Government Executive Get the latest on need-to-know topics for federal employees delivered to your inbox. email Advice comes as a House bipartisan caucus on BOP reform is relaunched. The Federal Bureau of Prisons should develop more reliable and consistent methods of using workforce data to help with hiring and retention and to improve employee well-being, a watchdog reported on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office issued a report about data collection and analysis methods at BOP, which has about 151,735 inmates and 37,402 employees nationwide. Staff recruitment and retention challenges have persisted during the coronavirus pandemic and despite the fact that the federal inmate population has decreased by 29% from 2013 to 2020, as the Justice Department inspector general reported in November.