Press Releases

WASHINGTON—U.S. Representatives Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) and Diana DeGette (D-CO), along with Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO), sent a letter to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) about understaffing and unsustainable working conditions at the Federal Correctional Institute in Englewood. 

In the letter, the lawmakers detailed ways in which employees at FCI Englewood — including health care professionals, rehabilitation programming staff, janitors, and cooks — are facing increasingly difficult conditions. The lawmakers urged BOP and OPM to immediately address the staffing shortage by providing a 25% retention bonus to all staff. Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Yadira Caraveo (D-CO) also signed onto the letter. 

“We have received reports of significant safety concerns at the facility due to the staffing shortage, which is driven by employee attrition and an inability to recruit qualified personnel,” wrote Pettersen and the lawmakers. “Current employees are overworked and forced to take on additional responsibilities to ensure ongoing operations. According to the AFGE Local 709, employees have been asked more than 800 times to take two to three additional eight-hour shifts per week since the beginning of 2024, generally with little to no advance notice. This is unsustainable and leads to a burnt-out workforce and unsafe conditions.”

“The BOP can and must do better for our staff. We have had staff fall asleep driving home after forced overtime and wreck their vehicle. We have had staff sleeping in their cars because they cannot afford Denver rental rates. This is totally unacceptable. The culture of treating our staff as expendable while claiming we are their biggest resource is a slap in the face of all our hardworking men and women. We call on Director Peters to implement a 25% staff retention bonus for all staff at FCI Englewood and to request a special pay rate for the facility from the Office of Personnel Management,” said AFGE Local 709 President James Simmerman. 

Since joining Congress, Rep. Pettersen has been a leading voice in working to address staffing shortages at federal prisons in Colorado. In 2023, she partnered with AFGE 1169, the local union representing the prison workforce in Fremont County, to get a retention incentive bonus of 25 percent for prison staff, including correctional officers and non-custody workers, at Federal Correctional Complex in Florence. 

The full text of the letter can be found here and below. 

Dear Director Peters and Director Ahuja, 

We write to express our concerns about understaffing and unsustainable working conditions at the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) in Englewood, Colorado. We respectfully request that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) work in tandem to immediately authorize a 25% retention bonus to all staff to address the staffing crisis.

We have received reports of significant safety concerns at the facility due to the staffing shortage, which is driven by employee attrition and an inability to recruit qualified personnel. Current employees are overworked and forced to take on additional responsibilities to ensure ongoing operations. According to the AFGE Local 709, employees have been asked more than 800 times to take two to three additional eight-hour shifts per week since the beginning of 2024, generally with little to no advance notice. This is unsustainable and leads to a burnt-out workforce and unsafe conditions.

While we applaud the authorization of a 25% retention incentive for Correctional Officers and a 10% retention incentive for other law enforcement personnel at FCI Englewood, we remain concerned that this will not sufficiently meet the facility's staffing needs or prevent workers from departing.

Notably, these incentives only apply to Correctional Officers and certain other eligible law enforcement staff, leaving out other critical parts of the facility also experiencing staff shortages. This unequal application of incentives has led to even lower morale among non- officer law enforcement staff, who are routinely tasked with performing officer duties and working officer posts when augmented from their regular duties.

We request that BOP continue its commitment to maintain “fully staffed institutions” and authorize a 25% retention incentive and a special pay rate for all employees at FCI Englewood. 

Thank you in advance for your full and fair consideration.