Parkinson's Law and the United States Bureau of Prisons

Conclusion From the foregoing discussion and the data presented, I think that is is safe to conclude that Parkinson's Law does hold, at least insofar as the United States Bureau of Prisons is concerned. Not only has the number of BOP employees increased in accordance with the Law, but it has actually exceeded the rate of increase which Parkinson predicted. Moreover, as we have seen, the increase in the number of BOP employees seems to be in no way related to the quantity or quality of the work to be done. Whether or not the BOP is indeed the “ultimate bureaucracy”, as I believe to be the case, has not been proven. Such proof would require comparisons between the BOP and all other existing bureaus of the U.S. Government—a task far beyond the scope of this paper. It is certain, however, that the BOP is enough of a Parkinsonian bureaucracy to startle any but the most hopelessly biased reader. That much alone is significant.