Inmate Populations in Federal Prisons: Build-up Issues & Policy Options

Since the early 1980s, there has been a historically unprecedented increase in the federal prison population. Some of the growth is attributable to changes in federal criminal justice policy during the previous three decades. An issue before Congress is whether policy makers consider the rate of growth in the federal prison population sustainable, and if not, what changes could be made to federal criminal justice policy to reduce the prison population while maintaining public safety. This book explores the issues related to the growing federal prison population, with a focus on the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) operations and budget; federal mandatory minimum sentences; maximum fines and terms of imprisonment for violation of the Federal Controlled Substances Act and related laws; and a statistics report of prisoners in 2011 from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.