What is the Federal Prison Oversight Act?
Signed into law in 2024, the Federal Prison Oversight Act was designed to bring more transparency and accountability to the U.S. prison system, which is the largest corrections system in the country. The Federal Bureau of Prisons — the agency responsible for managing that system — has more than 35,000 staff members and supervises approximately 155,000 people held in 122 facilities across 37 states and Puerto Rico.
The law gives the Department of Justice’s inspector general office new authority to regularly inspect all the federal prisons and publish its findings. The law also establishes an independent ombudsman office to investigate complaints from incarcerated people, their families, and prison staff. Both the inspector general and ombudsman are expected to release regular reports on their findings to Congress and the public.
Why did Congress pass the Federal Prison Oversight Act?
Over the last few years, investigative news reports and a DOJ inspector general report have uncovered several instances of preventable deaths, sexual assaults, and neglect in federal prisons. These reports prompted Senate investigations that shed more light on the lack of systemic oversight over federal prisons. One report found instances of sexual abuse at two-thirds of the facilities that incarcerate women, as well as flawed management and investigative practices that allowed the abuse to continue. These inexcusable abuses occurred in facilities that struggle to recruit and retain appropriate staffing levels while crumbling under a critical infrastructure repair backlog of an estimated $3 billion.
Bipartisan sponsors introduced the Federal Prison Oversight Act to address these long-running issues. The measure passed the Senate unanimously and the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. It was backed by a broad range of organizations, including those that represent incarcerated people, their families, and correctional officers.
What are the challenges to effective oversight of federal prisons?
Oversight of federal prisons is often slow and fragmented. When incarcerated people, their families, or prison staff report unconstitutional conditions or other violations of the law, investigations can take years to complete. They are bogged down by cumbersome processes and resource constraints, both in the prisons themselves and in the agencies responsible for monitoring them.
Since before the passage of the Federal Prison Oversight Act, the DOJ’s inspector general has had the authority to conduct unannounced inspections of federal prisons, recommend solutions to the Bureau of Prisons, and refer criminal violations for prosecution. However, these efforts often focus on individual incidents rather than broader, systemic problems found across prisons. And limited staffing in the inspector general’s office means that only a small number of facilities can be regularly inspected.
Federal prisons are also grappling with staffing issues. A 2025 report showed a shortage of 9,500 correctional officers and about 3,000 medical professionals. These gaps can delay responses to reported problems.
What can the inspector general do under the Federal Prison Oversight Act?
The Federal Prison Oversight Act streamlined reporting processes to ensure that investigations lead to real improvements. The new law requires the DOJ’s inspector general to conduct comprehensive inspections of every federal prison, make recommendations, and assign each facility a risk score based on at least 12 factors that assess prison conditions and the treatment of incarcerated people, including quality of food and access to counsel. The Bureau of Prisons is then required to respond to the assessment and create a corrective action plan based on the inspector general’s recommendations. Prisons with higher risk scores will receive more frequent inspections until their issues are resolved. This structure follows the model used in several state prison systems, including California and Nebraska, that are overseen by an inspector general with similar authorities.
What is the ombudsman office meant to do?
The ombudsman office established by the Federal Prison Oversight Act will respond to concerns from incarcerated people, their families, and prison staff. The ombudsman is tasked with improving existing reporting systems and creating more direct and secure channels — such as email, a phone hotline, and other tools — for lodging complaints with the DOJ. These channels are supposed to protect the identity of complainants and reduce delays that can exacerbate unsafe conditions.
The ombudsman will have access to all 122 prisons and the authority to conduct unannounced visits, as well as unannounced interviews with facility staff and incarcerated people. The federal ombudsman office is based on successful state models in several states, including Connecticut, Iowa, and New Jersey.
What’s next for the Federal Prison Oversight Act?
In July 2025, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees included language in the annual DOJ funding bills directing the Bureau of Prisons to fully implement the Federal Prison Oversight Act, including by creating the ombudsman office. While the Federal Prison Oversight Act is the law of the land, it can only reach its full potential if Congress funds it and the DOJ faithfully implements it.
