Federal Bureau of Prisons: Its Mission, Its History, and Its Partnership With Probation and Pretrial Services

• NCJ Number: 171608
• Journal: Federal Probation Volume: 61 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1997) Pages: 53-57
• Author(s): J W Roberts
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 5 pages
• Sale Source: NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article provides a historical overview of the Bureau of Prisons and describes the Bureau's key role in the development of community corrections through probation and pretrial services.

Abstract

Although the Federal judiciary is more than 200 years old, the first Federal prisons were not constructed until the end of the 19th century, and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was established less than 70 years ago. The construction of Federal facilities was prompted by the increasing numbers of Federal offenders, overcrowding in State facilities, and concerns over the conditions of confinement for Federal offenders. Early prisons operated within the Department of Justice under the nominal supervision of the Superintendent of Prisons. In practice, however, the prisons operated virtually autonomously. Each had its own appropriation from Congress, and each was administered by a warden who was politically appointed. There was little or no inmate classification or programming and minimal consistency of administration from prison to prison. To address various problems that arose in Federal prisons, Congress established the Federal Bureau of Prisons on May 14, 1930. The new BOP immediately undertook an urgently needed program of prison expansion and implemented the kind of firm, consistent administrative control over Federal prisons that had been lacking. The BOP, a component of the U.S. Justice Department, has primary responsibility for housing sentenced Federal offenders and shares responsibility with the U.S. Marshals Service for housing inmates who are awaiting trial or sentencing in Federal courts. It works closely with the U.S. probation and pretrial services system in such areas as providing community corrections and pretrial detention bedspace, offering alternative sanctions for supervised-release violators and probation violators, determining the prison to which an inmate will be designated, and coordinating certain case management operations and other program activities. 15 notes