Background

The Office of the Federal Detention Trustee (OFDT) was established and activated in September 2001 as an office within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) by Congress in response to growing concerns regarding federal detention. One of the primary concerns was the increasingly fragmented nature of detention as two agencies – the U.S. Marshals Service and the legacy U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service – competed for scarce and costly detention bed space. Fentress Incorporated was contracted by the OFDT to provide management consulting services as the office defined its mission and functions. One of the initial Congressional directives was for an overall assessment of the state of federal detention in the U.S.

Project Summary

In creating the OFDT, Congress mandated a report that described the current state of federal detention and specific areas of business practice improvements that could be implemented by the OFDT. Fentress conducted extensive research for this effort and produced detailed statistics and analyses that supported the description of federal detention as fragmented, inefficient, and lacking effective management. Recommendations were generated in the following key areas: (1) strategic and long-range planning; (2) justice-wide policy development; (3) acquisition of detention services and bed space; and (4) conditions of confinement and quality assurance. Fentress was fully involved with researching, writing, and producing the report, final copies of which were provided to DOJ and Congress.

Results

Fentress was fully involved with researching, writing, and producing the final report, entitled Federal Detention: Detention Needs Assessment and Baseline Report, as well as a supplemental statistical compendium that contained historical federal detention trends from 1994 to 2001. Copies of both reports were provided to DOJ and to Congress. The OFDT used the baseline report as the initial step towards addressing future detention needs, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of federal detention, and developing a specific action plan to implement recommendations and measure performance.