considers this as a  direction to focus its efforts on constructing an institution in that specific  location. Standards for Internal Control in  the Federal Government states that management should ensure that  there are adequate means of communicating with, and obtaining  information from, external stakeholders, such as Congress, that may have  a significant impact on the agency achieving its goals.activations limit BOP’s ability to reduce crowding as BOP intended, DOJ  and BOP would be better positioned for future activations and could more  effectively manage activation costs and timelines by using BOP’s annual  congressional budget justification to communicate to Congress the factors  that might delay future activations, such as challenges hiring staff and  placing inmates, associated with the locations of new institutions. BOP Does Not Have a Policy to Guide Activation or a Schedule That Meets Best Practices

BOP institutions in the activation process rely on the expertise of staff and  two templates that the Central Office developed to guide the activation  process: (1) the activation handbook, which identifies roles and  responsibilities for BOP officials during the activation process, and (2) the  staffing timeline, which provides a general sequence of hiring events that  BOP staff are to follow prior to the institution receiving inmates. Crowding by security level. DOJ Purchased Thomson to Provide High-Security Bed Space and Used Several Accounts to Finance the Purchase

DOJ stated in its budget requests that acquiring the Thomson  Correctional Center in Illinois would address high-security crowding and  support BOP’s mission, as well as DOJ’s strategic goal to ensure the fair  and efficient administration of justice. Purchasing Thomson Will Address Crowding at the High-Security Level, but Will Result in Increased Operational Costs

Once it reaches rated capacity, according to our analysis of inmate  population data, Administrative USP Thomson will help address crowding  at the high-security level by about 16 percent for male inmates, which is  similar to the decrease in crowding rates that DOJ asserted in the  business cases submitted to Congress as part of the annual budget  process. Accordingly, they  estimate that Administrative USP Thomson will ultimately house between  2,600 and 3,000 inmates. In particular, by using the  BOP annual budget justifications to clearly communicate to Congress the  factors that might delay activation, like institution locations, DOJ could  more effectively mitigate activation challenges and better meet the  bureau’s needs. To better address obstacles that occur during the activation process and  to help ensure that institutions are activated within estimated timeframes,  including those institutions that do not currently have inmates, such as  Administrative USP Thomson and USP Yazoo City, we recommend that  the Director of the Bureau of Prisons take the following three actions: direct the Central Office to analyze staffing data at individual  institutions in the activation process to assess their progress toward  reaching authorized staffing levels and use that assessment to  develop effective, tailored strategies to mitigate those challenges; develop and implement a comprehensive activation policy that  incorporates the knowledge of staff with experience activating  institutions; and develop and implement an activation schedule that incorporates the  four characteristics of scheduling best practices. If BOP had a  schedule that reflected best practices, it could revise its estimates, when  warranted, for when activation would be completed. None of the six institutions is at rated capacity— the number of inmates that a given institution can safely and securely  house. BOP estimated in fiscal year 2008 that FCI Berlin would  be fully activated by fiscal year 2010. After reviewing documentation BOP submitted for its activation schedule  estimates and conducting interviews with BOP officials involved in  activations, we determined that the documents used as schedules by the  six activating institutions are not reliable. Comprehensive. Such  an analysis typically focuses on key risks and how they affect the  schedule’s activities.
Why GAO Did This Study

The federal inmate population has increased over the last two decades, and as of July 2014, BOP was responsible for the custody and care of more than 216,000 inmates. To handle the projected growth of between 2,500 and 3,000 or more inmates per year from 2015 through 2020, BOP has spent about $1.3 billion constructing five new institutions and acquiring one in Thomson, Illinois. BOP is activating these institutions by staffing and equipping them and populating them with inmates.
GAO was requested to review BOP's activation process of newly constructed and acquired institutions. GAO reviewed, among other things, (1) the extent to which BOP is activating institutions within estimated timeframes and has an activation policy or schedules that meet best practices, and (2) why DOJ purchased Thomson and how the purchase affected system wide costs. GAO reviewed BOP budget documents from fiscal years 2008 to 2015 and assessed schedules against GAO's Schedule Assessment Guide. GAO conducted site visits to the six institutions, interviewed BOP officials, and reviewed staffing data from fiscal years 2010 through 2013.

What GAO Found

The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is behind schedule activating all six new institutions—the process by which it prepares them for inmates—and does not have a policy to guide activation or an activation schedule that reflects best practices. BOP is behind schedule, in part, because of challenges, such as staffing, posed by the locations of the activating institutions. According to BOP officials, delays in receiving congressionally directed activation funding can exacerbate these challenges (see fig.). None of the six institutions is fully activated, or at rated capacity, as they do not house the number of inmates they are designed to safely and securely house.
BOP does not effectively communicate to Congress how the locations of new institutions may affect activation schedules. BOP officials said that when directed by Congress to investigate a location, they consider this as direction to focus on construction at that site. DOJ and BOP could more effectively manage activation timelines and costs by using the BOP annual budget justification to communicate to Congress the factors associated with certain locations that can delay activations, such as challenges hiring staff and placing inmates in institutions. Also, BOP officials said they review staffing data system-wide, but they have not prioritized an analysis of such data at the institution level. Analyzing staffing data on institutions in the activation process could help BOP assess its progress in staffing and tailoring effective mitigating strategies. Finally, BOP lacks a comprehensive activation policy to guide activations, as well as an activation schedule that reflects best practices, and it has largely relied on staff's past experience to complete ongoing activations. Developing and implementing a comprehensive policy and a schedule that reflects best practices, could better position BOP to meet its estimated timeframes and activation costs.
DOJ purchased Thomson to help reduce crowding among inmates requiring high levels of security. Once it is fully populated, it will reduce BOP-wide crowding by 16 percent at the high-security level. Thomson will cost about $160 million annually to operate once fully activated, adding to BOP's system-wide costs. BOP officials said Thomson will provide benefits, such as high-security bed space, which outweigh the costs associated with the institution.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that DOJ use its annual budget justification to communicate to Congress factors that might delay prison activation, and that BOP analyze institution-level staffing data and develop and implement a comprehensive activation policy and a schedule that reflects best practices. DOJ concurred with all of GAO's recommendations.