The BOP is responsible for the safety of federal inmates, but it's not doing a great job. The BOP's mission is to protect the public by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure; providing work and other self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in becoming law-abiding citizens; and partnering with communities to help ex-offenders successfully reintegrate into society. In 2016, the BOP reported that it had a total of 13,636 assaults on staff members. Of those 13,636 assaults, 2,822 were sexual assaults. The BOP reported that it had a total of 9,716 assaults on inmates. Of those 9,716 assaults, 1,912 were sexual assaults. In total, there were 22,450 incidents of "violence" in 2016. The BOP's definition of "violence" includes fighting and inmate on inmate sexual activity (which includes rape). The BOP does not include staff on inmate violence or inmate on staff violence in its reports. This means that the BOP's numbers are likely much higher than they appear on paper. It is important to note that these numbers represent only the reported incidents of violence. It is likely that there are many more incidents of violence that go unreported every year. This is especially true when it comes to sexual assault because inmates often fear retaliation from other inmates if they report it.

In the past few years, we've seen a series of high-profile incidents in federal prisons that have resulted in inmate deaths. The most recent of these was the death of Darren Rainey, a 50-year-old mentally ill inmate at Dade Correctional Institution in Florida who was locked in a shower with scalding water for two hours by prison guards. He died from the injuries he sustained from that incident, and his death was ruled a homicide. He was serving time for cocaine possession and burglary. He had no history of violence and no disciplinary record while he was incarcerated at Dade Correctional Institution. The guards who locked him in that shower were never charged with any crimes, and they remain employed at Dade Correctional Institution today. This case is especially troubling because it highlights some fundamental problems with how federal prisons handle inmate safety.