Admission and Orientation Program (Program Statement 5290.14)

By Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., and Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA

Field	Value
Program Statement	5290.14
Subject	Admission and Orientation Program
Effective / current edition	04-03-2003
Change notices	None. BOP’s published policy list carries 5290.14 with no change notice.
Supersedes	PS 5290.13, Admission and Orientation Program (7/23/02), rescinded — PS 5290.14 at p. 3
Governing statute	The Program Statement cites none. The Bureau’s general duty to “provide for the protection, instruction, and discipline” of people in its custody is 18 U.S.C. § 4042(a)(3); its placement authority is 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b).
28 C.F.R. anchor	No A&O rule exists in the C.F.R. Part 522 is titled “Admission to Institution,” but its subparts are A [Reserved], B (Civil Contempt), C (Intake Screening), D (Unescorted Transfers and Voluntary Surrenders), E [Reserved]. Other regulations name A&O as the delivery vehicle for specific notices — see What binds and what does not, below.
Related BP forms	BP-S518 Institution A&O Checklist · BP-S597 Unit A&O Checklist · BP-S407/408 Inmate Acknowledgment (current BOP numbering: BP-A0407 and BP-A0408)
Official PDF	bop.gov/policy/progstat/5290_014.pdf

Checked against the BOP policy set · 2026-09-06.

Admission and Orientation — everyone inside calls it “A&O” — is the Bureau of Prisons program that tells a newly arrived person how the prison they just landed in actually works: the rules, the programs, the discipline system, and who on the unit team is responsible for what. Program Statement 5290.14 splits that job into two pieces, an institution-wide A&O run by department heads and a unit-level A&O run by the unit officer and unit staff, and sets the time frames for each.

A&O is not the same thing as intake screening. Intake screening is the health-and-safety clearance that happens at the door, on arrival — the social interview, the medical screen, the separatee check — and PS 5290.14 itself calls it “the first step in orienting an inmate to the institution,” completed before A&O begins (PS 5290.14 at p. 8). Our explainer on Program Statement 5295.01, Intake Screening (the September 3, 2026 successor to PS 5290.15), covers that. For the family-facing walkthrough of what the first hours look like, start with First Day in Prison and the intake process.

The rule itself: admission and orientation

Everything in this section is transcribed from the Bureau’s own text at bop.gov/policy/progstat/5290_014.pdf, with the page anchor for each passage.

What A&O must cover, and who is covered

From the Purpose and Scope section, PS 5290.14 at p. 1 (transcribed verbatim):

1. PURPOSE AND SCOPE. To require each inmate committed or transferred to a Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) institution to participate in the institution’s Admission and Orientation (A&O) Program. The Warden will ensure that staff involved with this program offer each newly committed inmate an orientation to the institution, to include information on institutional requirements and, whenever practicable, visits to the various areas of the institution. The institution A&O Program must also provide the inmate with an awareness of the:

a. Inmate’s rights and responsibilities; b. Institution’s program opportunities; and, c. Institution’s disciplinary system.

Pretrial inmates and inmates in holdover status (en route to a different institution) are excluded from the provisions of this PS (except as provided in Sections 7.a. and 7.b.).

And the two-component structure, same page:

The Bureau’s A&O Program consists of two separate and distinct components:

– an Institution component and – a Unit component.

PS 5290.14 at p. 2 draws the line between them:

Institution A&O programs, whether centralized or decentralized, provide inmates with general information regarding institution-wide regulations, operations, and program opportunities. Unit A&O programs, on-the-other-hand, provide information that is unit specific and only for inmates assigned to that unit.

The time frames

These are the numbers people come looking for. Each row is transcribed from the passage cited; the emphasis is the Bureau’s word choice, not ours — “ordinarily” and “highly recommended” are doing real work in this policy.

Segment	Time frame, in the Program Statement’s own words	Pin-cite
Unit A&O — Safety Orientation and Unit Security Overview	“The Unit Officer will provide the Safety Orientation and Unit Security Overview on the day the inmate arrives in the unit (assigned or temporary) and no later than by the end of the day (lights out).”	PS 5290.14 at p. 9
Unit A&O — Unit Orientation (Unit Manager, Case Manager, Counselor)	“all sections of this component must be completed within seven calendar days after the inmate arrives in the assigned unit.”	PS 5290.14 at p. 10
Unit orientation after a move to a different unit in the same institution	“Inmates reassigned to another unit within the institution for any reason will be provided unit orientation within seven calendar days after that inmate’s arrival in the reassigned unit.”	PS 5290.14 at p. 10
Institution A&O	“Ordinarily, this segment will be completed within four weeks of an inmate’s arrival at the institution.”	PS 5290.14 at p. 9
Institution A&O for someone who starts out in the SHU	“Inmates initially housed in a SHU will be required to complete the institution A&O Program ordinarily within four weeks after he or she has been released to general population.”	PS 5290.14 at p. 9
A&O versus initial classification	“It is highly recommended that inmates complete the institution portion of the A&O Program prior to their initial classification; however, this is not mandatory.”	PS 5290.14 at p. 9
Old-law violators	“Note that old law violators (Mandatory Release, Parole, and Special Parole Term and Old Law Supervised Release Violators) are ordinarily classified within two weeks of their arrival at the institution.”	PS 5290.14 at p. 9
Phone calls during admission	“Ordinarily, newly committed inmates will be permitted to complete at least two local or long distance phone calls during the admission process, in accordance with the Program Statement on Telephone Regulations for Inmates.”	PS 5290.14 at p. 10
Retention of the “Master” checklist	“The A&O Coordinator will maintain the “Master” Checklist and a list of the inmate participants for each A&O class instructed for three years or until the next Program Review.”	PS 5290.14 at p. 11

The minimum for pretrial, holdover and detainee arrivals

Pretrial and holdover arrivals sit outside the full A&O program, but not outside everything. PS 5290.14 at p. 4 (pretrial), p. 5 (holdover) and p. 6 (detainee) each carry the same three-item floor, transcribed here from p. 4:

However, for the safety and security of the institution as well as other inmates and staff, pretrial inmates at least, must receive and acknowledge receipt of the following information/forms:

(1) Inmate Rights and Responsibilities; (2) The Bureau’s Prohibited Acts and Disciplinary System; and (3) Completion of the Inmate Acknowledgment forms (BP-S407/408).

Three further points travel with that floor. First, the acknowledgment “must be filed in the inmate’s drop file or in section 3 of the Inmate Central File” (p. 4). Second, for holdovers, “Once holdovers have received the above information and forms, they need not be provided them again at subsequent en-route institutions except as noted below,” with a note that “Completing and/or verifying the information provided on the Inmate Acknowledgment form (BP-S408) is required at each holdover facility” (p. 5). Third, immigration detainees are treated differently from other detainees: “BICE detainee inmates will participate in both components (Institution and Unit) of the A&O Program, unless they have previously participated in an A&O Program at the current institution” (p. 6). “BICE” is the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the 2003 name for what is now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The forms, the exemption, and the accommodations

PS 5290.14 at p. 12 lists the required forms exactly:

10. REQUIRED FORMS

– Institution A&O Checklist (BP-S518) (form will be dated the same as the Program Statement) – Unit A&O Checklist (BP-S597) (form will be dated the same as the Program Statement)

The checklists are the content floor, not just paperwork: “The A&O Program will include, at a minimum, all areas identified on the Institution (BP-S518) and Unit (BP-S597) Checklists. Blank spaces are provided on both forms to include additional programs or topics the institution or unit identify that are unique to that institution or unit” (p. 8). Neither form may be modified except to add topics (p. 12). Both are filed in section 3 of the Inmate Central File (p. 11).

Three accommodations are written into the policy. On medical or mental incapacity: “The Associate Warden may exempt an inmate from participating in the institution/unit A&O Program when health services staff determine that the inmate is medically or mentally incapable of participating in the program fully. Once the inmate is capable of participating, he/she will no longer be exempted from the program” (p. 8). On literacy and language: “When a literacy problem prevents an inmate from understanding A&O information, a staff member will offer that inmate assistance. If an institution has a significant number of non-English-speaking inmates, A&O Program information (including written materials) must be made available in the appropriate language(s)” (p. 7). On distress: “A staff member involved in the A&O Program who believes that an inmate is experiencing significant emotional stress must notify the A&O Coordinator so that the inmate may be offered appropriate assistance,” and the coordinator “will notify the appropriate institution personnel (i.e., psychology staff) for further evaluation and assistance” (p. 7).

What binds and what does not in PS 5290.14

This distinction decides what a reader can actually do with this policy, so it goes near the front rather than buried.

A Program Statement is the Bureau’s internal instruction to its own staff. It is not a regulation. The Supreme Court said so directly in Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50 (1995), describing a Program Statement as “an internal agency guideline” that is “akin to an ‘interpretive rule’ that ‘do[es] not require notice and comment,'” though “still entitled to some deference” where it is a permissible construction of the statute. So when this page says the policy “directs staff” to do something, that is precise language, not hedging.

PS 5290.14 is an unusually clean example, because the Bureau said out loud what it was doing. The 2003 revision’s own Summary of Changes, PS 5290.14 at p. 2, reads:

Rules language has been removed from bolded text; however, all of the rules language has been retained as non-bolded implementing text. This means that former rules language no longer exists as rules in the Code of Federal Regulations, but is now policy language instead.

That is why 28 C.F.R. part 522 — “Admission to Institution” — has a [Reserved] subpart A where an A&O rule would sit. There is no A&O regulation to enforce. A&O exists in policy alone.

What is regulation is the set of specific notices that other rules route through A&O. Each of these is binding text that names the A&O program as the delivery mechanism:

Regulation	What it directs, and what it says about A&O
28 C.F.R. § 549.15(a)	“The HSA will ensure that a qualified health care professional provides training, incorporating a question-and-answer session, about infectious diseases to all newly committed inmates, during Admission and Orientation.”
28 C.F.R. § 553.11	“The institution’s Admission and Orientation program shall include notification to the inmate of any numerical limitations in effect at the institution and a current list of any numerical limitations shall be posted on inmate unit bulletin boards.”
28 C.F.R. § 540.51(b)(1)	“Staff shall ask each inmate to submit during the admission-orientation process a list of proposed visitors.”
28 C.F.R. § 540.101	“During the admission and orientation process, an inmate who chooses to have telephone privileges shall prepare a proposed telephone list.”
28 C.F.R. § 540.50(a)	The Warden “may limit to the immediate family of the inmate visits during the admission-orientation period or for holdovers where there is neither a visiting list from a transferring institution nor other verification of proposed visitors.”
28 C.F.R. § 527.43(a)	Foreign national inmates are notified about the International Prisoner Transfer Program “[t]hrough information provided in the institution’s admission and orientation program.”

The practical consequence: the visiting list, the phone list, the property limits, the infectious-disease briefing and the transfer-treaty notice are not optional extras that a busy institution can drop from A&O. They are regulatory obligations that happen to be scheduled inside A&O. If they are skipped, the missing item is the thing to name in a written request — not “you didn’t run a good A&O.”

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: The single most valuable thing on a unit is the Institution A&O Checklist, BP-S518. It lists every topic the institution committed to covering, and the signed copy goes into section 3 of your central file. Ask your counselor for a copy of your signed BP-S518 and BP-S597 early. If a dispute later turns on whether you were told a rule — a property limit, a visiting restriction, a phone procedure — the checklist is the contemporaneous record of what was and was not presented, and it is far easier to get in week two than in month eighteen.

What admission and orientation means for you

If you are the person inside: your first days

Two things happen fast and one happens slowly. The Unit Officer’s safety and security briefing lands the same day you arrive on the unit, before lights out. The rest of unit orientation — the Unit Manager, Case Manager and Counselor explaining their roles — lands within seven calendar days. Institution A&O, the classroom sessions where department heads present, ordinarily lands within four weeks. If you start in the Special Housing Unit, the four-week institution clock ordinarily runs from your release to general population, not from your arrival.

Use A&O as a working session, not a lecture. This is where you submit your proposed visiting list under 28 C.F.R. § 540.51(b)(1) and your proposed phone list under 28 C.F.R. § 540.101 — the two things families ask about most, covered on our visiting and telephone pages. It is where property limits are announced under § 553.11. It is where the disciplinary system is explained — the prohibited-act codes and sanctions in our Inmate Discipline Program explainer. Ask questions in the room. Write down who answered.

If a literacy or language barrier is in the way, say so; the policy tells staff to offer assistance and to make materials available in the appropriate language where the institution has a significant non-English-speaking population (p. 7). If you are struggling badly, tell an A&O presenter — the policy directs staff who see significant emotional stress to notify the A&O Coordinator, who notifies psychology staff (p. 7). That is a routing instruction that exists for exactly this moment.

If you are the family member: A&O from the outside

You will hear about A&O in fragments, over a phone system with a monthly minute cap and a call list that has not been approved yet. That is not a sign anything is wrong. The visiting list your loved one submits during A&O has to be investigated before it is approved and distributed, and the phone list has to be entered before calls to you will connect. Expect a lag of weeks, not days, and expect the first calls to be short.

Two things you can usefully do. First, respond promptly and completely if you receive a visitor-information form; an incomplete or unreturned form is the most common reason a name never makes it onto an approved list. Second, keep your own dated notes of what you are told, by whom, and when. Families are frequently the only party keeping a written chronology in the first month, and that chronology is what makes a later administrative filing specific instead of vague. Our overview for families is What Families Should Know About Federal Prison, and the fuller arrival walkthrough is at First Day in Prison.

If you are counsel: admission and orientation

A&O is a documentation event, and the documents are discoverable through the ordinary channels. The signed BP-S518 and BP-S597 sit in section 3 of the Inmate Central File; the medical or mental-health exemption, if any, is documented in section 2 of the Privacy Folder (PS 5290.14 at p. 8). Each institution also issues an Institution Supplement establishing local A&O procedures, and PS 5290.14 at pp. 12–13 specifies what that supplement must address, including “procedures to track and reschedule those inmates who do not complete all the topics covered in the A&O Program.” When notice is genuinely at issue, request the supplement and the client’s signed checklists — through the unit team, and through a Freedom of Information Act or Privacy Act request where staff will not produce them.

Set expectations about what the policy can carry. Under Koray, a Program Statement is an internal guideline, not a regulation; a departure from PS 5290.14 is not itself a cause of action. Courts have said something similar about the adjacent intake regulation: in Brown v. United States, 569 F. Supp. 2d 596 (W.D. Va. 2008), the court held that although the regulations direct officials to interview an arriving prisoner, “the regulations do not mandate a non-discretionary course of conduct, but instead leave prison officials ample room for judgment.” A&O failures matter as evidence — of notice, of what the institution said its own rules were — rather than as standalone claims.

The first thirty days, in order

A&O is the visible part of a much denser sequence. Everything below is drawn from currently posted BOP policy or from the regulation, so counsel and families can see where A&O actually sits.

When	What happens	Source
On arrival	Receiving and Discharge processing; social interview “[i]mmediately upon an inmate’s arrival” to decide whether there is a non-medical reason to house away from general population	28 C.F.R. § 522.21; PS 5800.19 (Receiving and Discharge Manual, 5/7/2026)
Same day, by lights out	Unit Officer delivers Safety Orientation and Unit Security Overview	PS 5290.14 at p. 9
Within 24 hours	Medical screening by medical staff; Health Services and Unit Management screening for indicators of mental illness	28 C.F.R. § 522.21; PS 5310.17 at p. 14
Ordinarily within 72 hours	Screening for risk of sexual victimization and abusiveness, using an objective screening instrument	28 C.F.R. § 115.41(b)–(c); PS 5333.01 at p. 31
Within 7 calendar days of arrival in the assigned unit	Unit Orientation completed by unit staff; BP-S597 signed	PS 5290.14 at p. 10
Within 14 calendar days (initial designation)	Psychology Initial Intake Evaluation: PSIQ (BP-A0519), record review, clinical interview	PS 5310.17 at p. 15
Ordinarily within 4 weeks	Institution A&O completed	PS 5290.14 at p. 9
Within 28 calendar days of arrival	Initial classification by the unit team; PATTERN risk level assessed; sentence computation must be complete first	28 C.F.R. § 524.11(a)(1); PS 5321.10 at pp. 13–14
28 days after arrival	Initial First Step Act risk and needs assessment	PS 5321.10 at p. 14
Within 30 days of intake	Comprehensive PREA education, in person or by video; PREA risk reassessment on any new information	28 C.F.R. § 115.33(b); 28 C.F.R. § 115.41(f)

Two consequences follow. First, A&O and initial classification are on nearly the same clock — four weeks and 28 days — which is why PS 5290.14 says completing A&O before initial classification is “highly recommended” but “not mandatory.” Second, the assessments that drive the rest of a sentence are running in parallel with orientation: PATTERN, the criminogenic-needs assessment, and the First Step Act time-credit machinery are all being set up during the same weeks when nobody has explained yet what any of it is.

What changed from PS 5290.13 to 5290.14

PS 5290.14, dated 4/3/2003, rescinded PS 5290.13, Admission and Orientation Program (7/23/02) — PS 5290.14 at p. 3. It carried exactly two changes, stated at p. 2: the removal of rules language from the Code of Federal Regulations, quoted above, and the renaming of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. That agency has since been renamed again. The Program Statement has not been reissued in the twenty-three years since.

That matters, because the world around it moved. Three overlays now sit on top of a 2003 text:

The First Step Act. 18 U.S.C. § 3632(a)(1) directs that the risk and needs assessment system be used to “determine the recidivism risk of each prisoner as part of the intake process,” and § 3632(h) adds dyslexia screening “during … the intake process.” None of that appears in PS 5290.14. It appears instead in PS 5405.01, First Step Act Assessments, Programming, and Incentives (5/7/2026), which states at p. 4 that “All needs are initially assessed upon arrival at the designated facility where the inmate begins serving their sentence,” and at p. 11 directs that “Departments will educate inmates on FSA information specific to their discipline during the A&O Program” and that divisions “will add specific discipline-related information to the A&O Program guide, in accordance with the Program Statement Admission and Orientation Program.” PS 5410.01 puts it plainly at p. 12: “After the inmate’s arrival to their designated facility for service of their sentence and during the initial admission and orientation phase, the PATTERN and SPARC-13 assessments will be completed.” Read the two together: the 2003 A&O statement is still the container, and the 2026 FSA policy is what BOP has poured into it. Our explainers are First Step Act Assessments, Programming, and Incentives and First Step Act Time Credits.

PREA. The Department of Justice’s Prison Rape Elimination Act standards, 28 C.F.R. part 115, postdate PS 5290.14 entirely. Section 115.33(a) directs that “[d]uring the intake process, inmates shall receive information explaining the agency’s zero-tolerance policy,” and § 115.33(b) that “[w]ithin 30 days of intake, the agency shall provide comprehensive education to inmates either in person or through video.” BOP implements this through PS 5333.01, Sexually Abusive Behavior Prevention and Intervention Program Manual (3/19/2026), which states at p. 27 that “The Bureau’s A&O Handbook on Sexually Abusive Behavior Prevention and Intervention is provided to each inmate at intake screening,” and at p. 17 that inmates “are advised of the requirement to remain clothed, and the presence of opposite sex staff generally, during the intake screening and Admission and Orientation (A&O) processes.” PS 5333.01 rescinded PS 5324.12 CN-1 (2/18/2025). Our page is PREA and Sexual Abuse Prevention.

Unit management and forms. PS 5321.10, Unit Management Manual (9/3/2026), now governs initial classification and identifies the Acknowledgment of Inmate forms by their current numbers — “BP-A0407, Acknowledgment of Inmate, Part 1 & 2” and “BP-A0408, Acknowledgment of Inmate, Part 3 & 4” (PS 5321.10 at p. 12) — where PS 5290.14 still says BP-S407/408. Same forms, current numbering. See Unit Team and Program Review.

Two of the directives PS 5290.14 references have also been replaced: PS 5264.07 Telephone Regulations for Inmates is now PS 5264.09, Inmate Telephone Regulations (9/3/2026), and PS 5290.12 Intake Screening is now PS 5295.01, Intake Screening (9/3/2026). PS 5322.11, the classification statement it cites, has been succeeded by PS 5321.10, Unit Management Manual (9/3/2026).

Where people get stuck during admission and orientation

Four problems recur. Each has a route, and the route matters more than the complaint.

“I was never told that rule, and now I have a shot.” This is the most common A&O grievance and the weakest as a standalone argument, because a Program Statement is not enforceable the way a regulation is. It is strongest as a fact inside a disciplinary defense — that the topic does not appear on your signed BP-S518, or that the institution’s own supplement schedules it in a session you were never rescheduled into. The route is the disciplinary process itself, not a grievance: see Inmate Discipline Program and our practical page on prison disciplinary infractions. Get the checklists first.

A&O never happened, or happened months late. Start with an Inmate Request to Staff — form BP-A0148, universally called a “cop-out” — addressed to the Unit Manager and, separately, to the A&O Coordinator, asking to be scheduled and asking for copies of your BP-S518 and BP-S597. Name the time frame from the policy and the date you arrived. If that produces nothing, the formal ladder is the Administrative Remedy Program: BP-9 to the Warden, BP-10 to the Regional Director, BP-11 to the Office of National Inmate Appeals, under 28 C.F.R. part 542, subpart B. The deadline is short — 28 C.F.R. § 542.14(a) sets “20 calendar days following the date on which the basis for the Request occurred,” subject to an extension “[w]here the inmate demonstrates a valid reason for delay.” BOP publishes BP-A0148 but does not publish the BP-9, BP-10 or BP-11 forms; you get those from your unit team. See Administrative Remedy Program and Request to Staff.

The visiting list or phone list never got processed. This is not an A&O complaint even though it starts in A&O — it is a visiting or telephone complaint, and it is grounded in regulation rather than policy, which makes it stronger. Cite 28 C.F.R. § 540.51(b)(1) or § 540.101 by section number in the cop-out, state the date you submitted the list, and ask for the status of the investigation. Then follow the ladder. Background: Inmate Visitation and Inmate Phone Calls.

Someone starts in the SHU and disappears from the schedule. People placed in the Special Housing Unit on arrival are the group most likely to fall out of A&O entirely, because their institution clock ordinarily restarts on release to general population (p. 9) while the tracking obligation sits in a local supplement that nobody outside the institution can see. Ask, in writing, to be placed on the A&O roster for the next class after release, and ask for the safety and operations information the policy directs be provided in the SHU during intake screening (p. 5). See Special Housing Units and Solitary Confinement and Special Housing Units.

Where the underlying problem is designation, sentence computation, medical care or a First Step Act credit calculation, the administrative remedy path is necessary but rarely sufficient on its own. Those issues belong in a consult — see Federal Prison Consulting Services or contact us. Exhaustion also matters if court is ever a possibility: under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), no action may be brought about prison conditions until available administrative remedies are exhausted. “Exhaustion” means completing every level of the internal grievance ladder, on time, before filing.

Related BOP policy on admission and orientation

The paired information pages: First Day in Prison walks through the arrival day for families, and the federal prison intake process covers admission and orientation from the arriving person’s point of view. Both link back here for the rule.

Policies that meet A&O directly: Unit Team and Program Review (PS 5321.10) for initial classification, which runs on nearly the same clock. Security Designation and Custody Classification (PS 5100.08) for how the institution was chosen. First Step Act Assessments, Programming, and Incentives (PS 5405.01) and First Step Act Time Credits (PS 5410.01) for the assessments running alongside A&O. Release Preparation Program (PS 5325.09) for the bookend at the other end of the sentence.

Subjects that A&O introduces and other pages carry: Inmate Discipline Program, Visiting Regulations, Inmate Telephone Regulations, Inmate Personal Property, Literacy Program and GED, PREA and Sexual Abuse Prevention, and the Receiving and Discharge Manual.

Records and routes: Inmate Central File, Privacy Folder, and Parole Mini-Files (PS 5800.17) for where the A&O checklists live, FOIA and Privacy Act Requests for getting them, and Administrative Remedy Program for the grievance ladder. Further reading on our site: Inmate Admission and Orientation in Federal Prison and The Processing of New Arrivals at Federal Prisons.

Frequently Asked Questions About Admission and Orientation

Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026