Federal courts have made clear that RRCs are penal or correctional institutions within the meaning of applicable statutes. “Inmates are legally eligible to be placed in an RRC at any time during their prison sentence. In a November 14, 2008, memorandum entitled “ Inmate Requests for Transfer to Residential Reentry Centers,” BOP’s former General Counsel, Kathleen Kenney, wrote that: This is because a federal halfway house is considered a “penal or correctional facility” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. While in practice most federal prisoners are never approved for more than 12 months of placement, the BOP has the authority to designate a federal halfway house as a prisoner’s place of imprisonment just like a Federal Correctional Institution or other BOP institution. There is a common misbelief that federal prisoners are limited to 12 months of federal halfway house placement. There Is No Limit On How Long A Federal Prisoner Can Be Placed In A Halfway House Under 18 U.S.C. Such conditions may include a community correctional facility. The Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall, to the extent practicable, ensure that a prisoner serving a term of imprisonment spends a portion of the final months of that term (not to exceed 12 months), under conditions that will afford that prisoner a reasonable opportunity to adjust to and prepare for the reentry of that prisoner into the community.

The Bureau may designate any available penal or correctional facility that meets minimum standards of health and habitability established by the Bureau, whether maintained by the Federal Government or otherwise and whether within or without the judicial district in which the person was convicted, that the Bureau determines to be appropriate and suitable. The Bureau of Prisons shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment. Section 3621(b) states, in relevant part, that: The BOP’s authority to place inmates in a federal halfway house derives from two federal statutes: BOP’s Statutory Authority For Federal Halfway House Placements

This transitional period allows prisoners to look for work, housing, and rebuild family/community ties A. A few years back the BOP started calling federal halfway houses “Residential Re-Entry Centers,” or RRCs for short, but the name change did not materially affect the function of federal halfway houses-to provide a transitional period for prisoners releasing into the community. The BOP has long afforded inmates the opportunity to spend a portion of their final days of imprisonment in a federal halfway house. What is going on? A variety of things, it seems. Over the past several weeks, I have received numerous e-mails and calls from different individuals concerning federal halfway house placements that have been reduced significantly-or denied entirely-by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”).

Lubbock prisoner escape hospital