Josh Smith Abruptly Leaves Bureau Of Prisons After Year Of Changes

A Sudden Departure

Marshall announced Smith’s departure in a brief statement today, thanking his deputy but providing no explanation for the resignation.

“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,” Marshall wrote.

Marshall added that the Bureau remains focused on protecting public safety, operating safe and secure institutions and supporting its employees and those in its custody.

Smith’s own announcement was considerably more personal. In a lengthy Facebook post, Smith called his tenure an “extraordinary and historic chapter” of his life. He also acknowledged something that had been obvious from the day Marshall appointed him.

“When I entered the BOP, I knew my appointment would be a shock to the system,” Smith wrote. It was.

Smith was not a career correctional officer. He had not spent decades moving through the BOP hierarchy from officer to lieutenant to captain to associate warden and eventually warden. He came from the other side of the prison fence.

From Federal Prison To The BOP’s Number Two Position

Smith’s path to Washington was remarkable.

Raised in East Tennessee by a single mother, Smith had a troubled childhood that included juvenile custody and numerous felony convictions. By age 21, he was headed to federal prison on a drug conspiracy conviction. He ultimately served five years.

After prison, Smith began rebuilding his life. He started with a job paying $6 an hour and eventually built Master Service Companies into a multimillion-dollar enterprise before selling the business.

He then turned his attention toward corrections and rehabilitation. Smith created the Fourth Purpose Foundation, investing his own money into an organization focused on improving correctional culture, supporting correctional employees and preparing incarcerated people to successfully return to their communities.

That work eventually led Smith back to federal prison, only this time he entered through the front gate as one of the people running the system. In his resignation statement, Smith captured the extraordinary contrast.

“Three decades ago, I walked through the gates of a federal prison as an inmate,” he wrote. Years later, following a presidential pardon, Smith returned as Deputy Director serving the president who had pardoned him.

Changing Who Leads Federal Prisons

One of the clearest themes of the Marshall-Smith era was leadership.

Smith said in his farewell message that he was especially proud of the new wardens and senior executives placed throughout the Bureau and of changes in how future leaders would be identified and developed.

The BOP altered its warden selection process, bringing outside expertise into the evaluation of candidates rather than relying solely on traditional internal practices. Marshall said the BOP wanted objective evaluations of candidates, including their ability to lead through crises, inspire employees and change institutional culture.

Smith was particularly direct about expectations for BOP leaders and personally asked for the retirement of several senior executives in the Agency. Those willing to embrace change would receive support. Those unwilling to contribute to a positive and professional environment, he said, should step aside.

Smith also launched the National Resource Team initiative, which sent teams into institutions to examine staffing, training, morale, infrastructure and operations. After an initial assessment at FCC Victorville, the concept expanded, including a conference bringing high-security wardens together to discuss common operational problems and solutions.

In announcing his departure, he said he had traveled to more than 65 federal prisons, listening to correctional officers, wardens, chaplains, nurses, case managers and others performing difficult jobs.

Taking On The Union And Old Policies

Perhaps nothing demonstrated the willingness of BOP leadership to challenge the status quo more than its decision to terminate its master collective bargaining agreement with the Council of Prison Locals.

The decision followed an executive order from President Trump concerning collective bargaining at agencies with national security responsibilities. The union and its supporters strongly opposed the move and argued that eliminating collective bargaining protections would hurt correctional employees already working in dangerous and understaffed institutions. The union is still in litigation to have its rights restored.

One result on removing the union was the ability to move more rapidly on policies that had remained unchanged for years. In March 2026, the BOP announced that it had completed 37 policies in just 90 days, calling it one of the most significant policy modernization efforts in nearly three decades. Those policies had gone an average of almost 13 years without being updated, while the oldest dated to 1997.

Smith said at the time that employees deserved guidance that was current and reflected the realities of their jobs.

For those who regularly deal with the BOP, outdated Program Statements have long been a source of frustration. Whatever one’s view of the union decision, the pace at which policies subsequently moved demonstrated how aggressively Marshall and Smith wanted to change the agency.

Billions For Crumbling Prisons

Smith and Marshall also confronted one of the BOP’s most daunting problems: deteriorating infrastructure.

Federal prisons face a deferred maintenance backlog exceeding $4 billion. Congress provided substantial new funding through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, giving the agency resources to begin addressing conditions that had accumulated over decades.

In January, the BOP held its first Facilities Management Industry Day, bringing contractors, technical experts and BOP officials together to address construction, maintenance and modernization needs throughout the federal prison system. Smith participated and emphasized the need for outside expertise to help create safer and more efficient institutions.

The BOP also developed Facilities Management Strike Teams that could deploy BOP employees to institutions to perform needed repairs rather than relying exclusively on lengthy outside contracting processes.

Closing Prisons

That philosophy eventually led to one of the most difficult decisions any corrections administrator can make: closing prisons.

On July 1, the BOP announced the closure of Beaumont FCI Low, Big Spring FCI and its satellite camp, La Tuna FCI and its satellite facilities, Lexington’s satellite camp, Petersburg FCI Low and Taft FCI. Morgantown and Duluth were slated to transition from minimum-security camps to Federal Satellite Low facilities.

The closures reflected realities confronting the Bureau, deteriorating infrastructure and persistent staffing shortages. Some aging prisons require enormous capital investments simply to remain operational. At the same time, the Bureau struggles to recruit and retain enough employees to staff its institutions.

Marshall summarized the approach at the time in four words: “We are a Bureau that acts.”

That phrase could also describe much of Smith’s tenure.

The Trump Connection

Smith’s relationship with President Trump makes his story even more unusual.

In January 2021, during the final days of Trump’s first administration, Trump granted Smith a full presidential pardon for the federal drug conviction that had sent him to prison decades earlier. Four years later, Smith became Deputy Director of the agency that had once incarcerated him.

Smith made his gratitude to Trump a central part of his resignation announcement, saying Trump had been willing to take a chance that no previous president had taken. A man who had once been confined by the BOP eventually walked back through its doors as Deputy Director under the president who had granted him clemency.

Smith also thanked Attorney General Todd Blanche for his confidence and support and Marshall for the opportunity to serve.

Accountability And Redemption

Smith was candid about the condition of the agency he encountered. In his farewell statement, he described a Bureau confronting bureaucracy, years of staffing shortages, exhausted and frustrated employees, leadership vacancies, outdated systems and a culture that needed to change.

He did not claim those problems had been solved.

“I leave proud of the direction we started moving,” Smith wrote.

The Bureau of Prisons still has significant problems. Staffing remains difficult. Billions of dollars of infrastructure work remains unfinished. Implementation of the First Step Act continues. Policies still need updating. Prison closures and consolidations will create challenges for employees and incarcerated people. Initiatives launched during Smith’s tenure are still relatively new.

Smith also raised a larger issue in his farewell message. “Our correctional system must hold people accountable,” he wrote. “But accountability and redemption are not opposites.”

Smith committed a serious crime. He went to federal prison. He served his sentence. He returned to society, built a successful business, created an organization dedicated to improving corrections, received a presidential pardon and eventually became Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

“My own life is proof of what can happen when accountability is followed by opportunity,” Smith wrote.

An Unfinished Experiment

Smith’s departure now raises an important question about what happens next.

Marshall, himself a BOP outsider who ran the West Virginia Department of Corrections, remains Director, and the changes undertaken over the past year were never Smith’s alone. Many were Marshall’s decisions and were implemented by thousands of BOP employees across the country.

Still, Smith brought an unusual combination of business experience, prison reform work and firsthand knowledge of incarceration to the Bureau’s leadership team.

Whether the initiatives begun during his tenure ultimately prove successful will take years to determine.

Smith says he will now return to Tennessee and rejoin Fourth Purpose, continuing the work he was doing before entering government: supporting correctional professionals, improving prisons and preparing incarcerated men and women to successfully return to society. Today’s reporting confirms those plans.

Whether one agreed with every decision Smith made during his brief tenure, his journey represents one of the more extraordinary examples of a second chance in the history of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Smith ended his resignation announcement with a simple observation about what comes next.

“This chapter has ended. The mission hasn’t.”