DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE | OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL

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.