Last week, the Federal Bureau of Prisons posted a video of Deputy Director Josh Smith vowing to “make the BOP great again.” The seven-minute clip echoes the promises of change agency leaders have repeated in video announcements for months as the BOP struggles with a staffing crisis and budget shortfalls.
As a reporter covering the federal prison system, I want to know: How’s that going?
It has been a chaotic year in the Bureau of Prisons. The same day Trump took office, the agency director was fired. Then, bonuses were canceled. The union contract was scrapped. Dozens of prisoners and prison staff told me about shortages of basic needs, from toilet paper to food. And hundreds of exhausted officers have left, many lured away by better pay at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as I reported last week.
The same day my story published, the agency posted another video of Smith, this time announcing a plan to boost the BOP ranks by bringing back “significantly enhanced” retention incentives and offering one-time bonuses, paid for in part, he said, from savings from the canceled union contract.
“Now we’re all back working as one team,” he said. “Everything’s not going to get fixed immediately. But the hard work has started, and, thanks to President Trump, we are building a bureau where every staff member is proud to serve.”
The announcement riled union officials. In an email to members, union leaders wrote that the video was “designed to create a narrative that the union was the problem” and that canceling the contract somehow “fixed” it.
I’ve been investigating the federal prison system for years, and I’m going to report on what comes next. I’m especially interested in tips about the leadership’s priorities, contracting and budget decisions, and concerns about wrongdoing or abuses of power. And I’m always interested in any documents or data you can share to paint a fuller picture of what’s going on inside the bureau.
At ProPublica, we appreciate you sharing your story, and we take your privacy seriously. I am gathering these stories for the purposes of my reporting and will contact you if we wish to publish any part of your story. I may not be able to respond to everyone personally, but I promise to read everything you submit.
If you are a current prison employee or you have particularly sensitive information to share, you can contact me directly through Signal at KeriB.123.
