COVID-19 Challenges for the U.S. Department of Justice

Source document: COVID-19 Challenges for the U.S. Department of Justice; document type: inspector-general-sigpr-reports.

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D E PA R T M E N T  O F  J U S T I C E  |  O F F I C E  O F  T H E  I N S P E C T O R  G E N E R A L
PANDEMIC RESPONSE REPORT
20-072
JUNE 2020
COVID-19 Challenges for the U.S. Department
of Justice

COVID-19 Challenges for the U.S. Department of Justice
The Department of Justice (DOJ) employs over 200,000 personnel worldwide executing the
federal government’s law enforcement and national security efforts. The DOJ primarily
accomplishes its critical mission through its 30+ components, the largest of which are the
Bureau of Prisons (BOP, which has nearly 40,000 employees) and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI, which has roughly 35,000 employees). Beginning in early March, the
Office of the Inspector General (OIG) promptly shifted a significant portion of its oversight
toward assessing the DOJ’s readiness to respond to the rapidly evolving COVID-19
pandemic.  Through its initial assessment, the OIG determined that the most immediate
challenges to DOJ operations involved preventing the spread of the virus among its roughly
170,000 federal inmates and 61,000 detainees in BOP and U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)
custody, respectively; operating its immigration courts in a manner that minimizes the risk
to participants; and ensuring robust oversight of $850 million in pandemic-related CARES
Act grant funding being disbursed by DOJ to fund state, local, and tribal efforts to combat
COVID-19 —all while also protecting the health and safety of the tens of thousands of
employees who oversee these particular operations. In addition to the $850 million CARES
Act grant funding, some DOJ components received supplemental funding, including the
BOP ($100 million) and USMS ($15 million), to better position their COVID-19 efforts.  The
OIG received $2 million, which will be used to help support our oversight of these
significant and immediate challenges and others as they may arise. Overall, DOJ’s CARES
Act funding topped $1 billion.
CARES Act Grant Funding by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP)
The CARES Act provided the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance
(BJA) with $850 million to fund state, local, and tribal efforts to combat the COVID-19
pandemic. Ensuring this funding reaches its intended recipients quickly and efficiently is
paramount to the efforts of law enforcement agencies throughout the country as they
strive to protect the communities they serve.  The OIG recognizes, especially based on its
previous oversight Recovery Act funding, that achieving speed and maximum efficiency in
the distribution of nearly $1 billion in grant funds, while in an emergency posture, is a
challenging undertaking for OJP. These challenges include the increased risk of fraud and
misuse or waste of program funding. Currently, BJA is in the process of distributing CARES
Act funding through the Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding (CESF) grant
solicitation for recipients eligible for OJP’s Justice Assistant Grant program. Recipients of
CESF funding (generally state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies) will be operating
under unprecedented circumstances, including reductions in administrative staff that may
weaken internal control systems.  Additionally, bad actors have launched multiple fraud
schemes specifically targeting COVID-19 aid, with some illicit ploys targeting OJP award
recipients, specifically.  Known schemes include the sale of ineffective or unsafe treatment
options and non-delivery of needed PPE, both of which may challenge effective grant
implementation and even risk the lives of U.S. citizens.  It is the responsibility of OJP to

effectively oversee the grant funds and mitigate risks that could affect the valuable and
proper use of the funds to help law enforcement during the COVID1-19 pandemic.
However, the CESF solicitation represents a considerable addition to OJP’s normal
administration and oversight responsibilities, comprising approximately 20 percent of the
total amount of grant funds that will be awarded by OJP in all of 2020.
COVID-19 Challenges Related to Protecting DOJ Prison Staff and Inmates
The COVID-19 pandemic has created serious challenges for DOJ related to its responsibility
to safely house 160,000+ federal inmates and 61,000+ detainees awaiting trial or
sentencing decisions, while also keeping free from harm correctional and detention facility
employees as well as the communities in which they serve. This includes the safety and
welfare of the approximately 40,000 staff and contract employees who work in BOP
institutions, contract prisons, and residential reentry centers—as well as the thousands
who oversee USMS detainees in state, local, tribal, and contract detention centers. The
most immediate and pressing challenges include: securing personal protective equipment
(PPE); identifying, accessing, and implementing effective testing protocols; providing access
to quality medical care for those in custody; transferring inmates and detainees to and
from facilities; and social distancing, screening, quarantining, and otherwise mitigating the
risks presented by the pandemic. Additionally, the CARES Act granted the Attorney General
additional authority to release inmates upon a finding of a national emergency, which
complements other pre-existing release authorities in federal law, such as compassionate
release provisions.  The Attorney General has since made that finding, and the DOJ is facing
the difficult task of determining which inmates should be released while still ensuring the
safety of the communities where such early releases are granted. As noted, many
individuals in BOP or USMS custody are placed in correctional environments not directly
controlled by the DOJ—about 60 percent of USMS pre-trial detainees are held in over 850
different state and local facilities under the terms of intergovernmental agreements, and
approximately 16 percent of BOP inmates are held in contract prisons and residential
reentry centers. This amplifies the challenge for DOJ to ensure not only that these
individuals receive adequate medical care and protection from COVID-19, but also that the
DOJ properly considers the health and safety of hundreds of communities its decisions may
affect.
COVID-19 Challenges in the Immigration Courts
While DOJ does not have responsibility for housing immigration detainees (that is the
responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security), the DOJ’s Executive Office for
Immigration Review (EOIR) is tasked with adjudicating immigration cases and it has faced
challenges in mitigating health risks for all those involved in these immigration cases
during the COVID-19 pandemic. As it maintains certain operations, EOIR—like other DOJ
components—has experienced challenges such as securing PPE for its staff and a lack of
remote options to perform some work necessary to ongoing operations. EOIR must also

balance mitigating health risks at its court facilities while ensuring the rights of individuals
subject to immigration court proceedings.
Initial DOJ OIG Oversight Efforts
In light of the BOP’s pandemic-related challenges, the OIG created skill-mixed teams—
incorporating the diverse disciplines and expertise from the OIG’s operational divisions—to
perform numerous remote inspections of all types of facilities that house BOP inmates.
These remote inspections will seek to ensure facility compliance with guidance from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DOJ, and the BOP, while also identifying
significant risk areas. The OIG is also leveraging its data analytics platforms to illustrate for
DOJ and BOP leadership data on at-risk inmate populations, estimates of inmates eligible
for early release and home confinement, and the BOP facilities most at risk of outbreaks.
The OIG also initiated a review intended to assess the pandemic-related risk in USMS
detention operations, and another that will address EOIR’s handling of certain challenges in
conducting operations during the pandemic. Additionally, the OIG has commenced a
review of OJP’s efforts to distribute the $850 million in COVID-19 award funding in a timely
and efficient manner, as well as its pre-award activities to ensure that grant awards are
made in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and other guidelines. Lastly, the OIG
has established a dedicated COVID-19 inbox to receive pandemic-related complaints that
will be assessed by OIG investigators for criminal activity or misconduct and analyzed by
OIG auditors and analysts for trends and other risk indicators.

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