Chapter 11 What Agency Am I?

I protect society by confining federal offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure and that provide work and other self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in becoming law-abiding citizens.

I provide training, technical assistance, information services, and policy/program development assistance to federal, state, and local corrections agencies. I also provide leadership to influence correctional policies, practices, and operations nationwide in areas of emerging interest and concern to correctional executives and practitioners, as well as public policy makers.

I seek to employ and provide skills training to the greatest practicable number of inmates confined within the Federal Bureau of Prisons; contribute to the safety and security of the nation’s correctional facilities by keeping inmates constructively occupied; produce market-price quality goods for sale to the federal government; operate in a self-sustaining manner; and minimize the agency’s impact on private business and labor.

I was established September 2001 in response to growing concerns regarding federal detention. I provide for the safe, secure, and humane confinement of persons in federal custody awaiting trial or immigration proceedings by ensuring the appropriate operations and cost-effectiveness of secure nonfederal detention facilities utilized by federal law enforcement agencies.