A similar environment of dysfunction was pervasive at the Manhattan federal prison where the financier Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in 2019, the inspector general said in a report this summer.

What is behind the staffing shortages at the Bureau of Prisons?

Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies around the country, especially corrections departments, are struggling to hire and retain employees, many of whom have left to take higher-paying, less demanding jobs. That struggle is especially pronounced at the Bureau of Prisons, which houses about 160,000 inmates at 122 prisons and camps, with a work force of about 34,000 people who often earn less than state and county corrections workers.

The Bureau of Prisons has often relied on teachers, case managers, counselors, facilities workers and secretaries to fill shifts.

About 21 percent of the 20,446 federal positions for corrections officers funded by Congress — amounting to 4,293 guards — were unfilled in September 2022, according to a report in March by the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office.

Union officials contend that some recent incidents of inmate-on-inmate violence might have been prevented with greater staffing levels. The depleted work force, they say, has played a role in attacks on staff members, including in 2021, when a guard at a Florida prison responsible for monitoring more than 100 prisoners was assaulted with a metal shank.