BUREAU OF PRISONS Management of New Prison Activations Can Be Improved

The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) requested about $6.9 billion in fiscal year 2014 to provide for the custody and care of an inmate population that has increased from about 24,000 in fiscal year 1980 to over 216,000 in July 2014. According to DOJ, as of July 2014, BOP-operated institutions are about 31 percent overcrowded, which occurs when institutions house more inmates than they are designed to hold. Moreover, according to BOP's most recent long-range capacity plan included in DOJ's annual congressional budget justification for BOP, the bureau projects annual inmate growth of between 2,500 and 3,000 or more from fiscal years 2015 through 2020.