The Federal Bureau of Prisons (Bureau or BOP), an agency of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), 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 BOP is responsible for the custody and care of sentenced federal inmates as well as a significant number of pretrial detainees and pre-sentenced offenders housed in our facilities on behalf of the United States Marshals Service (USMS). The BOP also has custodial responsibility for District of Columbia felons sentenced to terms of imprisonment, and houses a number of state and military offenders on a contractual basis. BOP contracts with private firms with correctional expertise to operate prisons to house felony offenders, predominantly criminal aliens, who might otherwise be incarcerated in BOP facilities. The contractor is required to adhere to most BOP policies for offender management, and has day-to-day operations responsibility, with general oversight by the BOP Privatization Management Branch. This publication is intended to serve as a guide to relevant statutes, regulations, policy documents, and current case law concerning issues the BOP faces today. It provides a general overview of the BOP, its services, and its programs. Statutes, regulations, case law and agency policies (Program Statements), referred to in this Guide may have been changed since publication.