BOP in Crisis
One of the few remaining senior leaders at the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Associate Deputy Director Kathleen Toomey, testified before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. This comes at a time of extreme uncertainty for the agency. Former BOP Director Colette Peters was fired on January 20, and Acting Director William Lathrop announced last week that he will retire by the end of this week. With leadership in flux, the agency faces unprecedented challenges just as major changes are being forced upon it.
Pressure From DOGE
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is driving aggressive cost-cutting measures across federal agencies, with the BOP as one of its latest targets. Among the most controversial cuts is the elimination of retention bonuses, which had been critical to addressing the agency’s staffing shortages.
The BOP’s hiring crisis reached such dire levels in 2021 that it requested—and was granted—retention bonuses from the Biden administration just to keep some prisons operational. Now, DOGE has axed those bonuses, leaving employees in limbo. Aaron McGlothin, union president at FCI Mendota (California), warns that this decision will have severe consequences for employees already struggling to stay afloat.
Government-wide, employees have been pressured to resign with promises of eight months’ severance pay, while those who stay are given no job security. Some BOP staff were even told to submit a list of their accomplishments from the past week—or resign. Following the director’s firing, many employees are questioning whether they’ll still have a job in the coming weeks.
Breaking the News to Employees
The announcement of the retention bonus cuts has been chaotic, coming from both union leadership and impromptu town halls where little was shared beyond the fact that the bonuses are ending. McGlothin recalled that during an annual training session, the complex warden entered the room and abruptly informed them that retention bonuses were gone.
“All the air was taken out of the room,” McGlothin said. “We all just feel so defeated.”
Keeping employees at institutions like FCI Mendota is critical.
“Retention bonuses were hard-fought. Even though they didn’t lead to a massive turnaround in staffing, they helped stabilize the workforce,” McGlothin said.
But staffing shortages remain so severe that the prison doesn’t have enough personnel to feed inmates at the adjacent satellite camp, forcing staff from the main FCI Mendota to prepare meals for both facilities.
“Meal timing is inconsistent,” McGlothin said. “The inmates are frustrated, and so is the staff.”
The Appropriations Hearing
Toomey did an excellent job for the BOP during the hearing. However, the news she delivered offered few answers to Congress who was looking into ways to cut costs. The BOP is currently operating on a continuing resolution budget that is billions less than what is needed. According to Toomey, the BOP needs to hire 4,000 corrections officers but its current budget limits could not even fully fund these positions. In addition, it would take another $3 billion to bring facilities up to modern standards.
Grace Meng (D- NY) told Toomey during Wednesday’s hearing regarding the pay cuts, “This is a cruel cut to the paychecks of a lot of hard working men and women who protect our public safety every day. And as a result of these changes, I’m afraid that you’ll see more staff quit, forcing the remaining staff to work more overtime and be augmented, and will no doubt eat up a lot of the savings from ending retention bonuses, where in an extremely tight budget environment, that may get even tighter if the administration continues the practice of impounding funds.”
“This is not strategic cost-saving,” said Jon Zumkehr, President of AFGE Local 4070 (FCI Thomson – Illinois). “This is blind slashing of essential funding that will cost taxpayers more in the long run. The overtime costs alone to cover vacant positions, combined with increased recruitment expenses, will far exceed any immediate savings.”
What The Union Is Saying
Brandy Moore White, President of the Council of Prison Locals 33, testified before aSenate subcommittee in early 2024, stating that the BOP faces a 40% shortage of correctional officers nationwide—primarily due to non-competitive salaries and abysmal working conditions.
The Trump administration, however, disputes these numbers, arguing that staffing levels should be based on post-2017 figures—after the administration froze hiring across the government. The BOP has never recovered from those cuts, but some maintain they were necessary, given the agency was housing 50,000 fewer inmates than a decade prior.
The retention bonus cuts may have caught employees off guard, but union leadership had seen the writing on the wall.
“It seems like the blows just keep coming,” Moore wrote in a message to regional presidents. “I was just notified that all institutions will be informed today that retention bonuses will be cut by 50% in Pay Period 6, except for those that were at 95% staffing in Pay Period 1 for correctional officers or overall—only seven institutions.”
The seven institutions that will lose their retention bonuses are:
- MDC Los Angeles
- FCI Mendota
- USP Atwater
- FDC Miami
- FCI Otisville
- FCI Pekin
- FCI Sheridan
Meanwhile, John Kostelnik, Western Regional Vice President, criticized the BOP’s budget mismanagement, pointing to millions spent on Senior Executive Staff (SES) bonuses and unnecessary regional offices while frontline staff bear the brunt of budget cuts.
“Staff in the BOP are underpaid and overworked,” Kostelnik said. “The agency cannot retain staff because their pay has not kept up with the demands or the increased dangers. Meanwhile, they continue to waste millions maintaining regional offices that serve little purpose.”
The Next BOP Director Faces a Crisis
The next BOP director will inherit an agency in turmoil. Employee engagement and job satisfaction in 2024 were already the lowest in the federal government, and that number is likely to decline even further as uncertainty grips the agency.
The Republican-controlled Congress will hold its first oversight hearing on Wednesday, but there is no clear leadership at the helm of the BOP, an agency that has even removed all its online policies to comply with the Trump administration’s transgender policy directive.
Hugh Hurwitz, former Acting BOP Director, warns that the agency’s instability could have dangerous consequences.
“The job is already a difficult one,” Hurwitz said. “But with budget shortfalls, leadership turnover, and fear of the unknown, the challenges have never been greater. For an agency with a critical safety mission, this level of instability puts lives at risk.”
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