The Bureau Takes Additional Drastic Actions to Contain Costs as They Struggle with Budget Issues 

by

Susan M. Giddings, PhD, Unit Management Section Chief, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Ret.

Bruce Cameron MS LPC-S LSOTP-S Federal Bureau of Prisons Ret. South Central Regional Office

      The Bureau of Prison has taken another drastic step to contain expenses as they continue to struggle with rising costs and budget shortfalls. The Bureau announced any incarcerated individual with a Second Chance Act (SCA) prerelease placement designation of April 21, 2025, or later, would see their placements reduced, and designations moving forward would be limited. Individuals who complete the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) would be limited to 125 days, while non-RDAP individuals would be limited to 60 days. 

       While devastating for those incarcerated as well as their families, it is, unfortunately, not surprising. The Bureau has had to prioritize lengthy First Step Act (FSA) prerelease placements over SCA placements for months. These lengthy FSA placements, anywhere from 12 to 26 months in length, tie up halfway house and home confinement resources for well beyond the average four- to five-month placement. The issue was further exacerbated by the previous Administration's refusal to support the Bureau in court challenges regarding whether the Bureau had any discretion in these designation decisions to include cases where the individual presented public safety risks. The Bureau was told the only consideration was the time credits  nothing else mattered.

      With SCA placements, the Bureau balanced release needs, length of placement, proximity to release residence, and bed space capacity. Prerelease placement was not merely about leaving prison early; it was to provide the releasing individual with temporary, transitional residential services to facilitate reentry. If space was an issue, a shorter placement as close to an individual release area was viewed as better than a longer placement potentially hundreds of miles away. The implementation of the FSA has been just the opposite. While still calling it prerelease placement, it created a new type of incarceration community-based incarceration. This is not to say there couldn't be some merit to this, but the existing residential reentry model was not designed for this. 

      Under FSA, placing an individual close to their release residence is no longer a priority. These authors have seen individuals placed several hours from their release residence because that s where the bed was. While these long-distance placements allowed individuals to leave prison early, many of them could not take full advantage of home confinement despite it being allowed under the law because of a proximity requirement. For individuals to be approved for home confinement, their residence needs to be within a certain radius of the halfway house as they are still required to physically check into the halfway house as much as three times weekly and if required, also undergo weekly drug testing. 

      Separate from the FSA itself, Congress missed amending the SCA to rescind the home confinement restriction, which limits home confinement to the lesser of 10% of an individual's sentence or 180 days. This restriction no longer makes any sense in light of the FSA and, previously, the Cares Act, both of which allowed for lengthy home confinement placements. The result is thousands of incarcerated individuals being designated to halfway houses rather than home confinement despite having a verified home placement and otherwise eligible to participate. The individuals in this situation are often the lowest-risk individuals with shorter sentences and SCA prerelease placements.

      President Trump and Congress must act immediately to resolve these issues between the SCA and FSA, which would allow more individuals to transfer directly to home confinement. The President and Congress also need to rethink and rebalance the application of time credits toward early transfer to supervised release versus early designation to prerelease placement. The excessively long prerelease placements are both detrimental and expensive. The cost of halfway house placement is actually more expensive than the cost of incarceration in a minimum security prison and, in many cases, a low security prison as well. Prerelease placement under FSA should be limited, while time credits toward an earlier release from prison should be a function of the sentence. For example, an individual could earn up to an additional 15% off their sentence for successful programming, after which the remaining time credits would be applied toward prerelease placement up to one year earlier.

      It's too late for this fiscal year. The damage is done, and all the Bureau can do is stop the hemorrhaging. But if President Trump and Congress act now, fiscal year 2026 could be turned around. Home Confinement placement is significantly less costly than halfway house or incarceration, but in order to take advantage of the savings and better use the residential halfway house resources more efficiently, the status quo is not the answer. It's time to flip the table and get something done.

Susan M. Giddings is a nationally recognized expert known for her work with the First Step Act. She has more than thirty years of experience in adult federal corrections and expertise in offender classification, case management practices, policy/procedure, and professional development. As Unit Management Section Chief with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Ms. Giddings was one of the co-architects for implementing the Federal Time Credits program.

Bruce Cameron is a widely known expert, most known for his prior engagements as a federal law enforcement official. He has over 25 years of experience in development, consultation, and assessment for involved individuals. He is the founder of Federal Prison Authority. Bruce has given multiple national and international talks and presentations and authored several publications.

Susan and Bruce have co-authored Unlocking Federal Time Credits: A Guide for Attorneys, Inmates, and Families, available on Amazon.com.