Fast Facts (Full BOP stats can be found here)
Confirmed active cases at 85 BOP facilities and 13 RRCs
Currently positive-testing inmates: 239 (up from 186) Currently positive-testing staff: 203 (down from 214) Recovered inmates currently in the BOP: 47,812 (down from 47,968) Recovered staff: 14,580 (up from 14,557)
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing inmates:
Carswell FMC: 17 (up from 49)
Oklahoma City FTC: 17 (down from 19)
Butner FMC: 15
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing staff:
Central Office HQ: 58 (unchanged)
Fairton FCI: 12 (up from 11)
Western RO: 7 (unchanged)
System-wide testing results: Presently, BOP has 144,686 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 13,753 in community-based facilities. Today's stats: Completed tests: 128,658 (unchanged) Positive tests: 55,306 (unchanged)
Total vaccine doses administered: 339,586 (up from 338,826)
News Note: Bipartisan legislation introduced to address "pervasive understaffing in federal prisons..."
The Santamaria Sun reports the recent filing of bipartisan legislation, H.R. 9296, to address chronic understaffing within the BOP, which has compromised "workplace safety, inmate casework processing, and the availability of medical care and educational programs for inmates." The article reports:
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) joined several other representatives to introduce bipartisan legislation to address pervasive understaffing in federal prisons, according to a Nov. 14 statement from the congressman’s office. The Prison Staffing Reform Act would direct the Bureau of Prisons to conduct a review of understaffing, devise a three-year plan to fill vacancies, and implement the plan as well as submit yearly progress reports to Congress. The proposed legislation would mandate the bureau’s plan to encompass the effects of understaffing on workplace safety, inmate casework processing, and the availability of medical care and educational programs for inmates. “Staffing shortages don’t just put unnecessary burdens on the public safety officers and other [Bureau of Prisons] workers, they actively put the safety of those incarcerated at [bureau] facilities at risk,” Carbajal said in the statement. “At the Lompoc prison on the Central Coast, chronic understaffing and inadequate resources led to one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks at any [Bureau of Prisons] facility as well as deadly fights that killed both inmates and staff. Our legislation provides the accountability needed to protect facilities like Lompoc by ensuring there is proper staffing in place to provide the security and services that are needed.”
Death Watch (Note: The BOP press website announces BOP COVID-related deaths here.) No new deaths within the BOP have been announced, leaving the reported inmate death toll at 309. Eleven of the inmates died while on home confinement. Staff deaths remain at 7.