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...

At approximately noon on Saturday, August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department ("FPD") shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. The Criminal Section of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") subsequently opened a criminal investigation into whether the shooting violated federal law. The Department has determined that the evidence does not support charging a violation of federal law. This memorandum details the...

The Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice opened its investigation of the Ferguson Police Department ("FPD") on September 4, 2014. This investigation has revealed a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct within the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and federal statutory law. Over the course of the investigation, we interviewed City officials, including City Manager John Shaw, Mayor James Knowles, Chief of Police Thomas Jackson, Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer, the Municipal...

On August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson (Missouri) Police Department shot and killed Michael Brown. This tragic incident and the ensuing weeks of demonstrations and riots launched a national debate about racial profiling, use of force, militarization, and policing in general. The" After-Action Assessment of the Police Response to the August 2014 Demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri" examines the law enforcement response to the mass demonstrations during the first 17 days, focusing on the primary responders, the St. Louis County Police Department, the St. Louis Metropolitan...

Ambush attacks against law enforcement officers remain a threat to officer safety with the annual number of attacks holding steady since a decline in the 1990s and the proportion of fatal attacks on officers attributable to ambushes increasing. Concerns about targeted violence against police are rising in an era of strained community relations, struggles with police legitimacy, and anti-government extremism. Yet little research has examined ambush attacks as a specific and directed form of violence against police. This study addresses that gap in the literature through a mixed-methods...

The Department of Justice, responding to the New Freedom Initiative, a comprehensive set of goals and a plan of action to ensure that people with disabilities face no further obstacles to full participation in our free market economy and society, has increased and improved its implementation of the ADA. The goal of the ADA is simple -to open up all aspects of American life to people with disabilities. For too long, people with disabilities were held back by old modes of thinking and old methods of building. Prevailing attitudes made it hard for people with disabilities to get an education or...