United States Government Accountability Office

Highlights of GAO-24-107494, a testimony 

before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. 

Senate

April 16, 2024

RESTRICTIVE HOUSING

Actions Needed to Enhance BOP and ICE

Management and Oversight

What GAO Found

Federal correctional and immigration detention facilities can place individuals in 

restrictive housing settings in certain circumstances. Restrictive housing 

generally consists of one- or two-person cells that isolate individuals from the 

general population. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the 

Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have policies and processes that govern their use of 

restrictive housing. Two prior studies examined restrictive housing at BOP, both 

of which identified ways for BOP to improve oversight. The first was a 2014 

contracted assessment and the second was a 2016 Department of Justice report. 

In February 2024, GAO reported that BOP had not fully implemented 54 of 87

recommendations from these two studies. BOP had fully implemented 33, 

partially addressed 42, and had not taken any steps to address the remaining 12 

recommendations. This was due in part to BOP not assigning responsibility for 

recommendation implementation to appropriate officials and not establishing a 

time frame for completion. GAO recommended that BOP develop and execute an 

approach to fully implement recommendations from these prior studies. This

would include assigning implementation responsibility, establishing a time frame 

for completion, and monitoring progress. BOP concurred and described its 

planned steps. 

BOP and ICE have not consistently collected or used information needed for

restrictive housing oversight. In reports from 2020–2024, GAO recommended 

actions to improve both BOP’s processes for monitoring restrictive housing 

operations and BOP and ICE’s analysis of complaints data. For example:

• In February 2024, GAO found that BOP was not monitoring key aspects 

of restrictive housing operations. Specifically, it did not examine the 

cause behind substantial racial disparity in a restrictive housing unit 

designed for individuals with heightened security concerns. GAO 

recommended that BOP conduct an evaluation to determine and address 

the cause of the racial disparity. BOP concurred and as of February 

2024, said it would take steps to implement it.

• In August 2020 and February 2024, GAO found that neither ICE nor BOP 

was analyzing complaint data from those in its custody to identify areas 

for improvement, such as concerns over restrictive housing conditions. 

GAO made recommendations to ICE and BOP to analyze complaint 

data, which could help each agency identify trends and ultimately 

enhance oversight. As of December 2023, ICE has taken some steps, 

including integrating several data systems that store detention-related 

information into a new system to provide enhanced analysis capabilities.

As of February 2024, BOP agreed to take steps toward implementation.

View GAO-24-107494. For more information, 

contact Gretta L. Goodwin at (202) 512-8777 

or GoodwinG@gao.gov.

Why GAO Did This Study

ICE recorded 14,581 restrictive 

housing placements of detained 

noncitizens from fiscal years 2017 

through 2021. Those placements 

increased by 18 percent from fiscal 

year 2017 to 2020 before declining in 

2021. As of October 2023, BOP 

housed about 8 percent of all

incarcerated individuals (approximately 

11,600) in restrictive housing. Studies 

have shown some potentially harmful 

mental and physical impacts of such 

placements.

This statement discusses the extent to 

which (1) BOP has addressed 

recommendations from two prior 

restrictive housing studies and (2) BOP 

and ICE have information needed to 

manage and oversee use of restrictive 

housing.

This statement is based on three prior 

GAO reports published from August 

2020 through February 2024, along 

with selected updates on ICE efforts to 

address previous GAO 

recommendations. To produce those 

reports, GAO reviewed ICE and BOP 

documentation, analyzed data, and 

interviewed agency officials. For 

selected recommendation updates, 

GAO reviewed documents and 

interviewed ICE officials.

What GAO Recommends

GAO made eight recommendations to 

BOP and four recommendations to ICE 

that relate to restrictive housing in the 

reports covered by this statement. 

Although BOP and ICE agreed with the 

recommendations, as of April 2024 

none of the 12 have been fully 

implemented. GAO will continue to 

monitor the agencies’ implementation 

status.