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Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document 33 Filed 04/09/20 Page 33 of 38 4f2020 Lack of Staff and Resources Continue to Strain the Fedetal Suréau of Prisons - Oversight - Government Executive Government Executive Lack of Staff and Resources Continue to Strain the Federal Bureau of Prisons By Courtney Bublé November 19, 2019 The Federal Bureau of Prisons is severely lacking in staff and resources, the director testified before a Senate panel on Tuesday. Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, who was bureau director from 1992-2008, came out of retirement to lead the agency again after.acting direclor Hugh Hurwity was reassigned in the aftermath of financier and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s death in August while in federal custody. As the bureau, which oversees 122 federal prisons and more than 170,000 inmates nationwide, is working to implement the First Step Act's prison reforms and deal with the circumstances that led to Epstein's death, it is facing severe resource issues, according to Hawk Sawyer. “We have put such huge strains on the Bureau of Prisons trying to accomplish its mission," Hawk Sawyer said before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “With the dramatic growth we've had, the budget cuts, staffing shortages, it’s just been incredible to me that the bureau has been able to function during the last 16 years that I've been gone.” The vast majority of staff are good, hardworking employees, “but they are tired because they are stretched," she added. Hawk Sawyer attributed the resouree problem to the rapid increase in the prison population in the last 30 years, employees retiring at a faster rate than they are hired, uncertain budgets, ihe recent government shutdown andthe hiring [freeze early in the Trump administration. "We have never had adequate resources to provide all the programs for all the inmates,” Hawk Sawyer said. “I'm hoping that will change now sinee you all support the First Step Act.” According to the hurean's website it currently has 96,348 staff members. The New York Times reported: Between December 2016 and September 2018 — the date of the most recent data available from the federal Office of Personnel Management — the number of correctional officers fell more than 11%, from 19,082 to 16,898. That decline reversed a longtime trend. Before President Doneld Trump tock office, the number of federal correctional officers had continuously increased: there were 12.5% more officers at the end of 2016 compared to the beginning of 2012. Hawk Sawyer said the bureau has “made great progress" to fill the over 3,300 vacancies nationwide, but it is going to take a while. In order to hire more staff, the bureau is working with the Office of Personne] Management to get direct hiring authority, hiring retirees on a temporary basis because they are already trained and using the professional services company Accenture to recruit young people online. Sawyer said the only thing that impedes the bureau from providing adequate care and services for inmates is resources. She expects the agency will receive $75 million in this year’s appropriations for the First Step Act, which the law requires for the first five years, although she hoped for more. Last year the hiipsuwaw,. gov exes, conVoversight/2019/ 11 /lack-stalf-and-resources-continue-strain-federal-bureau-p:isons61338/print! : U2 DOJ-OGR- 00022056