# Who Appoints the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (US)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-appoints-the-director-of-the-federal-bureau-of-prisons-us/693795>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 22, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-appoints-the-director-of-the-federal-bureau-of-prisons-us/693795 "2014-07-22T23:54:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-appoints-the-director-of-the-federal-bureau-of-prisons-us/693795/1 "2014-07-22T23:54:08Z")

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Who appoints the Director of the Federal (US) Bureau of Prisons? Is he\* appointed directly by the POTUS, by some higher authority at the Department of Justice, by an internal committee?

\*I say “he” because the incumbent is a male.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-appoints-the-director-of-the-federal-bureau-of-prisons-us/693795/2 "2014-07-23T00:16:22Z")

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The Bureau of Prisons was established by statute which is now codified at [18 U.S.C. § 4041](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4041) which provides that:

> [@](#):
>
> The Bureau of Prisons shall be in charge of a director appointed by and serving directly under the Attorney General. The Attorney General may appoint such additional officers and employees as he deems necessary.

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**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-appoints-the-director-of-the-federal-bureau-of-prisons-us/693795/3 "2014-07-23T01:06:34Z")

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The Director may be a political appointee while the real work is done by a GS-15 type career guy as the Deputy Director.