HAZELTON, W.Va. — The deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, with a criminal history of his own, has stepped down from the post.
Josh Smith was sworn in on June 9, 2025, as the first senior leader of the organization that had served time. Smith served five years in federal prison in the 1990s and was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2021.
“It was a slap in the face,” American Federation of Government Employees Local 420 Steward Jason Shaffer said. “To have an inmate who was once housed in our prison who was running the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has devastated our country and greatly affected the staff who have worked hard for the BOP.”
“On behalf of the Bureau, I want to thank Josh for his service and contributions and wish him and his family all the best in the future,” BOP Director William Marshall said in a statement.
Smith was a senior leader of the team that managed 122 facilities, six regional offices, two staff training centers, and 22 residential reentry offices.
“They handcuffed our voice and took out rights to collectively bargain, not honoring our master agreement, and taking their rights and seniority away from every employee,” Shaffer said Tuesday on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.”
Smith helped to oversee 36,000 workers who manage the care and custody of 156,000 federal inmates. Shaffer said the policies during his tenure forced many guards at the Preston County complex to find other jobs, move to another federal agency, or retire early.
“It was so bad that many others and I have retired early or transferred early just to escape the unfair treatment,” Shaffer said.
Staffing at the Hazelton facilities has at times been as low as 75 percent, leading to mandatory overtime practices referred to as augmentation. When augmentation is ordered due to short staffing, untrained workers like teachers and cooks are forced to complete the tasks normally completed by qualified correctional officers.
“It really affected our staffing, and we lost a lot of officers due to him being appointed,” Shaffer said.