January 14, 2025

Durbin Urges OPM To Approve Special Pay Rate For BOP Employees To Address Critical Staffing Shortages At BOP Facilities Nationwide

Today's letter follows up on Durbin's May letter that urges BOP to request the special pay rate

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today sent a letter to Rob Shriver, Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to request that OPM approve the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) recently-transmitted special pay rate request for critical employees nationwide. 

“I write to request that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) act swiftly to approve the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) recently transmitted request for a nationwide special pay rate for critical employees to help address severe staffing shortages in BOP facilities,” Durbin wrote.

“As highlighted by recent Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearings, understaffed federal prisons cannot ensure the safety and wellbeing of the incarcerated individuals in their care or adequately provide necessary services for them, including critical medical and mental health care. Additionally, due to staffing shortages, BOP facilities are assigning noncustodial staff, such as teachers, case managers, and medical staff, to perform routine correctional officer duties, a practice called augmentation. This practice, necessitated by chronic understaffing, hinders the successful implementation of the landmark First Step Act (FSA) and access to FSA programming that is crucial for individuals’ rehabilitation and successful reentry into society,” Durbin continued his letter.

Durbin went on to emphasize the consequences of understaffing BOP facilities, noting that a February 2024 report issued by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (DOJ OIG) identified insufficient staffing as an issue in at least 30 of the deaths of incarcerated adults in the report’s scope. 

Today’s letter follows up on a letter Durbin sent in May, which urged BOP Director Colette Peters to recommend that BOP send a special pay rate request to OPM to address barriers to BOP’s recruitment and retention of critical employees and improve safety and security at BOP facilities.  BOP is currently facing a dire staffing crisis, which was exacerbated by a 2017 Presidential Memorandum that implemented a hiring freeze that resulted in a 14 percent staffing decrease at BOP.  According to the National Council of Prison Locals, the union representing a majority of BOP employees, since 2016, BOP has lost approximately 9,000 staff positions and current staffing shortages are at a “critical level.”

In today’s letter, Durbin called on OPM to use its authority to set special pay rates, which are higher rates of basic pay, for agencies experiencing a “significant handicap in recruiting or retaining employees.”  To make this determination, OPM considers criteria such as whether the staffing shortages are caused by “significantly higher non-Federal pay rates…the remoteness of the area…the undesirability of the work conditions or nature of the work involved, or any other circumstances OPM considers appropriate.”

Durbin wrote, “BOP clearly meets these criteria. It is my understanding that BOP recently transmitted a request to OPM for nationwide special salary rates for correctional officers, as well as a request for additional pay authorities for nurses. I applaud BOP’s efforts to work with OPM to close staffing shortages and increase salaries to compete with state and local correctional institutions, as well as the private sector.”

Durbin concluded his letter be reiterating the importance of approving the special pay rate to ensure that BOP facilities are fully staffed and can support the populations at these facilities. 

“Given the critical need, I urge OPM to act swiftly to approve BOP’s request for a nationwide special pay rate for employees in correctional services and other hard-to-fill positions pursuant to its special pay rate authorities for agencies experiencing a ‘significant handicap in recruiting or retaining employees’ to help address the federal prisons staffing crisis,” Durbin wrote.  “At the same time, I also request that you work to preserve current rates of locality pay at BOP facilities to ensure that OPM’s approval of special pay does not come at the expense of other currently authorized pay authorities, nor result in a decrease in pay for BOP staff currently serving amidst an agency-wide staffing crisis.”

During his tenure as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Durbin prioritized oversight of BOP and established a new Committee practice of holding annual BOP oversight hearings.  In April 2021, the Committee held a BOP oversight hearing with then-Director Carvajal to address chronic understaffing issues and other concerns.  Later, Durbin called for a new, reform-minded BOP Director after an Associated Press report that found that BOP is a “hotbed of abuse, graft and corruption, and has turned a blind eye to employees accused of misconduct.”  Then-Director Carvajal’s resignation was announced less than two months later.

In September 2022, the Committee held its second BOP oversight hearing under Durbin, which was BOP Director Peters’ first time testifying before Congress since taking over as head of the Bureau.  At that hearing, Durbin pressed Director Peters about abuse in federal prisons.  In September 2023, Durbin held his third BOP oversight hearing. 

In February 2024, Durbin convened a hearing entitled “Examining and Preventing Deaths of Incarcerated Individuals in Federal Prisons” at which Director Peters and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified regarding issues related to the operation and management of BOP, including staffing shortages, that contributed to deaths in custody.

A copy of the letter can be found here and below:

January 14, 2025

Dear Acting Director Shriver:

I write to request that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) act swiftly to approve the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) recently transmitted request for a nationwide special pay rate for critical employees to help address severe staffing shortages in BOP facilities.

As highlighted by recent Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearings, understaffed federal prisons cannot ensure the safety and wellbeing of the incarcerated individuals in their care or adequately provide necessary services for them, including critical medical and mental health care.^[1] Additionally, due to staffing shortages, BOP facilities are assigning noncustodial staff, such as teachers, case managers, and medical staff, to perform routine correctional officer duties, a practice called augmentation. This practice, necessitated by chronic understaffing, hinders the successful implementation of the landmark First Step Act (FSA) and access to FSA programming that is crucial for individuals’ rehabilitation and successful reentry into society.^[2]

This ongoing BOP staffing crisis is having alarming impacts on the health and safety of both staff and incarcerated individuals. A February 2024 report issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (IG) identified insufficient staffing as an issue in at least 30 of the deaths of incarcerated adults in the report’s scope.^[3] The report also noted that mandated overtime and augmentation negatively affect staff morale and performance, posing risks to institutional safety and security.^[4] Correctional officers interviewed relayed that overworked staff were less vigilant and conducted fewer rounds. Staff also suffer detrimental physical and mental health impacts from significantly increased stressors unique to the correctional environment.^[5]

More recently, a March 2024 IG report found that low health-care staffing levels at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Sheridan were consistently causing incarcerated individuals to wait extended periods of time for basic and emergency care, leading one individual to fake a suicide attempt in order to obtain timely medical treatment for a serious infection.^[6]

BOP has experienced staffing shortages over the last several years, culminating in the current staffing crisis.^[7] Importantly, this crisis was greatly exacerbated by a 2017 Presidential Memorandum, which implemented a hiring freeze of federal civilian employees and froze the number of positions able to be filled within the BOP as of January 22, 2017.^[8] The January 2017 hiring freeze was made permanent a year later, and during that time frame, BOP eliminated 6,000 positions nationwide, a 14 percent staffing decrease from the 43,000 positions in the system in both 2015 and 2016.^[9]

BOP currently houses more than 141,000 incarcerated adults.^[10] BOP is authorized for 14,899 full-time correctional officer positions and reports that 12,193 active correctional officers are in pay status;^[11]additionally, BOP is authorized for 24,686 “other” positions and reports that 23,141 employees are in active pay status in those positions.^[12] According to the National Council of Prison Locals, the union representing a majority of BOP employees, since 2016, BOP has lost approximately 9,000 staff positions and current staffing shortages are at a “critical level.”^[13]

At a February 2024 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, BOP Director Colette S. Peters acknowledged that BOP’s pay rates, including recruitment and retention pay incentives, have not made BOP staff salaries competitive with state correctional institutions or the private sector and are therefore a barrier to addressing the BOP staffing crisis.^[14] At a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing that same day, Brandy Moore White, President of the National Council of Prison Locals, called the lack of competitive pay the most important issue that correctional officers face on a day-to-day basis.^[15]

That is why five of my Senate Judiciary colleagues joined me in writing to Director Peters last May to urgently recommend that BOP send a special pay rate request to OPM to address barriers to BOP’s recruitment and retention of critical employees and improve safety and security at BOP facilities.^[16] Additionally, to address the staffing shortages contributing to deficient medical care and recidivism reduction programming, our letter recommended that BOP request this special pay rate apply not only to correctional officers, but also to all non-supervisory staff, including nurses, teachers, doctors, and psychologists. A special pay rate would provide an additional tool for BOP to immediately begin addressing its staffing shortage within its current budget, while Congress works on long-term solutions to this crisis.

OPM has the authority to set special pay rates, which are “higher rates of basic pay,” for agencies experiencing a “significant handicap in recruiting or retaining employees.”^[17] OPM’s criteria for special pay rates are based on whether the staffing shortages are caused by “significantly higher non-Federal pay rates . . the remoteness of the area . . . the undesirability of the work conditions or nature of the work involved, or any other circumstances OPM considers appropriate.”^[18]

BOP clearly meets these criteria. It is my understanding that BOP recently transmitted a request to OPM for nationwide special salary rates for correctional officers, as well as a request for additional pay authorities for nurses. I applaud BOP’s efforts to work with OPM to close staffing shortages and increase salaries to compete with state and local correctional institutions, as well as the private sector.

Given the critical need, I urge OPM to act swiftly to approve BOP’s request for a nationwide special pay rate for employees in correctional services and other hard-to-fill positions pursuant to its special pay rate authorities for agencies experiencing a “significant handicap in recruiting or retaining employees”^[19] to help address the federal prisons staffing crisis. At the same time, I also request that you work to preserve current rates of locality pay at BOP facilities to ensure that OPM’s approval of special pay does not come at the expense of other currently authorized pay authorities, nor result in a decrease in pay for BOP staff currently serving amidst an agency-wide staffing crisis.^[20]

I appreciate your consideration of this request and your attention to this critical issue.

Sincerely,

-30-

•   Print
•   Email
•   Share
•   Tweet