Cooks, nurses and teachers guarding inmates, while those that can’t be guarded are simply kept in their cells around the clock, while scores of homicides and suicides are often unreported.

The U.S. federal prison system had already been suffering from a legacy of mismanagement before the pandemic contributed to thousands of unfilled vacancies.

Now a new head of the agency has been appointed to turn things around.

But one huge challenge is the strength of the economy and its impact on recruitment. 

CGTN’s Owen Fairclough reports.