The Federal Bureau of Prisons (often referred to operationally as the BOP) is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's law. The Bureau was established in 1930 to provide more progressive and humane care for federal inmates, to professionalize the prison service, and to ensure consistent and centralized administration of the 11 federal prisons in operation at the time.
According to its official web site, the Bureau consists of more than 116 institutions, six regional offices, its headquarters office in Washington, D.C., 2 staff training centers, and 22 community corrections offices, and is responsible for the custody and care of approximately 210,000 federal offenders. Approximately 82 percent of these inmates are confined in Bureau-operated correctional facilities or detention centers. The remainder are confined through agreements with state and local governments or through contracts with privately-operated community corrections centers, detention centers, prisons, and juvenile facilities.
The Bureau is also responsible for carrying out all judicially ordered federal executions (other than those carried out under military law) in the United States, and maintains the federal lethal injection chamber at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Read more about Federal Bureau Of Prisons: Authority, Censorship of Inmate Communications With The Media, Training, Types of Federal Prisons, Inmate Population, Employee Statistics, Designation and Sentence Computation Center, Death Row
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