The Federal Bureau of Prisons was established in 1930 to provide more progressive and humane care for Federal inmates, to professionalize the prison service, and to ensure consistent and centralized administration of the 11 Federal prisons in operation at that time. The regional offices and the Central Office provide administrative oversight and support to the institutions and community corrections offices.
Community corrections offices oversee community corrections centers and home confinement programs.
The Bureau is responsible for the custody and care of approximately 145,000 Federal offenders. About 126,000 of these inmates are confined in Bureau-operated correctional institutions or detention centers. The rest are confined through agreements with State and local governments and through contracts with privately-operated community corrections centers, detention centers, prisons, and juvenile facilities. The Federal prison system is a nationwide system of prisons and detention facilities for the incarceration of inmates who have been sentenced to imprisonment for Federal crimes and the detention of individuals awaiting trial in Federal court. In the United States, there are also 50 State correctional systems and a correctional system for the District of Columbia.