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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:

June 18, 2020 at 09:37 AM | Permalink

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