There has been no shortage of material for anyone to write about regarding the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Each day the BOP faces challenges in incarcerating some of the most violent inmates in the United States. It can be a thankless job for those on the front lines of the 119 prisons of the BOP. In recent years those jobs have been difficult to fill, adding to the pressures of those who have dedicated their lives to corrections.
Management in the BOP has been a concern for nearly 10 years. Turnover at the BOP’s top Director position has been an issue. William Marshall III is the seventh BOP Director in 10 years. To give you an idea of the BOP’s leadership prior, there had been only eight BOP Directors between the agency’s founding in 1930 until 2016. When President Trump selected Marshall as Director of the Bureau of Prisons, alongside Deputy Director Josh Smith, the message was clear. The administration wanted a reset. After years of criticism, scandals, and declining public confidence, the BOP has new leadership with a mandate to rebuild credibility and restore operational discipline.
I was able to sit down with BOP Director Marshall to ask him about his first year in the position and the vision he has for the future. Marshall, who came from the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a much smaller agency than the BOP, had ideas to focus on returning better citizens back to the community who would not return to prison.
Marshall did not arrive quietly. From the outset, he signaled a hands-on, highly visible approach. In less than a year, he and Smith have visited more than 60 facilities across the country, engaging directly with staff and inmates.
“My best days are being at those facilities, walking those hallways,” Marshall told me. “I want to hear what both staff and inmates have to say… I want to understand them.”
But the challenges Marshall inherited are significant. Congress recently reduced the BOP’s annual budget below prior levels, forcing leadership to rethink priorities in real time. At the same time, expectations from oversight agencies, lawmakers, and the public remain high.
Against that backdrop, Marshall is attempting something difficult: reshape the Bureau’s culture while managing fewer resources than in years past.
Marshall’s strategy begins with a simple premise. If the staff is not supported, trained, and properly deployed, nothing else works.
One of the first issues he identified was a breakdown in training and preparedness across the system. Rather than blaming individuals, he traced the problem to a lack of institutional investment.
“We haven’t trained in over two years… we have people that just aren’t prepared to do their job,” he said.
His response has been to reinvest in training while also reshaping leadership. Wardens and regional directors have been replaced, expectations reset, and accountability emphasized.
But the most important shift is philosophical.
“We’re not going to be measured by how many people we have incarcerated,” Marshall said. “We are going to be measured by how many people we release back into society that never come back.”
While leadership changes are underway, the financial picture presents a major obstacle.
The BOP expected increased funding to address infrastructure, staffing, and long-standing deficiencies. Instead, Congress approved a lower budget than previous years, forcing leadership into difficult decisions.
“We were very, very excited… we thought finally we’re going to be able to address some of these needs,” Marshall said. “And then we get the final bill, and it’s $8.1 billion. Significantly less that the $8.7 billion we believed was in the Big Beautiful Bill.”
This creates a structural dilemma. The Bureau did receive one-time funding of $5 billion – allocating $3 billion for staffing and training, and $2 billion for critical infrastructure improvements. Marshall said of the money for improvements, “We will use all of that, but we cannot rely on it for ongoing operations.” Leadership must now decide whether to stabilize current gaps or invest in long-term change.
Marshall is clearly focused on the latter, even as the short-term pressure mounts.
One of the most notable shifts under Marshall is the Bureau’s posture toward oversight agencies.
Rather than resisting scrutiny as many past directors have done, he is embracing it. Engagement with the Government Accountability Office and the Office of the Inspector General is now a central part of the Bureau’s strategy.
“We’ve developed a really good relationship with the Inspector General,” Marshall said. “We’ve invited them into our facilities… to show them that we are serious about change.”
This is more than optics. It reflects a belief that transparency and collaboration are necessary to rebuild credibility.
For an agency long criticized for being insular, that shift may be one of the most important developments of all.
The First Step Act was designed to transform federal corrections, but implementation challenges slowed progress.
Marshall moved quickly to create structure and accountability, including establishing a dedicated unit focused entirely on the program. By assigning long-time BOP executive Rick Stover to look over First Step Act implementation, Marshall focused on bringing problems with implementation to a single task force. Thus far, it has shown tremendous results by improving the accuracy of applying First Step Act credits to not only provide an accurate release date for inmates but to also improve planning for eventual release. Stover noted, “As an agency, the biggest difference in our FSA (First Step Act) efforts under Director Marshall is we have been more purposeful in our actions. Our improvements in our time calculation methods are a perfect example of this. We saw the problems that inaccurate calculations caused for both staff and inmates, and it was an all-hands-on-deck approach to get this right. We did just that, and the model we now have in place is a vast improvement and has shown to work – and work well.” Marshall is also leveraging technology to expand access to programming and improve tracking. One of those technologies will be the adoption of tablets for inmate programming, training and communication.
“These tablets will be a game changer,” Marshall said, describing how they will help monitor participation and progress while expanding opportunities for inmates. In the past, staff shortages have impeded programming, a cornerstone to the First Step Act. With improved technology, inmates’ progress can be tracked and there will be fewer missed classes as a result. “Well, I’ll be honest with you,” Marshall said, “I was really surprised when I got here. that the BOP was so far behind even compared to my state (West Virginia) when it came to using technology.”
More broadly, Marshall is pushing the BOP to fully implement the First Step Act. For the first time ever, the BOP is creating a dedicated office to oversee FSA implementation. “Our goal is to have 15 dedicated employees that exclusively work on FSA every day,” Marshall told me. “For the first time ever, the BOP received $409 million as part of our budget for FSA and nobody put like two staff members on it to tackle the issues”. Stover added, “We scrutinized our FSA spending plan line-by-line. In doing so, we found funds that were not directly related to FSA implementation. That money was reallocated to other areas that directly impacted FSA. We did the same thing for the FSA allocated positions. If we could not justify a direct connection to the position improving FSA implementation, we abolished it. We also found that we were announcing different FSA jobs numerous times, without receiving a single applicant. We are in the process of moving those positions to other BOP locations where we can fill the jobs quickly with qualified applicants.
Reentry remains one of the most complex challenges facing the BOP, particularly with limited halfway house capacity and growing demand.
Marshall is exploring alternatives, including expanded use of home confinement and changes to statutory authority that would allow more flexibility in placement decisions. Currently, home confinement is limited under the Second Chance Act to 10% of the imposed sentence, up to a maximum of 6 months. Marshall and the BOP are looking for ways to return inmates to society but who may not need the resources of a halfway house, which is important to those who have been incarcerated for many years.
At the core of this effort is a focus on outcomes rather than tradition.
“It’s not necessarily cheaper,” he said referring to home confinement. “But it’s the right thing to do if we can get them back to their homes… and give them a real chance to succeed.”
I pressed Marshall on numerous concerns I hear from inmates and their families regarding home confinement and asked if there was anything the BOP was considering to expand that. Director Marshall indicated he is open to expansion of home confinement, but he understands his statutory authority to do so has its limits. “So we are working with outside stakeholders to change statutory language that gives me more authority to send these individuals straight to home confinement,” Marshall said. I followed up asking him if that home confinement would be beyond the 6-month cap or 10% of the imposed sentence, to which he responded, “To skip the halfway house beds altogether, if possible.”
If implemented, this would represent one of the most significant changes to the Second Chance Act, enacted under President George W. Bush, since the law was passed.
Staffing remains one of the Bureau’s most pressing issues, but Marshall is approaching it with a more nuanced strategy than simply increasing headcount.
Rather than relying on broad estimates, leadership is conducting targeted analysis to determine where resources are most needed. This includes addressing shortages in specialized roles such as medical staff, not just correctional officers.
At the same time, the BOP is modernizing its policies, many of which had not been updated in decades. These changes are designed to give staff clearer guidance and greater flexibility in carrying out their responsibilities.
Marshall said, “when we look at staffing it is complicated. We have to prioritize our focus to make sure our higher security institutions are staffed properly with corrections officers, which makes it safer for both staff and inmates.” Marshall indicated that staffing of medical professionals is a major challenge and he went further to say, “Outsourcing things like medical care might make more sense for us than trying to manage it ourselves.”
The BOP has a troubled history of staff involved in criminal acts. From sexual assaults to introduction of contraband, the BOP has thousands of investigations into its own employees. Some of these have ended in arrests and jail time for BOP employees. Director Marshall has not shied away from identifying and calling out those who have crossed the line.
One idea Marshall discussed was the wearing of body cameras by corrections officers. “I think this could be absolute game changer when it comes to making sure our officers are doing the right thing,” Marshall said. “This will help when Corrections Officers are doing their rounds and doing what they’re supposed to be doing at the right time, while eliminating some of these complaints that the inmates have that are erroneous, which leads to wasted investigative resources.”
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), as of February 2025, the BOP had 12,153 employee misconduct cases awaiting investigation or discipline. Marshall said that this can no longer be tolerated. “So if we can eliminate some of the smaller stuff, just by simply looking at a body cam and move on. We’ve got a new diversion program in place when it comes to discipline. We're not making these wardens, and these officers sit around for a year and a half waiting on a decision because they cursed at somebody. All right? If they need dealt with, let's deal with them. Let’s move on, and that way they're not sitting around. If they're a bad actor, get them out of there. Let's go.”
Marshall wants the bad actors in the agency to go. “Past administrations didn’t showcase our people the way we’re trying to do. And I want everybody to understand when I’m doing a video or doing a podcast that this isn't about me. This is the ability for me to showcase the Bureau, the changes that we're making, and the ability to showcase our workforce and the great work that they're doing. We've got a lot of great people doing a lot of great work."
Director Marshall is attempting to lead the Bureau of Prisons through a period of significant transition.
He is doing so with fewer resources than expected, under increased scrutiny, and with a mandate to deliver meaningful reform. Marshall told me he expects to be called to testify on Capitol Hill in the next few months, and he looks forward to the opportunity to speak to the changes made since his arrival.
His approach is rooted in visibility, accountability, and engagement. He is not avoiding difficult issues or uncomfortable conversations.
“We’re going to own everything that we have,” Marshall said. “I’m not going to be a person that hides behind a curtain.”
Whether through working with oversight agencies, investing in staff, or rethinking long-standing policies, Marshall is signaling a willingness to confront problems directly.
The success of that approach will take time to measure.
But one thing is already clear. The Bureau is moving in a different direction.
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