A congressional bill wants to increase penalties for assaulting a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) correctional officer.
Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Tom Cotton (R-AK) introduced the Safer Prisons Act, which will double the maximum term of imprisonment for assaulting one of these correctional officers.
“Federal prisons have become increasingly unsafe for the brave men and women who serve as federal corrections officers. Incidents of inmates assaulting BOP officers have been on the rise and often result in PTSD for the affected officers as they continue to do their jobs,” Blackburn said.
“The Safer Prisons Act would deter these acts of violence by doubling the criminal penalties for assaulting a BOP correctional officer,” she added.
Cotton said it is “completely unacceptable” to assault a federal corrections officer.
“Our bill would double the criminal penalties for these criminals that attack our officers,” he said.
Bureau of Prisons data shows assaults on correctional officers occur more often at high-security level prisons compared to medium-security and low-security prisons.
In February, House Judiciary Democrats sent a letter to BOP Director William Marshall to address the federal correctional officer shortage.
“We are deeply concerned that these developments compromise the safety and security of both inmates and staff. The shrinking existing workforce has been left to contend with an ever-growing use of overtime, which leads to fatigue, burnout, and increased attrition,” the Democrats said.
“Insufficient staffing levels have led to lockdowns, heightening tensions among inmates, increasing instances of violence, limiting access to recidivism-reducing programming, further restricting the availability of medical and mental health care, and hindering institutional response to institutional emergencies such as assaults and suicide attempts,” they wrote.
According to a 2023 Department of Justice Office of Inspector General report, 21 percent of correctional officer job openings were unfilled.
ProPublica reported in November 2025 that many BOP officials are leaving the department to work for other law enforcement agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, due to higher pay.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
