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Open Recommendations (32 total)

Bureau of Prisons: Improved Planning Would Help BOP Evaluate and Manage Its Portfolio of Drug Education and Treatment Programs

GAO-20-423
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Bureau of Prisons The Director of BOP should implement the revised program evaluation plan based on available funding and staffing levels for conducting them. (Recommendation 5)
Open – Partially Addressed
BOP concurred with this recommendation and in July 2021 revised the program evaluation plan based on available funding and staffing levels. Further, in September 2021, BOP contracted with an external entity to evaluate its drug treatment programs and noted that it expected the external entity to complete its initial analyses in October 2022. In March 2023, BOP provided us with the contractor's first quarterly progress report for the period ending in December 2022. The report indicated that both descriptive and evaluative analyses - as well as a report on these findings- were to be completed by March 2023, but BOP did not provide evidence of the deliverables. In November 2023, BOP told us they would provide deliverables they received from the contractor. We will continue to monitor the status of the contract to ensure the contractor's efforts to evaluate BOP's drug treatment programs proceed as planned.

Bureau of Prisons: Improved Planning Would Help BOP Evaluate and Manage Its Portfolio of Drug Education and Treatment Programs

GAO-20-423
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Bureau of Prisons The Director of BOP should implement BOP's plan for managing its portfolio of drug education and treatment programs. (Recommendation 7)
Open – Partially Addressed
BOP concurred with this recommendation and indicated in December 2020 that it would provide GAO with a plan for managing its portfolio of drug education and treatment programs. In August 2021, BOP provided GAO with the Drug Education and Treatment Programs Management Plan. In March 2023, BOP updated the Drug Education and Treatment Programs Management Plan. This plan defined goals for each drug education and treatment program, along with specific monitoring activities and staff and funding resources that would be necessary to achieve those goals. In September 2023, BOP provided a Psychology Treatment Programs report, which listed the allocated drug treatment positions by region and indicated what positions are currently filled or vacant. To close this recommendation as implemented, BOP will need to provide documentation of how it is monitoring the goals defined in the Drug Education and Treatment Programs Management Plan. We will continue to assess actions BOP takes to implement this plan, including evidence that monitoring is taking place as described and that the indicated staff and funding resource needs have been addressed.

Bureau of Prisons: Opportunities Exist to Better Analyze Staffing Data and Improve Employee Wellness Programs

GAO-21-123
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Bureau of Prisons The Director of BOP should develop and implement a plan for analyzing data to help identify and address the causes and potential impacts of staffing challenges on staff and inmates. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed
BOP concurred with this recommendation and has begun taking early steps to address it. In June 2021, BOP reported that it hired a contractor to assist the agency over several months in analyzing data to identify and address impacts of staffing challenges. In March 2023, BOP reported that the contractor had conducted research, including interviews with BOP leaders and focus groups across BOP, discussing topics such as staffing, recruiting, and retention. BOP reported that the contractor conducted additional interviews with 50 BOP employees to gain additional understanding related to employee retention. BOP reported that the research resulted in an assessment. In March 2024, BOP officials told us that the assessment was illustrative for determining trends related to what contributes to employee retention. However, BOP officials told us that limited data is available to determine additional impacts, such as the effects of staffing challenges on inmate programming, for example. We will continue to monitor BOP's progress toward addressing this recommendation.

Bureau of Prisons: Opportunities Exist to Better Analyze Staffing Data and Improve Employee Wellness Programs

GAO-21-123
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3 Open Recommendations
3 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Bureau of Prisons
Priority Rec.
The Director of BOP should conduct a risk assessment of its overtime and augmentation use, including identifying risks to staff, inmates, and institution security; and determining actions to respond, as appropriate. (Recommendation 3)
Open – Partially Addressed
BOP concurred with this recommendation and has taken steps to address it. In June 2021, BOP reported that it hired a contractor to assist the agency in assessing the risk of overtime and augmentation usage and develop an overtime calculation tool. In August 2022, the contractor finalized its risk assessment of overtime and augmentation use. The study concluded that there were few risks of overtime and augmentation, for example, related to sick leave, vacancies, or inmate and staff incidents. However, the study was based on limited data, and, in March 2024, BOP officials acknowledged that there are likely additional risks to overtime and augmentation than what was found in the contractor's report, but they do not have plans to pursue an additional study on the risks. Related to the same August 2022 contractor study, BOP reported that the contractor created a tool to retroactively track overtime spending. In March 2023, BOP reported that the contractor had finished the analysis and that BOP had been tracking overtime and augmentation usage and trends for several months. In March 2024, BOP reported that it has continued to track overtime and augmentation usage monthly and acknowledged that BOP needs to reduce its reliance on overtime and augmentation. Continued tracking will illuminate drivers and trends of overtime and augmentation usage and help BOP invest in short and longer-time solutions to mitigate associated risks. We will continue to monitor BOP's progress in addressing our recommendation.
Bureau of Prisons
Priority Rec.
The Director of BOP should assess the outcomes of the staffing incentives it utilizes by developing performance measures and goals, measuring outcomes against them, and adjusting incentives, as appropriate. (Recommendation 4)
Open – Partially Addressed
BOP concurred with this recommendation and reported in February 2022 that its contractor was finalizing a risk analysis of the agency's current use of staffing incentives. In August 2022, the contractor finalized its analysis of staffing incentives. In March 2023, BOP stated that, based on the assessment, the contractor continued its work to standardize incentive usage, including working with BOP Executive Staff and other Human Resources staff to identify performance measures and goals for its use of incentives. In June 2023, BOP released its Incentives Playbook, with the intended purpose of standardizing BOP's approach to staffing incentives. The Incentives Playbook also includes performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the incentives. In March 2024, BOP reported that it will have sufficient data to be able to measure the outcomes of performance metrics in 2025. This ongoing work should help BOP determine the effectiveness of staffing incentives.
Bureau of Prisons
Priority Rec.
The Director of BOP should develop and implement a reliable method, or amend existing methods, for calculating staffing levels at BOP institutions. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
BOP concurred with this recommendation and has begun taking steps to address it. In June 2021, BOP reported that it hired a contractor to assist the agency in calculating staffing levels at BOP institutions and, in August 2022, BOP reported that the contractor had completed its assessment and developed a new automated staffing tool prototype. BOP reported that the intent of the new tool is to address BOP staffing challenges by providing an updated, standardized, and transparent view of staffing guidelines, and also for assessing staffing levels. BOP also reported in August 2022 that the contractor was testing the new tool prototype, primarily focusing on correctional services positions, in one of BOP's regions before expanding it to additional regions. In March 2023, BOP reported that the contractor was testing a prototype of the tool in three of BOP's six regions, primarily focusing on positions in the correctional services discipline. BOP anticipated that the tool would be rolled out to all six BOP regional offices by June 2023, followed by positions from additional BOP disciplines. In March 2024, BOP reported that the tool will be fully implemented by October 2024, covering all regions and all position disciplines. We will continue to monitor BOP's progress toward addressing this recommendation by assessing (1) the extent to which the tool's test shows that it can effectively calculate staffing levels based on its expanded usage in more regions and all position disciplines, and (2) the implementation of the tool for all positions, so that BOP can address total staffing needs.

Law Enforcement: Federal Agencies Should Improve Reporting and Review of Less-Lethal Force

GAO-22-104470
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Bureau of Prisons The Director of BOP should update BOP's use of force policy to address the use of force during demonstrations occurring near and far from federal institutions. (Recommendation 1)
Open
Department of Justice officials stated that the Bureau of Prisons is updating its use of force policy to address the use of force during demonstrations occurring near and far from federal institutions. As of March 2024, the department did not provide an estimated timeframe from when the Bureau of Prisons policy will be updated, but officials previously noted that the policy was in a post-union and management review period. The officials noted that this is the final step in the formal review process prior to the Executive Team's final review and the Director's signature. We will continue to request updates from the department as it takes actions to address our recommendation.

Bureau of Prisons: Enhanced Data Capabilities, Analysis, Sharing, and Risk Assessments Needed for Disaster Preparedness

GAO-22-104289
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Bureau of Prisons The Director of BOP should establish in policy a clear definition of "disaster" for the purposes of tracking maintenance and repair project information. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
BOP concurred with this recommendation and stated in January 2022 that it would take steps to establish a definition of disaster for tracking maintenance and repair projects. In August 2022, BOP provided an update noting that it was currently working with multiple stakeholders to develop its definition. In February 2023, BOP officials reported to us that they had developed a definition and documented it in the draft Facilities Operations Manual Program Statement, which is in the process of being reviewed. As of November 2023, BOP reported that these efforts are still underway. We will continue to monitor BOP's efforts to establish in policy the definition it has developed.

Bureau of Prisons: Enhanced Data Capabilities, Analysis, Sharing, and Risk Assessments Needed for Disaster Preparedness

GAO-22-104289
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Bureau of Prisons The Director of BOP should establish cost-effective and feasible analytic features—such as project milestones and cost indicators, as well as queries and alerts—that would position BOP to have better visibility into the monitoring of projects for possible delays and cost escalation. (Recommendation 3)
Open
BOP did not concur with this recommendation. In its January 2022 comment letter, BOP stated that it believes that establishing the recommended features into a system not designed for this type of analysis could require additional funding and that it already has process in place to monitor projects through its contract monitoring process. We agree that any features that BOP establishes should be cost-effective and feasible. Given that BOP is currently working to make its data systems interoperable, which includes developing new features and requirements, the timing presents an opportunity for BOP to consider the costs and feasibility of establishing and incorporating the analytic features to determine which features would be most feasible and cost-effective, and take steps to incorporate them. Further, while BOP does have processes in place to monitor individual maintenance and repair projects, its mechanisms to oversee projects overall across the agency could be improved. In February 2023, BOP provided an update noting that that the implementation of the interoperable systems will begin at the end of fiscal year 2023 and that it does not plan to implement the enhancements we recommended at this point, due to inherent difficulties. In November 2023, BOP provided an update that the implementation of the interoperable systems is delayed and will begin in February 2024 and be completed by June 2024. Although BOP does not plan to implement the enhancements we recommended, BOP noted that it will conduct a cost-benefit analysis of adding the analytical features and will determine the timeframes of this analysis once BOP transitions to the new interoperable systems. We maintain that implementing this recommendation remains important and we will continue to monitor BOP's efforts.
Bureau of Prisons The Director of BOP should ensure that the plans to make financial and property management data systems interoperable incorporate the newly established analytic features, as appropriate, to ensure that project information is collected systematically. (Recommendation 4)
Open
BOP did not concur with this recommendation. In its January 2022 comment letter, BOP stated that it believes that incorporating the recommended features into a system not designed for this type of analysis could require additional funding and that it already has process in place to monitor projects through its contract monitoring process. We agree that any features that BOP incorporates should be cost-effective and feasible. Given that BOP is currently working to make its data systems interoperable, which includes incorporating new features and requirements, the timing presents an opportunity for BOP to consider the costs and feasibility of incorporating the analytic features and take steps to incorporate those that it determines are cost-effective and feasible. Further, while BOP does have processes in place to monitor individual maintenance and repair projects, its mechanisms to oversee projects overall across the agency could be improved. In February 2023, BOP provided an update noting that that the implementation of the interoperable systems will begin at the end of fiscal year 2023 and that it does not plan to implement the enhancements we recommended at this point, due to inherent difficulties. In November 2023, BOP provided an update that the implementation is delayed and will begin in February 2024 and be completed by June 2024. Although BOP does not plan to implement the enhancements we recommended at this point, BOP noted that it will conduct a cost-benefit analysis of adding the analytical features and will determine the timeframes of this analysis once BOP transitions to the new interoperable systems. We maintain that implementing this recommendation remains important and we will continue to monitor BOP's efforts.
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