« "Restorative Justice From Prosecutors' Perspective" | Main | "Is Solitary Confinement a Punishment?" »
June 18, 2020
BOP accounting of "Total Federal Inmates" continues to drop, though pace may be slowing
This morning's check on the federal Bureau of Prisons' updated "Total Federal Inmates" numbers show a continuation of historic declines, though it now seems that the pace of the decline is slowing a bit. In a prior post here, I highlighted that, according to BOP's reporting, most weeks through April the federal prison population shrunk around or over 1,000 persons per week. And through May 2020, as detailed here, the pace of decline increased to around 1,200 fewer reported prisoners in federal facilities. But as we headed into and now though June, the new numbers at this webpage continue to show significant, but slightly reduced, weekly declines: the BOP reported population dropped from 166,647 (as of May 21) to 165,575 (as of May 28) to 164,438 (as of June 4) to 163,441 (as for June 11) to now a BOP reported total of 162,578.
I continue to suspect that these persistent declines in total inmates is mostly a function of delays in federal case-processing pipelines from COVID shutdowns; I keep expecting that we will, eventually, see some (considerable?) move upward in these numbers. But maybe, as I have wistfully speculated before, we are still some ways from the bottom here and are still moving toward a much lower "new normal" for the federal prison population. Time will tell.
Critically, though, dare anyone start wanting to think federal prisons are full of good stories, this new Marshall Project piece provides a reminder of grim realities in its full headline: "'I Begged Them To Let Me Die': How Federal Prisons Became Coronavirus Death Traps. The Bureau of Prisons was unprepared and slow to respond. Then officials took steps that helped spread the virus."
A few of many prior related posts:
- Federal prison population, thanks in part to the FIRST STEP Act, hits lowest level in over 15 years (from July 2019)
- Federal prison population, due seemingly to COVID responses, hits another modern low (which is still very high) (from April 2020)
- According to BOP reporting, federal prison population now shrinking about 1,000 persons per week (from April 2020)
- Federal prison population drops below 170,000 for first time in nearly two decades (from May 2020)
- As federal prison population continues remarkable decline, can anyone predict what might be a new normal? (from May 2020)
- Is the number of federal prisoners about to spike up as BOP moves nearly 7000 new inmates into federal facilities? (from May 2020)
- Federal inmate population, as reported by BOP, continues steady decline (which continues my wondering about data)(from three weeks ago)
- "Total Federal Inmates," as reported by BOP, drops below 165,000 (from two weeks ago)
- "Total Federal Inmates," as reported by BOP, drops another 1000 down to 163,441 (from last week)
June 18, 2020 at 09:37 AM | Permalink