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Warning: Time Off for RDAP (Residential Drug Abuse Program)
May Not Be What You Think!

February 2010.
Many federal defendants agree to accept plea agreements because they believe that they will actually serve one year less than their sentences because they expect to complete the RDAP (Residential Drug Abuse Program) in prison and get a year off their time. But for most of them that “year off” is now just a pipe dream.

For several years the Bureau of Prisons has had more demand for the RDAP programs than it has beds. It also had a shortage of halfway-house space for all the RDAP graduates who did get the year off. So, it has gradually been reducing the average time off that it gives to those who do graduate. At first, the reductions in time off weren’t significant, so the average reduction remained reasonably close to a full year; but in the recent past B.O.P. policies have changed and the average time off is now significantly less – perhaps as low as six months instead of a year – and many RDAP graduates are getting no time off at all. Those who do get time off are often getting only six months or even three months, instead of the full year off.

B.O.P. program statement 5331.02 sets out the current rules regarding time off for RDAP completion. These rules apply to inmates who begin the RDAP program on or after March 16, 2009. Since the program typically lasts only nine months, these rules should now apply to virtually everyone. The pertinent portion of Program Statement 5330.11 is reproduced here:

10. Length of Sentence
Following completion of Transitional Drug Abuse Treatment (TDAT), inmates found to be eligible for release under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e) may receive that release based upon the length of the sentence, as detailed in the table below.

Note: The early release time-frame reductions shown on the table are not pro-rated by days. For, example, if an inmate’s sentence is 36 months and any number of days, 9 months is the maximum sentence reduction allowed, whether the inmate’s sentence is 36 months and 0 days, or 36 months and 30 days.
Any change in current offense sentence length as imposed by order of the Court will result in a recalculation of sentence computation and provisional incentive. For example, a 36-month sentence reduced to a 24-month sentence will result in no more than a 6-month early release.

The eligibility rules for RDAP have also been tightened up by the B.O.P. to make it more difficult for inmates to qualify. One significant such change is that the B.O.P. now takes it upon itself to decide whether or not an inmate has a drug problem, regardless of what might be said about that subject in the inmate’s P.S.I. (Pre-Sentence Investigation Report). So, it is no longer enough to prove it to medical staff in the B.O.P. by showing them your needle marks or other convincing evidence.

On the flip side, the changes in the rules also make it easier for some inmates to get into RDAP (and get time off) who couldn’t in the past. For example, inmates with a real drug problem whose P.S.I. fails to mention it can now provide proof to the prison staff and get into the program. And inmates convicted of child pornography offenses are now eligible for early release, where before they were not. (Inmates convicted of sex offenses against children remain ineligible)

Unfortunately, the B.O.P. has chosen to set out its rules and criteria for RDAP placement and for time off in two separate Program Statements. In order to fully understand the RDAP program and its benefits you must read both these program statements. P.S. 5331.02 presents the early release procedures under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e) and P.S. 5330.11 presents the Psychology Treatment Programs, including RDAP. You may access either of these documents by going to the link below.

If you are negotiating a plea agreement, it is in your best interests to have the latest and most accurate information about the sentence reduction available to you under B.O.P. practices.

Go to this ink to locate the relevant B.O.P. Program statements:
http://www.bop.gov/DataSource/execute/dsPolicyLoc

B.O.P. : HALFWAY HOUSE BEDS ARE SCARCE

January 2010.
Most inmates being realease from federal prisons now are getting less time in halfway houses than they would have received if the had been released two years ago. Case Managers and Wardens may still reccomend the same terms of up to six months that they have been recommending for several years, but those recommendations are being reduced by the B.O.P.'s CCMs (Community Corrections Managers) when the final determinations are made (usually a year or less before the inmate's projected realease date.) As a result, many inmates who expected to go to a halfway house in three, four or six months are finding that their release dates (to the halfway houses) are later than they expected. And there is little they can do about this.

The reason for this recent change in the B.O.P.'s practise is easy to understand: It's the economy! Halfway house residents during 2009 have found it harder that usual to find steady jobs. As a result, many of them are remaining in the halfway houses for their full terms, instead of going out to home releases after they have earned a couple of paychecks. These longer stays in the halfway houses are keeping those beds full, so they are not becoming available for new releases as early as they used to. And there is no place to put new inmates who are being released now.

I am now seeing many inmates who would normally get six months in a halfway house being sent to them just 60 or 90 days prior to their release dates. Some of them are getting as little as a week of halfway house time.

The B.O.P. is not doing a good job at explaining this problem to it's inmates, so there are many men and women getting unpleasant surprises when they least expect them - just before they expected to go out the gates. If you or an acquaintance is counting on a longer term - four to six months - in a halfway house later this year, you would be wise to plan for the contingency that the time you have been led to expect may not be the time that you finally receive.

12 month halfway house term.

In a related matter, many inmates are expecting to get 12 months in a halfway house, instead of just six months. This expectation is driven by the Second Chance Act that Congress passed in 2008.

It is true that the Second Chance Act now permits the B.O.P. to give inmates up to twelve months in a halfway house, but it is not true that anyone being released in the next couple of years will get the extra halfway house time.

The law itelf instructed the B.O.P. to begin implementing the longer terms on an experimental basis, and the B.O.P. isn't doing very much experimenting. I have heard of rare instances of someone getting the extra six months, but I have never had personal knowledge of one. They appear to be extremely rare, given to very few inmates across the country. It is not yet clear what criteria the B.O.P. uses to choose the lucky ones who get the extra halfway house time, and the suspicion exists that is is being used as a special reward to inmates who have been especially helpful to staff in one way or another.

But there is another more important reason very few inmates get the extra time in a halfway house, and it is the same problem discussed in the first part of this article: a lack of bedspace.

Even before the Second Chance Act was passed by Congress, the B.O.P. was already using all available halfway house beds to near-capacity. So even if they had wanted to start giving everybody double the earlier terms in halfway houses, there was no bedspace to put them in. The only way the longer halway house periods contemplated by the Second Chance Act can ever become a reality is if the number of halfway houses is substantially increased, or if given that opportunity. With the current political and ecomonic situation it doesn't seem likely that either of these two possibilities will occur in the foreseeable future, so 12-month terms in halfway houses are still just a dream in inmate's eyes; they are not likely to become common for many more years.