Harley Lappin will retire as the Justice Department Bureau of Prisons Director on May 7.
Lappin, a career public administrator, has led the agency that has jurisdiction over the federal prison system since April 2003, overseeing more than 100 prisons and the care of about 200,000 inmates. He is the seventh Bureau of Prisons Director since the agency’s creation in 1930.
Harley Lappin (photo by Andrew Ramonas / Main Justice)
The Director has held various administrative posts at the bureau since his start as a case manager at a Texarkana, Texas, federal prison in 1985. He was warden at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., when Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed at the facility in 2001.
“I am grateful for Director Lappin’s wise counsel, as well as his dedication to the Justice Department,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. “And I am certain that, for years to come, the Bureau of Prisons and the American people will continue to benefit from his enduring contributions.”
Holder also thanked the Director for his “invaluable insights” on ways to improve inmate rehabilitation and development and tackle prison overcrowding.
Earlier this month, Lappin pleaded with House members for more funding to handle a growing prison population and allow DOJ to use a Thomson, Ill., correctional facility for maximum-security prisoners who are crowding prisons. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) fiercely opposed the use of the Thomson prison. The chairman of the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice and science subcommittee said he did not trust DOJ assurances that the facility would not house Guantanamo Bay detainees once slated for the prison.
Wolf said the Bureau of Prisons should devote its energy to lowering recidivism through prison work programs and rehabilitation along with working on proposals for early releases.
