More than half of the workforce at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons will see their paychecks cut by as much as 25% next month, as the agency seeks to cut costs as it operates under a continuing resolution.
Around 23,000 employees at federal prisons across the country were told verbally at meetings Tuesday that the agency was halving—and at seven prisons ending altogether—retention pay at their facilities. Most prisons that employ retention incentives, which are designed to maintain headcount at understaffed facilities, provide employees with between an extra 10% and 25% of their base pay each paycheck. Employees at the Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn in New York receive 35% retention pay, though that was due in part to a federal judge’s intervention following reports of poor conditions there.
“In response to budget constraints, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has made the difficult decision to greatly reduce, and in some cases eliminate, retention incentives across the agency, effective March 23, 2025,” said BOP spokesman Donald Murphy in a statement. “This action is being taken as part of an effort to address a significant budget shortfall. The agency understands the critical role retention incentives play in supporting our dedicated employees, some of whom receive incentives as high as 35% of their salary. This decision was not made lightly, and we recognize the financial hardship this may cause for employees who rely on those incentives.”
In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies on Wednesday, Associate Deputy Director Kathleen Toomey said that since fiscal 2024, BOP salaries have increased by 7.2% due to mandatory pay raises, without any new funding as the agency operates under a stopgap spending deal that’s slated to expire next month. In 2024 alone, the agency spent $229 million on retention incentives.
Aaron McGlothlin, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1237, which represents employees at Federal Correctional Institute Mendota in central California, was in a refresher training session when the facility’s warden broke the news to employees and described the experience as “watching 100 people all in one room get punched in the gut.”
“People ended up just leaving and going home, because they were sick to their stomachs,” he said. “[I’ve] already had five correctional officers tell me that they’re going to leave. We could lose a minimum of 10% at our already understaffed facility.”
Brandy Moore-White, president of AFGE’s Council of Prison Locals, said she’s fielded 200 phone calls and countless text messages from worried union members since yesterday’s announcement. Though she said she has never been a fan of the retention pay practice, describing it as a “Band-Aid on a bullet hole” and warning employees that the agency could cancel it at any time, she said the abrupt cleaving of the benefit could have profound impacts on the agency’s ability to meet its mission.
“One phone call that I got yesterday, from my home institution here in Arkansas—where our medical department houses about 23 staff by the last count I had—and as of yesterday every single one of them told me they were looking for another job,” she said. “I know that there are some places where it won’t be as widespread, but I’m an hour from Memphis, and a lot of my medical professionals could literally drive across the bridge and get a lot more money than they’re getting at the prison currently. And if you take their retention pay on top of that? They’re just not going to stay.”
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