A Short Rocket of BOP News – Update for July 24, 2025

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

LAST WEEK AT THE BUREAU OF PRISONS

You’d think that the sole focus of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in the last week had been how to produce celebrity prisoner Ghislaine Maxwell for a Congressional deposition. But from Duluth to Alcatraz, there was a lot else going on as well. Here’s the short rocket…

Marshall Establishes FSA Task Force:   Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III announced the established of an FSA Task Force at the BOP’s Grand Prairie, Texas, Designation and Sentence Computation Center.

Marshall cited inmate “frustration that their paperwork for home confinement under the First Step Act (FSA) wasn’t being processed by staff despite Director Marshall’s directive to maximize the use of community placement. But at the same time, the staff told [Marshall] that the systems they rely on weren’t always showing the right dates… The majority of staff were doing their best with the information they had, but, unfortunately, they were taking the blame from inmates and families who thought they were dragging their feet. That wasn’t fair to them.”

The task force will identify prisoners in halfway houses who are eligible for home confinement; manually calculate home confinement dates that “stack[] both the FSA and Second Chance Act;” and ‘[r]eview eligible incarcerated individuals inside institutions for additional community placement opportunities.”

Writing in Forbes, Walter Pavlo said, “Having a person serve a portion of their sentence in the community is not something new and has been used for decades by the BOP. However, the Agency has been slow to move inmates after the [First Step Act] was codified… in January 2022. The initiative is part of Director Marshall’s broader strategy of “Leadership in Action,” which has included institutional walk-throughs, direct engagement with frontline staff, and timely operational changes based on what he hears.”

BOP, Director Marshall Launches FSA Task Force (July 14, 2025)

Forbes, Bureau of Prisons Launches First Step Act Task Force (July 14, 2025)

Alcatraz Moves Forward:  Never mind that the price tag has blown through $2 billion to renovate a prison closed for 60 years that only houses 325 prisoners and has no water supply. A visit to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay last week by Attorney General Bondi, Dept of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Marshall, and BOP Deputy Director Joshua J. Smith makes it clear that President Trump’s May musings on social media that he wanted to reopen Alcatraz as a federal prison to “house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders” and remove criminals “who came into our country illegally,” is going to happen.

A BOP press release underscores that reopening Alcatraz is pure symbolism, the fevered dream of President Trump: “Reopening Alcatraz isn’t just about a building, it’s about sending a message: crime doesn’t pay, and justice will be served. If feasible, Alcatraz will stand as a beacon of American resolve, where the most dangerous offenders face accountability. For the public, it’s a promise fulfilled—a stronger, safer America. And for President Trump, it’s a project that will make our nation proud.”

Alcatraz was closed as a maximum-security prison in 1963 after 29 years of operation, because it was too expensive to continue operating. Now managed by the National Park Service, the island is one of San Francisco’s most popular tourist destinations.

BOP, The Rebirth of Alcatraz (July 17, 2025)

NY Times, Trump’s Plan to Reopen Alcatraz Appears to Move Forward With Officials’ Visit (Jul 17)

FPC Duluth to Remain Open: Seven months after the then-BOP Director Colette Peters listed FPC Duluth with six other facilities that would be closed because of “aging and dilapidated infrastructure,” new BOP boss William K. Marshall III announced last week after a site inspection that the minimum-security camp “will not be deactivated.”

Currently, there are only about 258 inmates remaining at the facility, but officials anticipate repopulating the camp to its rated capacity of about 800 prisoners. The camp is located on the grounds of the former Duluth Air Force Base.

Minnesota Public Radio, Duluth prison camp to remain open, reversing earlier decision to ‘deactivate’ the facility (July 16, 2025)

ICE Sending Immigrant Detainees to FDC Honolulu, Proposes Using Fort Dix: Under normal circumstances, scoring an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii would be a Wheel of Fortune moment.  But these are not normal circumstances.

It turns out that over 70 immigrant detainees, some from as far east as Florida, are being flown to imprisonment at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu.

The Honolulu Civil Beat quoted one immigration lawyer as saying that a client “was taken into custody in Florida and went to two detention centers there before he was transferred to Louisiana, Arizona and two facilities in California before finally coming to Hawaiʻi.” Attorneys are complaining that the endless moves and distances make consultation with their clients almost impossible.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Homan said over the weekend that 60,000 immigrants are currently in custody, with plans for 40,000 more.

Still, air conditioning in the Aloha State may be better than a tent in the South Jersey heat. Last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth approved the use of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, where FCI Fort Dix is located, to confine immigrants. The Defense Department said detainees would be confined in “temporary soft-sided holding facilities,” suggesting for now that facilities at the aging FCI Fort Dix – located on base grounds – will not be used.

Honolulu Civil Beat, ICE Is Moving Immigrants Arrested On The Mainland To Honolulu (July 16, 2025)

Philadelphia Inquirer, Trump administration plans to hold immigration detainees on South Jersey military base (July 18, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root