The cost of housing federal inmates continues to rise each year due to a combination of structural, staffing, and operational pressures within the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Aging prison infrastructure requires constant maintenance, and many facilities operate beyond their intended lifespan. At the same time, the BOP faces a persistent staffing crisis—particularly among correctional officers—which forces reliance on costly overtime and augmented staffing from other departments. Health care costs have also surged, driven by an aging inmate population and increasing rates of chronic illness, mental health disorders, and substance abuse. Meanwhile, limited investment in reentry and community programs keeps the prison population higher than necessary, sustaining expensive incarceration rather than cost-effective alternatives like home confinement or halfway houses. Together, these factors have created a system where the average annual cost per inmate now exceeds $51,000, even as policymakers call for greater efficiency and reform.
With over 155,000 federal inmates and continued pressure on the BOP to manage costs, perhaps it should look at ways of reducing the number of people they are incarcerating to see if there is an alternative. With the Donald J. Trump administration continuing to push immigration reform and the growing emphasis on deporting non-US citizens who are here illegally, the 25,000 non-US citizen inmates could be offered a sooner return back to their home country.
The BOP allows non-US Citizens who are eligible for the First Step Act to participate in programming and enjoy some of the benefits that come with that participation. The First Step Act, a hallmark piece of criminal justice reform legislation, was designed to reduce recidivism and give eligible inmates a meaningful path toward early release. By earning time credits through participation in evidence-based programs and productive activities, inmates can shorten their prison terms and transition sooner to community-based custody, such as halfway houses or home confinement. This shift reflects a growing focus on rehabilitation over prolonged incarceration.
In early 2025, the BOP issued two internal memoranda that dramatically changed how the First Step Act is applied to individuals with immigration detainers. The first, dated January 30, 2025, instructed prison officials to cancel any pending prerelease placements for non-citizens with active detainers. The memo allowed up to 365 days of credits to be used for early supervised release but barred the use of additional credits for home confinement or halfway house placement. Again, this was a carve out based on an internal directive, most likely to conserve limited halfway house capacity for use by US citizens. This has left many non-US citizens remaining in more expensive prisons rather than transitioning to community confinement. A follow-up memorandum issued on April 8, 2025 reaffirmed this position and required the re-designation of all non-citizens with detainers back to secure institutions, except where a court order or settlement required otherwise. Once the inmates complete their sentence, they are transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for likely deportation.
State correctional institutions, like the BOP, are suffering from staffing shortages, rising costs and aging infrastructure. When it comes to balancing state budgets, there is little room for increases to fund prisons. Now states are moving some of their prisoners directly to ICE with shortened sentences so that they are no longer the burden of the state.
Propublica’s story on this initiative highlights the ends to which states are lowering their prison population by deporting non-US citizens. In August 2025, Louisiana held a series of unusual parole hearings for nine immigrant prisoners, most serving sentences for nonviolent offenses such as car theft or negligent homicide. Instead of assessing rehabilitation or public safety risk, a special three-member panel voted unanimously to release each one directly into ICE custody for deportation. The initiative followed Gov. Jeff Landry’s creation of an expedited “alien removal” process to aid federal deportation efforts. Similar programs are now emerging in other Republican-led states. According to Probulica, South Dakota paroled 10 immigrants for deportation earlier this year, and Oklahoma identified over 500 inmates eligible for removal, signaling a broader trend of using state parole systems to accelerate deportations.
The Trump administration has revived a controversial deportation strategy involving relocation of non-U.S. citizens to El Salvador. Under a renewed “Safe Third Country” agreement, certain migrants, including those from countries other than El Salvador, are being sent to Central America rather than processed in U.S. asylum systems.
More dramatically, the administration has deported hundreds of alleged gang members and other noncitizens to El Salvador’s high-security prison system, invoking the Alien Enemies Act to expedite removals. Human-rights advocates and legal observers have raised alarms: many deportees reportedly lack due process or criminal convictions, and conditions in some Salvadoran facilities have triggered international concern. The policy marks a significant shift in U.S. enforcement, reshaping the landscape of immigration and deportation.
The only way to reduce a sentence for many non-US citizens is to grant a commutation of their sentence then transfer them to ICE until they are deported. Since many of the non-US citizen inmates are in Low security prisons, these are typically not violent crimes. Commuting the sentence where there are victims of violence or of significant fraud schemes, could be problematic.
Since returning to office in 2025, Trump has accelerated the use of his clemency powers, issuing a large number of pardons and commutations in a very short period. On his first day, he granted sweeping pardons to roughly 1,500 individuals charged in the January 6 Capitol attack, including many convicted of serious offenses. Beyond January 6, he has pardoned high-profile individuals convicted of financial or drug crimes, signaling a willingness to override long-standing prosecutorial judgments. While supporters argue these clemencies correct over-punitive sentences and flawed prosecutions; critics warn the surge in pardons undermines the rule of law and erodes public trust in the justice system. There is no sign that commutations will end in the near future and an action that came with reducing prison costs would be seen as a win for Trump.
Regarding pardons or commutations for non-US Citizens, Trump recently pardoned ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández who was in his second year of a 45 year sentence for cocaine trafficking. It does open the door to possibilities for more commutations for those other non-US Citizens in federal prison.
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