Bureau of Prisons
Headquarters: 320
First St., NW
Washington, DC 20534
Phone: 202-307-3198
Employees: 35,000
Director: Harley Lappin
Website:
http://www.bop.gov
Career
Page
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), established
in 1930, is a subdivision of the United States Department of
Justice. The Bureau's basic responsibility is the management
and supervision of the federal prison system.
BOP's Central Office is located in Washington
DC, and provides administrative supervision and support to the
bureau's 106 institutions, and 28 community corrections offices.
Without the Bureau of Prisons, America would not have an organized
system to confine law-offenders, while assuring that their human
rights are still enforced.
The mission of the bureau is to protect American society by incarcerating
law offenders and maintaining them inside police-controlled environments.
These prisons and community-based facilities are considered by
the government to be a safe and humane way of imprisoning people
who endanger their communities. The prisons are also considered
to be cost-effective and secure. In addition to imprisoning criminals,
BOP provides work for convicts who believe in self-improvement,
and sincerely want to become law-abiding citizens.
At the end of November, there were a total
of 188,087 inmates in custody with the Bureau of Prisons. Of
this number, 93.1% were male, 40.1% were black and 31.8% were
Hispanic. The average inmate age was 37 years old. 53.4% of all
inmates in prison were convicted of drug offenses.
Most inmates are housed at Bureau facilities.
The rest of the criminals that are in Bureau custody are confined
trough state and local agreements or through contracts with privately-owned
correction centers, juvenile facilities, or detention centers. Here
is a link to weekly
report of inmate numbers and their locations.
The makeup of staff working for the Bureau
of Prisons is 72.5% male, 64.3% white, 21% African-American and
11.2% Hispanic.
Updated December 17, 2005
