Community Corrections Manual (Program Statement 7300.09)

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

Field	Value
Program Statement	7300.09, CN-4
Subject	Community Corrections Manual
Effective / current edition	03-25-2025 (this is the CN-4 date; the underlying Program Statement is dated January 12, 1998 — see What changed)
Change notices	CN-4 (3/25/2025) · CN-3 (8/1/2016) · CN-2 (5/19/1999). All three are bound into the front of the current PDF.
Supersedes	The manual itself is the January 12, 1998 edition as amended by CN-2, CN-3 and CN-4. CN-4 states that it “implements a change to Program Statement 7300.09, Community Corrections Manual, dated January 12, 1998” — PS 7300.09 at p. 1.
Governing statute	18 U.S.C. § 3624(c) (prerelease custody) · 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) (designation authority) · 18 U.S.C. § 3624(g) and § 3632(d)(4)(C) (First Step Act time credits) · 34 U.S.C. § 60541(g) (elderly home detention pilot)
28 C.F.R. anchor	Part 570, subpart B — “Pre-Release Community Confinement”: § 570.20 Purpose · § 570.21 Time-frames · § 570.22 Designation. Grievances: part 542, subpart B.
Related BP forms	BP-S205.073 Incident Report (CCC) · BP-S206.073 Inmate’s Rights at Center Discipline Committee Hearing · BP-S207.073 Notice of CDC Hearing · BP-S208.073 Center Disciplinary Committee Report · BP-S209.073 Duties of Staff Representatives · BP-S495.073 Waiver of Appearance · BP-S494.073 Checklist for CDC Certification · BP-S393.058 Notice of Escaped Federal Prisoner · EMS Form 907 Community Corrections Escape Report · EMS Form 908 Apprehension Report
Official PDF	bop.gov/policy/progstat/7300_009_CN-4.pdf

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

The Community Corrections Manual is the Bureau of Prisons’ operating manual for everything that happens after a person leaves the institution and before the sentence ends — the halfway house, home confinement, contract jails, and the Bureau field offices that run them. It is not the policy that decides who goes to a halfway house or for how long; it is the policy that governs what the halfway-house contractor owes the Bureau, what the resident owes the contractor, and what happens when something goes wrong.

If you are trying to build the release plan itself, start with The Release Plan, which covers what a workable plan has to contain and how it is presented. This page covers the rules that plan will have to live inside once it is approved.

Nothing on this page predicts a placement, a date, or a length of time in a halfway house, and nothing here says anyone qualifies for anything. Congress wrote the discretion into the statute itself. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), “Any order, recommendation, or request by a sentencing court that a convicted person serve a term of imprisonment in a community corrections facility shall have no binding effect on the authority of the Bureau under this section to determine or change the place of imprisonment of that person,” and “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a designation of a place of imprisonment under this subsection is not reviewable by any court.” Anyone who tells you a number of months in advance is guessing.

The rule itself: community corrections

Everything in this section is transcribed from the Bureau’s own text at bop.gov/policy/progstat/7300_009_CN-4.pdf, with the page anchor for each passage. Page numbers are the PDF’s, which is the only stable way to cite a document whose internal pagination restarts with every chapter and change notice.

The subsistence charge — 25 percent

This is the number people come looking for, and it is the artifact of this Program Statement. From Section 5.13.1, PS 7300.09 at p. 222, transcribed verbatim:

5.13.1. Offender Subsistence Collection

To promote financial responsibility and offset the cost of incarceration, the Bureau requires inmates to make subsistence payments to contractors. Contractors shall collect 25% of each employed inmate’s weekly gross income not to exceed the daily inmate-day rate. Payments shall be rounded down to the nearest dollar amount. Offenders who have other means of financial support (VA Benefits, Worker’s Compensation, retirement income, etc.) shall contribute an amount determined by the contractor and approved by the CCM, to approximate 25% of their weekly income.

Contractors must collect the full subsistence due. Partial weeks of residence are prorated. Contractors shall reduce the monthly billing to the Bureau by the amount collected in subsistence. An inmate who fails to pay subsistence may have privileges withheld or disciplinary action may be taken, including termination from the program. Unless otherwise indicated by the court, supervision cases shall pay subsistence. Additionally, any inmate who transfers to the home confinement component of the program is not required to pay subsistence.

Break that into its working parts:

Element	The rule, in the manual’s own words	Pin-cite
The rate	“Contractors shall collect 25% of each employed inmate’s weekly gross income”	PS 7300.09 at p. 222
The base	Gross income, not take-home. The manual says gross; it does not deduct taxes, garnishment or transportation.	PS 7300.09 at p. 222
Rounding	“Payments shall be rounded down to the nearest dollar amount.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 222
The cap (body text)	“not to exceed the daily inmate-day rate”	PS 7300.09 at p. 222
The cap (monitoring instrument)	“Does the contractor ensure individual subsistence collections do not exceed the weekly cumulative contract per diem rate (i.e., the daily rate x 7)?”	PS 7300.09 at p. 135
Non-wage income	“Offenders who have other means of financial support (VA Benefits, Worker’s Compensation, retirement income, etc.) shall contribute an amount determined by the contractor and approved by the CCM, to approximate 25% of their weekly income.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 222
Partial weeks	“Partial weeks of residence are prorated.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 222
When it is paid	“Are payments made at the conclusion of each week of residence? (except that payment for the last week may be required in advance.)”	PS 7300.09 at p. 135
Receipts	“Does the contractor provide residents with receipts and maintain collection records for audit purposes?”	PS 7300.09 at p. 135
Home confinement	“any inmate who transfers to the home confinement component of the program is not required to pay subsistence” (added by CN-3, 8/1/2016)	PS 7300.09 at pp. 2, 222
Failure to pay	“An inmate who fails to pay subsistence may have privileges withheld or disciplinary action may be taken, including termination from the program.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 222

The two caps do not match, and we are not going to pretend they do. The body of the manual at p. 222 caps the weekly collection at “the daily inmate-day rate.” The Bureau’s own monitoring instrument at p. 135 caps it at “the weekly cumulative contract per diem rate (i.e., the daily rate x 7)” — seven times as much. Both passages were verified against the original PDF, not merely against the text mirror. This is an unreconciled internal inconsistency in a document that has been amended three times without either passage being corrected. If the amount you are being charged is in dispute, quote both pin-cites and ask the Residential Reentry Manager which figure the contract applies. It is flagged for the firm’s review.

Waivers and the extreme-hardship standard. The manual states a waiver route and defines the standard, PS 7300.09 at pp. 222–223:

In cases of extreme hardship, CCMs may waive or modify subsistence payments on a case-by-case basis, with the MCA’s concurrence. Ordinarily, obligations including fines, restitution, or court costs shall not be considered a factor when granting waivers. Extreme hardship is defined as a situation when the offender has made every effort to establish a suitable release plan, but, due to circumstances beyond his or her control, has been unable to prior to release. Examples of such situations include homelessness, unemployment due to physical or mental health reasons, unexpected or emergency critical health care needs, or no community resources.

To be considered for a modification or waiver of subsistence, the offender must submit to the contractor a written justification along with a financial statement to include a listing of all debts and assets. The contractor shall forward the offender’s request to the CCM with its recommendation. Subsistence shall be waived/modified for inmates who have been assessed a Cost of Incarceration Fee.

Read the second sentence of that first paragraph carefully. Restitution is ordinarily not a hardship factor. A resident paying court-ordered restitution under the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program does not get subsistence reduced on that basis under this policy. The waiver is aimed at people who cannot establish a release plan at all — homelessness, illness, no community resources — not at people whose paycheck is already committed. See also Inmate Financial Responsibility Program for the plain-language version.

Court orders control. “If the court indicates that subsistence should not be collected, the CCM shall comply with the court’s order” (p. 222). If subsistence is a real problem in a particular case, the sentencing court is the more powerful audience.

The three program components — and why the component matters more than the address

Two people can live in the same building under very different rules. The Bureau’s own monitoring instrument states the classification, PS 7300.09 at p. 134:

1. Program Components: are the offenders in the CCC classified into the appropriate program component? (Pre-Release; Community Corrections; Home Confinement).

Here is what each component actually carries, transcribed from the manual:

	Pre-Release Component	Community Corrections Component	Home Confinement Component
Who lands here	People finishing an institutional sentence, in the community for release preparation	“All direct placements, including supervision and direct court commitments, shall be subjected to the more restrictive Community Corrections Component of the CCC program, unless directed otherwise by judicial recommendation” (p. 199)	Residents transferred to the home-confinement component of the program (p. 222)
Leaving the facility	“Contractors may allow a pre-release component inmate to ‘sign out’ from the CCC until evening curfew, and go on pass for weekends and holidays” (p. 224)	“Except for employment and other approved program activities (i.e., seeking employment, meals served through a local restaurant, attending religious services, etc.), are residents in the Community Corrections Component only permitted to leave the center with prior approval of the CCM?” (p. 139)	Lives at home; leaves under the conditions attached to the placement
Passes	Available; see the pass rules below	“Ordinarily, are residents in the Community Corrections Component not eligible for passes?” (p. 140)	n/a
Recreation	In-house or by sign-out	“If the center does not have in-house recreational capabilities, are residents in the Community Corrections Component permitted to sign-out for up to one hour per day to the immediate vicinity of the facility for exercise/recreational activity?” (p. 140)	n/a
Social absences	“Ordinarily, are only pre-release component residents who are employed, involved in an education or vocational training program, or are considered medically unable to work, absent from the center for social purposes?” (pp. 139–140)	Ordinarily not	n/a
Subsistence	25% of weekly gross income (p. 222)	25%; “supervision cases shall pay subsistence” unless the court says otherwise (p. 222)	“not required to pay subsistence” (p. 222, as amended by CN-3)
Cost to the Bureau	Full inmate-day rate	Full inmate-day rate	“The rate for residents in this status is ordinarily 50% of the regular inmate-day rate” (p. 96)

Two consequences follow. First, the component, not the building, sets the rules — which is why “what component am I in?” is a better question to ask a case manager than “when do I get a pass?” Second, the home-confinement component is both cheaper for the Bureau and free of subsistence for the resident, and the manual adds that “The contractor should not reserve a bed for Home Confinement residents” and that “The CCM should ensure the USPO is involved in the decision to place an inmate on Home Confinement” (p. 96). The Bureau-side policy on home confinement itself is Home Confinement (PS 7320.01); the reader-facing pages are Federal Home Confinement and Home Confinement for Federal Prisoners: Eligibility, Process and How to Apply.

Passes, furloughs, sign-out and curfew

From PS 7300.09 at p. 224 (Section 5.13.4, Authorized Absences), verbatim:

Contractors may allow a pre-release component inmate to “sign out” from the CCC until evening curfew, and go on pass for weekends and holidays. A furlough is required when the inmate will be gone for more than a weekend (including holidays) and/or the destination is more than 100 miles. Furloughs require USPO comment (both in the district the inmate will be visiting as well as where the CCC is located, if not the same), CCM approval, and CIM clearance if appropriate. If repeated furloughs to the same location are anticipated, a blanket USPO and CIM clearance may be sufficient, with approval of the USPO and CIM coordinator.

Supervision cases are not eligible for furloughs. The USPO shall approve absences other than “sign-out” or “pass”.

And the operating detail from the monitoring instrument, PS 7300.09 at pp. 139–140:

• The only four ways out the door. “Does the contractor ensure residents leave the facility only through sign-out, pass, furlough, or home confinement?” (p. 139)
• Curfew. “Other than for employment, are residents in the center by 9:00 P.M. each night? (Specific exceptions require center director approval.)” (p. 140)
• What a pass is. “Are passes used to authorize overnight or weekend absences? (A pass is limited to the local community, up to a 100 mile radius.)” (p. 140)
• When a pass runs. “Do passes begin only after the resident’s return to the center after work on Friday and extend to curfew on Sunday, or the equivalent should the resident have days off other than Saturday and Sunday? (More than one pass during a given week requires the approval of the CCM.)” (p. 140)
• Clearance in advance. “At the time of intake, does the contractor contact the USPO in the appropriate jurisdiction(s) to determine if there are any objections to passes or furloughs at the location proposed by the resident? If any subsequent changes in pass or furlough location occur, does the contractor obtain additional clearance from the USPO?” (p. 139)
• The site visit. “Does the contractor (or USPO) make an initial on-site visit of the proposed location where passes or furloughs are expected to take place?” (p. 139)
• Accountability checks. “For purposes of accountability, are authorized absences randomly checked by the contractor to determine resident compliance with specified conditions?” (p. 139)

The furlough policy itself is Furloughs (PS 5280.09), and the practical walkthrough is Temporary Release: Furlough Requests.

Employment, the program plan, and the two-week clock

The manual treats employment as the point of the placement. PS 7300.09 at p. 223:

5.13.3. Employment

One of the most important purposes of CCC placement is employment assistance. Contractors are to ensure that offenders begin working as soon as possible and must assist those who need help in finding employment. Most offenders are expected to be employed within 15 working days of arrival at a CCC.

The monitoring instrument at p. 135 puts the same number as a compliance question: “Unless medically constrained, do residents secure full-time employment within fifteen working days? Do proposed employment plans which are less than full-time have the approval of the CCC Director?”

Two more time frames sit alongside it, from PS 7300.09 at pp. 134–135:

• The program plan. “Within a resident’s first two weeks, does the contractor complete an individual program plan which addresses all areas of resident needs and includes a time schedule for achievement?”
• The review cycle. “Is the program plan signed by the contractor and resident? Is progress reviewed at least every two weeks by the contractor with the resident? Is the outcome of each review chronologically documented in the resident’s file and signed by staff and resident?… Are these notes the basis of the terminal report?”

That last clause is the one to underline. The biweekly case notes are the basis of the terminal report — the document that follows a person out of the halfway house and into supervision. They are contemporaneous, they are signed by the resident, and almost nobody asks to see them.

And the employer notification, from p. 224: “Bureau policy and the SOW require that employers be notified of an inmate’s legal status (that they have been convicted of a federal offense)… Notifications should be made prior to employment of the offender if possible.” “SOW” is the Statement of Work — the contract document between the Bureau and the halfway-house operator.

Escape — the enumerated grounds, and the line the manual draws

This is the passage that decides whether a walkaway is a federal crime or a supervision violation. PS 7300.09 at pp. 204–205, Section 5.6.1, verbatim:

5.6.1. Definition and Application

Any committed inmate who fails to report to a contract facility for admission, fails to remain at the approved place of employment or training during the hours specified by the terms of the employment or training program, fails to return to the facility at the prescribed time, or fails to return from any other approved absence at the time and place stipulated, may be placed on escape status after staff have completed and documented routine procedures to locate the inmate.

The federal escape statute only applies to those who escape from the custody of the Attorney General or Bureau. A person in a CCC as a condition of probation, supervised release, or bond is there by order of the committing court and is not deemed to be in the custody of the Attorney General or the Bureau. Probationers and those on bond who leave a CCC without permission cannot be prosecuted for escape, and should not be required to sign documents indicating they can be.

The four enumerated grounds, set out:

#	Ground, verbatim from PS 7300.09 at p. 204
1	“fails to report to a contract facility for admission”
2	“fails to remain at the approved place of employment or training during the hours specified by the terms of the employment or training program”
3	“fails to return to the facility at the prescribed time”
4	“fails to return from any other approved absence at the time and place stipulated”

Each is qualified by the same condition: a person “may be placed on escape status after staff have completed and documented routine procedures to locate the inmate.” Not automatically, and not before the search. The manual’s own escape-report guidance at p. 206 defines the categories the Bureau uses: “ESCAPE FROM CUSTODY — Under this category, report an inmate whose whereabouts are unknown after contract staff have tried to locate the inmate at local jails, hospitals, job, and pass locations,” and “ESCAPE DUE TO COMMUNITY ARREST — Under this category, report an inmate who is missing as a result of an arrest by a law enforcement authority… In SENTRY these are identified as technical escapes.”

The custody distinction at p. 205 is the legally significant part of this section and it is stated in the manual’s own suggested notice to residents:

“A person who is residing in this CCC as a condition of probation, parole, supervised release, or bond is not in the custody of the Attorney General or Bureau of Prisons and thus cannot be prosecuted for escape if they leave the facility without permission. However, any unauthorized departure from the facility by those on probation, parole, or bond will be immediately reported to appropriate court personnel.”

And, at p. 205: “Any offender on probation or bond is considered to have absconded from supervision rather than escaped from custody. It is not necessary to complete the Escape Report, EMS Form 907, for absconders.”

If a client is charged with escape from a halfway house, the first question is which authority put them there. A person serving a Bureau sentence in an RRC is in the Attorney General’s custody. A person residing there as a condition of probation, supervised release or bond is not, on the Bureau’s own reading of its own manual. That is a distinction the Supreme Court has also had occasion to draw in a related setting: in Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50 (1995), the Court held that time at a community treatment center while “released” on bail under the Bail Reform Act was not “official detention” under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b), reasoning that credit is “available only to those defendants who were detained in a ‘penal or correctional facility,’ § 3621(b), and who were subject to BOP’s control.”

Notification obligations run fast. The manual directs contract staff to “report escapes to CCMs immediately after the inmate is placed on escape status” (p. 205), directs the CCM to “notify the FBI and USMS within the district of the escape immediately” (p. 207), and directs that “When an inmate escapes, CCMs shall send a letter via fax immediately (within the first working day) to the sentencing judge(s) explaining the details of the escape… The U.S. Attorney and U.S. Probation Office shall be faxed a copy of the letter to the judge” (p. 207). The sentencing judge learns about it within a day.

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: The most consequential hour in an RRC placement is the one between “you are late” and “you are on escape status.” The manual gives the contractor a documented-search obligation before that switch is flipped, and lists exactly where staff are supposed to look — “local jails, hospitals, job, and pass locations” (p. 206). Buses break down, shifts run over, employers hold people late. If someone is going to be late, the call to the front desk before the return time is the single most valuable thing they can do, and the log entry recording that call is what a lawyer will want three weeks later. If the call was made and escape status was entered anyway, the sign-in/out log required at p. 139 is the record that proves it.

Discipline in a halfway house — a different route, and a different appeal

Discipline in an RRC does not run through a Discipline Hearing Officer at the institution. It runs through a Center Discipline Committee at the contract facility, then to a Bureau DHO, then to the Residential Reentry Manager. PS 7300.09 at p. 210, Section 5.7:

5.7 DISCIPLINE/IN-PROGRAM FAILURES. This section applies to all inmates in contract facilities which are required, by the terms of their contract, to use a discipline system in which a Bureau DHO takes final action…

For those contract facilities which are not required to use Bureau discipline procedures (generally local jails and state Departments of Correction) the CCM must ensure the facilities use and adhere to the concepts of due process as outlined in Wolff v. McDonnell.

The steps and their time frames:

Step	What the manual directs	Pin-cite
On arrival	“The contractor shall furnish a copy of ‘Table 3-Prohibited Acts and Disciplinary Scale,’ found in the Program Statement on Inmate Discipline and Special Housing Units, the center’s disciplinary system, and the established rules of the facility to each new offender upon arrival… The offender’s file shall contain a receipt, signed by the offender, stating that the offender has received and understands the contents of these documents.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 211
Center Discipline Committee	The CDC hears the incident report at the facility and forwards a packet	PS 7300.09 at pp. 210–211
DHO review	“Ordinarily, within three working days of receipt of the Center Disciplinary Committee (CDC) Packet, the DHO shall review it for compliance with the CDC discipline policy specified in this Manual and Wolff v. McDonnell.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 211
Final action	“The DHO’s sanction is final and subject only to the CCM’s review to ensure conformity with the provisions of the community corrections discipline policy.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 212
Notice to the resident	“The CCM shall notify facility staff in writing of decisions and provide a copy of the CDC report for the inmate within three working days, if possible, but no longer than five working days from date of receipt of the final disposition from the DHO.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 213
What you do not get	“Part II of the Incident Report (investigation) may not be given to the inmate.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 213
Record retention	“The CCM shall maintain a copy of a complete CDC packet for 12 months or until the next program or operational review is conducted.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 213
Good time	“The CCM shall forfeit and/or disallow any Good Time in SENTRY as directed by the DHO.”	PS 7300.09 at p. 214

The appeal route is unusual and worth knowing precisely, PS 7300.09 at p. 214:

If the appeal involves only minor sanctions imposed by CCC/CDC staff, a Request for Administrative Remedy (EMS Form 229 – not available on BOPDOCS, paper only), may be used to appeal the action to the CCM…

If the appeal involves final sanctions imposed by the DHO on an incident report (major or minor), the following shall determine the method to file an appeal:

– Request for Administrative Remedy form, filed with the respective Regional Director for inmates still assigned to a CCC. – Letter to the Regional Director for inmates who have been removed from a CCC and placed in local jails or contract detention facilities and do not have access to the appropriate appeal form.

If the inmate is to be transferred to a federal institution, the inmate shall wait to use the Administrative Remedy procedure upon arrival at the institution.

So a DHO sanction from a halfway house is appealed to the Regional Director, not to a warden — and if the person has already been shipped to a county jail with no forms, a letter is expressly authorized. That is a rare accommodation in BOP policy and it is worth citing by page when someone is told they cannot appeal because they have no BP-10.

The forms used at each step are listed at PS 7300.09 at pp. 210–211: BP-S205.073 Incident Report (CCC’s); BP-S206.073 Inmate’s Rights at Center Discipline Committee Hearing (CCC’s); BP-S207.073 Notice of Center Discipline Committee Hearing (CCC’s); BP-S208.073 Center Disciplinary Committee Report (CCC’s); BP-S209.073 Duties of Staff Representatives (CCC’s); BP-S495.073 Waiver of Appearance (CCC’s); BP-S494.073 Checklist for Center Discipline Committee Certification; and the good-time notices BP-S389.058, BP-S390.058 and BP-S448.058. The underlying code table is the same one used inside an institution — see Inmate Discipline Program (PS 5270.09) and our practical page on prison disciplinary infractions.

Referral, acceptance and rejection

The manual is deliberately not the placement-timing policy. PS 7300.09 at p. 197, Section 5.2:

5.2. REFERRALS FOR INSTITUTION TRANSFER TO CCCs

The Bureau’s goal is to provide release preparation services to all inmates who have need of such services and who meet requirements for placement in the community. Refer to the Program Statement on Community Corrections Center (CCC) Utilization and Transfer Procedure and the Security Designation and Custody Classification Manual.

Bureau institution staff submit standard referrals to CCMs for release preparation placement in CCCs. CCC referral procedures allow the CCM to set an appropriate placement date within the range the referring institution requested. CCMs should also review referrals to determine whether the inmate qualifies for other community-based programs (home confinement, drug treatment, etc).

That cross-reference is the whole answer to “when does the unit team make the referral?” — the referral window lives in PS 7310.04, not here. Our page for it is Halfway House Placement Procedures (PS 7310.04), and the designation manual is Security Designation and Custody Classification (PS 5100.08).

What this manual does supply is the field-office side, PS 7300.09 at p. 198:

Upon receiving a completed CCC referral package, the CCM shall expedite one copy to the appropriate CCC, accompanied by a cover memorandum recommending a placement date and listing any special program requirements. The CCM shall indicate a specific placement date based upon known resources. A response from the CCC is expected after receipt of the referral package. CCMs must monitor referrals to ensure this occurs.

a. Acceptance. When a CCC accepts an inmate, the CCM and CCC staff shall notify the institution. CCMs shall add the destination assignment to the inmate’s SENTRY record. The effective date of the assignment will be the approved transfer date. The scheduled transfer date should allow the institution at least 10 working days to process the release paperwork. If the date is subsequently altered or canceled, CCMs must modify the effective date or delete the assignment and notify the institution.

b. Rejection. When a CCC does not accept an inmate, the CCC Director must write to the CCM outlining the reasons. The CCM shall review the rejection to determine if it is justifiable and not based on a lack of information. The CCM may want to discuss the rejection with the CCC Director for reconsideration. When it is certain that placement cannot be made, the CCM must consider placement in another CCC or probation’s electronically monitored home confinement program. If the CCM is unable to place the inmate in the community, the institution shall be notified of reasons for the denial by BOPNet, the referral package shall be disposed of, and the CCC rejection letter shall be mailed to the institution.

Three practical facts hide in that passage. A rejection is a written document — the CCC Director “must write to the CCM outlining the reasons,” and the rejection letter is mailed to the institution. A rejection is reviewable inside the Bureau — the manual directs the field office to check whether it “is justifiable and not based on a lack of information,” and to consider reconsideration. And a rejection is not the end of the road — the policy directs the field office to consider another facility or probation’s electronically monitored home confinement program. If a placement falls through and no one will say why, that letter exists.

The manual also directs a referral log, PS 7300.09 at p. 199: offender name and register number; referral institution and date received; name of referral CCC and date of referral; date of CCC reply; transfer date; date institution notified; comment section. That log is the contemporaneous record of when a referral actually moved.

What binds and what does not in PS 7300.09

A Program Statement is the Bureau’s internal instruction to its own staff. It is not a regulation. The Supreme Court described a BOP 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 — Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50 (1995). When this page says the manual “directs” the contractor or “directs staff,” that is precise language.

What binds is the statute and the regulation, and both are short.

18 U.S.C. § 3624(c), Prerelease Custody. The operative sentences:

(1) In general. 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.

(2) Home confinement authority. The authority under this subsection may be used to place a prisoner in home confinement for the shorter of 10 percent of the term of imprisonment of that prisoner or 6 months.

(4) No limitations. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to limit or restrict the authority of the Director of the Bureau of Prisons under section 3621.

(6) Issuance of regulations. The Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall issue regulations pursuant to this subsection… which shall ensure that placement in a community correctional facility by the Bureau of Prisons is— (A) conducted in a manner consistent with section 3621(b) of this title; (B) determined on an individual basis; and (C) of sufficient duration to provide the greatest likelihood of successful reintegration into the community.

Note the verbs. “Shall, to the extent practicable, ensure” — a duty qualified by practicability. “Not to exceed 12 months” — a ceiling, not a floor, and not an entitlement. “The shorter of 10 percent… or 6 months” — again a ceiling. Nothing in § 3624(c) gives anyone a right to a particular amount of time.

28 C.F.R. part 570, subpart B, “Pre-Release Community Confinement.” These are the § 3624(c)(6) regulations, and there are only three sections. § 570.21, “Time-frames,” reads in full:

(a) Community confinement. Inmates may be designated to community confinement as a condition of pre-release custody and programming during the final months of the inmate’s term of imprisonment, not to exceed twelve months.

(b) Home detention. Inmates may be designated to home detention as a condition of pre-release custody and programming during the final months of the inmate’s term of imprisonment, not to exceed the shorter of ten percent of the inmate’s term of imprisonment or six months.

(c) Exceeding time-frames. These time-frames may be exceeded when separate statutory authority allows greater periods of community confinement as a condition of pre-release custody.

And § 570.22, “Designation,” in full: “Inmates will be considered for pre-release community confinement in a manner consistent with 18 U.S.C. section 3621(b), determined on an individual basis, and of sufficient duration to provide the greatest likelihood of successful reintegration into the community, within the time-frames set forth in this part.”

“May be designated.” “Will be considered.” “Determined on an individual basis.” Those are the words that make this discretionary, and they are the reason nobody — not a consultant, not a lawyer, not a case manager — can promise a number.

18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), the designation authority. The Bureau “shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment,” and “may designate any available penal or correctional facility that meets minimum standards of health and habitability established by the Bureau… that the Bureau determines to be appropriate and suitable, considering— (1) the resources of the facility contemplated; (2) the nature and circumstances of the offense; (3) the history and characteristics of the prisoner; (4) any statement by the court that imposed the sentence— (A) concerning the purposes for which the sentence to imprisonment was determined to be warranted; or (B) recommending a type of penal or correctional facility as appropriate; and (5) any pertinent policy statement issued by the Sentencing Commission…” Then the two sentences quoted at the top of this page: a court’s community-corrections recommendation “shall have no binding effect,” and a designation “is not reviewable by any court.”

§ 570.21(c)’s “separate statutory authority” — what actually sits there. Two things, and a third that has expired on its face.

18 U.S.C. § 3624(g) is the First Step Act route. It applies to a prisoner who “has earned time credits under the risk and needs assessment system… in an amount that is equal to the remainder of the prisoner’s imposed term of imprisonment,” has shown risk reduction or maintained minimum or low risk, has had the remainder computed, and either has been scored minimum or low on the last two reassessments or has a warden-approved petition. Credits are earned at “10 days of time credits for every 30 days of successful participation,” with “an additional 5 days” for a person at minimum or low risk who has not increased risk over two consecutive assessments — 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(A) — and § 3632(d)(4)(C) directs that “Time credits earned under this paragraph by prisoners who successfully participate in recidivism reduction programs or productive activities shall be applied toward time in prerelease custody or supervised release.” Section 3632(d)(4)(D) lists offenses that make a prisoner ineligible. This page does not own that subject — see First Step Act Time Credits (PS 5410.01), First Step Act Assessments, Programming, and Incentives (PS 5405.01), First Step Act time credits, and The PATTERN risk score.

FSA home confinement under § 3624(g)(2)(A) is materially stricter than § 3624(c) home confinement: it directs that the person “be subject to 24-hour electronic monitoring,” “remain in the prisoner’s residence” except to perform work or job-seeking, participate in assigned programming, perform community service, participate in crime-victim restoration, receive medical treatment, attend religious activities, or “participate in other family-related activities that facilitate the prisoner’s successful reentry,” and “comply with such other conditions as the Director determines appropriate.”

34 U.S.C. § 60541(g), the elderly and terminally ill home detention pilot, is the second. It directs the Attorney General to “conduct a pilot program to determine the effectiveness of removing eligible elderly offenders and eligible terminally ill offenders from Bureau of Prisons facilities and placing such offenders on home detention until the expiration of the prison term to which the offender was sentenced,” and authorizes waiver of “the requirements of section 3624 of title 18 as necessary.” An “eligible elderly offender” is defined as someone “not less than 60 years of age” serving a non-life term for offenses that do not include a crime of violence, sex offense, terrorism offense or chapter 37 offense, “and has served ⅔ of the term of imprisonment,” with five further conditions including that BOP has determined the person is “at no substantial risk of engaging in criminal conduct or of endangering any person or the public.” The codified text states that the pilot “shall be carried out during fiscal years 2019 through 2023.” We could not verify an extension through the sources available for this page. Do not rely on this authority without checking its current status. See Elderly offender home detention and Management of Aging Offenders (PS 5241.01).

The third is CARES Act home confinement, now delegated by regulation rather than by this manual. 28 C.F.R. § 0.96(u) delegates to the Director, “During the ‘covered emergency period’ as defined by the CARES Act… lengthening the maximum amount of time for which the Director is authorized to place a prisoner in home confinement under 18 U.S.C. 3624(c)(2),” and, after that period, “permitting any prisoner placed in home confinement under the CARES Act who is not yet otherwise eligible for home confinement under separate statutory authority to remain in home confinement under the CARES Act for the remainder of the prisoner’s sentence… provided the prisoner is compliant with all conditions of supervision.” The same paragraph adds that on a violation, “Bureau staff may return the prisoner to secure custody, or may utilize progressive discipline as outlined in the Residential Reentry Center (RRC) contract, which may include possible placement in an RRC or contract facility in lieu of direct return to secure custody,” and expressly limits itself: “This paragraph (u) concerns only inmates placed in home confinement under the CARES Act. It has no effect on any other inmate.” Background: CARES Act Home Confinement.

The grievance ladder reaches into the halfway house. 28 C.F.R. § 542.10 provides that the Administrative Remedy Program “applies to all inmates in institutions operated by the Bureau of Prisons, to inmates designated to contract Community Corrections Centers (CCCs) under Bureau of Prisons responsibility, and to former inmates for issues that arose during their confinement.” People in RRCs are routinely told the remedy program does not apply to them. It does, and that sentence is where it says so. See Administrative Remedy Program (PS 1330.18).

Finally, on due process in contract facilities: the manual repeatedly directs compliance with Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 (1974), which held that before disciplinary action costing good-time credits a prisoner is entitled to “advance written notice of the claimed violation and a written statement of the factfinders as to the evidence relied upon and the reasons for the disciplinary action taken,” and “should be allowed to call witnesses and present documentary evidence in his defense when permitting him to do so will not be unduly hazardous to institutional safety or correctional goals.” Wolff also held that the Constitution does not require confrontation, cross-examination, or counsel in that setting. Later decisions have narrowed when a protected liberty interest arises at all, so Wolff is the floor where good time is genuinely at stake, not a general fairness guarantee.

What the Community Corrections Manual means for you

If you are the person going to the halfway house

Three things will hit you in the first two weeks: a signed acknowledgment of the facility’s rules and the prohibited-acts table on the day you arrive (p. 211), a written program plan within your first two weeks (p. 134), and an expectation of full-time employment within fifteen working days (pp. 135, 223). Once you are working, 25 percent of your gross weekly pay goes to the contractor as subsistence, rounded down to the nearest dollar (p. 222).

Ask two questions on arrival and write down the answers. Which program component am I in? — Pre-Release, Community Corrections, or Home Confinement (p. 134); it determines whether you can take a pass at all. And what subsistence rate and cap is this contract using? — because the manual states the cap two different ways at pp. 135 and 222, and you are entitled to a receipt for every payment (p. 135).

Keep your own copy of every biweekly program review you sign (p. 135). Those notes become the terminal report that follows you into supervision.

If money is genuinely impossible, the waiver route exists but the standard is narrow: a written justification plus a financial statement listing all debts and assets, submitted to the contractor, forwarded to the field office with a recommendation, and granted only for “extreme hardship” as the manual defines it (pp. 222–223). Restitution is ordinarily not a factor. Ask anyway, in writing, and keep the copy.

If you are the family member: the first call from the halfway house

Two things are worth knowing before the first phone call home from the halfway house.

The rules are stricter than they sound, and the curfew is real. Other than for employment, residents are to be in the center by 9:00 p.m. (p. 140), passes are limited to a 100-mile radius and ordinarily run from Friday after work to Sunday curfew (p. 140), and anything beyond a weekend or beyond 100 miles takes a furlough with probation-office comment and field-office approval (p. 224). Do not plan a family event on the assumption that a pass is automatic — and do not plan one at all until the location has been cleared, because the contractor or probation officer is directed to make an on-site visit of the proposed pass location (p. 139).

Being late is the single most dangerous thing. Four enumerated failures can put someone on escape status (p. 204), and three of them are versions of “did not come back on time.” A phone call to the front desk before the return time is worth more than any explanation afterward. If escape status is entered, the sentencing judge is faxed within the first working day (p. 207).

If your loved one is placed on home confinement rather than in the facility, they are “not required to pay subsistence” (p. 222) and the Bureau pays the contractor “ordinarily 50% of the regular inmate-day rate” (p. 96) — but the conditions attached to that placement are set by the placing authority, not by this manual. For the practical picture, see Federal halfway houses and House Arrest: A Comprehensive Guide. The Bureau’s field offices are listed at Residential Reentry Management Field Offices.

If you are counsel: community corrections

Four practice points from this manual specifically.

The rejection letter exists and is discoverable. When a placement does not happen, “the CCC Director must write to the CCM outlining the reasons,” and that letter is mailed to the institution (p. 198). So does the referral log, with the date the referral was received and the date of the CCC’s reply (p. 199). Both are Bureau records about your client. If the story is “no beds,” the paper will say whether that is what actually happened.

The escape/abscond line is the first question in a walkaway case. The manual’s own position is that “The federal escape statute only applies to those who escape from the custody of the Attorney General or Bureau,” and that a person in a CCC as a condition of probation, supervised release or bond “is not deemed to be in the custody of the Attorney General or the Bureau” and “cannot be prosecuted for escape” (p. 205). The manual even directs staff not to make such residents sign documents saying otherwise. Establish the placing authority before anything else.

The DHO appeal goes to the Regional Director, and a letter counts. PS 7300.09 at p. 214 authorizes a Request for Administrative Remedy filed with the Regional Director for a resident still assigned to an RRC, and expressly authorizes a letter to the Regional Director for someone already removed to a local jail “who do[es] not have access to the appropriate appeal form.” Combine that with 28 C.F.R. § 542.10‘s scope sentence and there is no good basis for the common answer that a person in an RRC or a holdover jail has no remedy. Good-time loss makes Wolff applicable; the CDC packet is retained for twelve months (p. 213); the Part II investigation is expressly withheld from the resident (p. 213), which matters when you are reconstructing the record.

Do not litigate placement length against this manual. The duration question is governed by § 3624(c), 28 C.F.R. §§ 570.21–570.22 and, where credits are in play, § 3624(g) — and § 3621(b) says a designation “is not reviewable by any court.” The tractable claims are usually computation and credit questions rather than placement-length questions; see Challenging a BOP sentence computation, The § 2241 petition, and Sentence Computation Manual (PS 5880.28).

What changed in PS 7300.09 since 1998

PS 7300.09 is a 1998 document that has been amended three times and never reissued. That is the single most important currency fact about it, and it is why the edition date in the facts table above carries a caveat.

CN-4, dated March 25, 2025 — one word. We rendered page 1 of the original PDF rather than relying on the text extraction, because strikethrough does not survive extraction and the text mirror shows deleted and added words side by side as though both were operative. The rendered page shows the change clearly. CN-4 states, verbatim:

This Change Notice (CN) implements a change to Program Statement 7300.09, Community Corrections Manual, dated January 12, 1998. This CN removes the word “gender” and replaces it with the word “sex,” pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order, dated January 20, 2025, titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (Defending Women). The deletion is marked with a strikethrough. The addition is highlighted and inserted into the policy.

The single amended passage is item 18 of Attachment 4-7, the Community Corrections Center Full Monitoring Instrument, which now asks whether contractor staff “only conduct strip searches with the approval of the director, and then, by the same ~~gender~~ sex staff and with two staff members present.” Nothing else in the 273-page document was touched. CN-4 changed no subsistence rate, no time frame, no eligibility rule, and no resident obligation.

CN-3, dated August 1, 2016 — the home confinement subsistence exemption. This is the substantive change. CN-3 states that it “removes the requirement of subsistence collection for any resident while on Home Confinement,” and adds to Section 5.13.1, paragraph 2: “Additionally, any inmate who transfers to the home confinement component of the program is not required to pay subsistence.” It also rewrote the monitoring-instrument checklist item at Attachment 4-7 p. 15 to read “Unless granted a waiver by the CCM, are all residents (except those on home confinement) held responsible for subsistence payments?” and deleted the old checklist item asking whether the contractor collects subsistence from a home-confinement resident (PS 7300.09 at p. 2). We confirmed by rendering PDF page 222 that the added sentence appears highlighted in the body and that no adjacent text is struck through.

CN-2, dated May 19, 1999 added sections on the Cost of Incarceration Fee, sexual abuse/assault prevention and intervention, and volunteer use in community-based programs, added the Tracking Juvenile Designations form to Chapter 5, and made a set of smaller changes — including, at Section 5.2.2.b, the instruction that where an inmate is rejected for CCC placement “the CCM must consider placement in U.S. Probation Office’s electronically monitored home confinement program” (PS 7300.09 at p. 3 and pp. 163–166 of the PDF’s change-notice block). Most page footers in the body of the current PDF read “PS 7300.09 CN-2 5/19/99,” which is how you can tell at a glance which pages CN-2 rewrote.

What has moved around this manual since 1998, and the manual has not caught up.

The vocabulary has changed. The manual says “Community Corrections Center (CCC)” and “Community Corrections Manager (CCM)” throughout; the Bureau now says Residential Reentry Center (RRC) and Residential Reentry Manager (RRM), and its own current regulations use the new term — see 28 C.F.R. § 0.96(u), which refers to “the Residential Reentry Center (RRC) contract.” The Bureau’s field offices are published as Residential Reentry Management Field Offices. When you write to the field office, use RRM; when you cite this manual, quote CCM.

The statutory frame was rebuilt twice after 1998. The Second Chance Act of 2007 wrote the twelve-month prerelease-custody ceiling and the 10-percent-or-six-months home confinement authority into 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c); the Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2018 added the individualized-determination command at § 3624(c)(6), which produced 28 C.F.R. part 570, subpart B. The First Step Act of 2018 added the § 3624(g) prerelease-custody route and the § 3632(d)(4) time-credit system. None of that appears in a 1998 manual. See The Second Chance Act and First Step Act Time Credits.

The chapter on Chapter 5’s parole material is largely historical. Sections 5.10 (Parole Hearing Procedures), 5.14.1.a (parole release schedule) and the old-law good-time provisions apply to a shrinking population sentenced before November 1, 1987. For everyone sentenced after, the operative regime is good conduct time under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b) — see Good conduct time.

Where people get stuck in community corrections

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

“The subsistence they are charging me is wrong.” Start with the receipt. The manual directs the contractor to “provide residents with receipts and maintain collection records for audit purposes” (p. 135), so there should be a paper trail for every week. Write an Inmate Request to Staff — form BP-A0148, a “cop-out” — to the case manager and, separately, to the Residential Reentry Manager, stating your gross weekly income, the amount collected, and the two competing caps at PS 7300.09 at p. 135 and p. 222, and asking which the contract applies. If that produces nothing, the formal ladder is the Administrative Remedy Program, which 28 C.F.R. § 542.10 expressly extends to “inmates designated to contract Community Corrections Centers (CCCs) under Bureau of Prisons responsibility, and to former inmates for issues that arose during their confinement”: BP-9, then BP-10 to the Regional Director, then BP-11 to the Office of National Inmate Appeals, under 28 C.F.R. part 542, subpart B. The clock 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 the BP-A0148 but does not publish the BP-9, BP-10 or BP-11 forms; you get those from staff. See Request to Staff (PS 5511.08) and Administrative Remedy Program.

“I got an incident report in the halfway house and I’m being sent back.” Do not wait. The DHO reviews the CDC packet “[o]rdinarily, within three working days of receipt” (p. 211), and the sanction is final subject only to the field office’s conformity review (p. 212). You are owed a copy of the CDC report within three working days, and no more than five, from the field office’s receipt of the final disposition (p. 213). Ask for it by name, and note that Part II of the incident report will not be given to you (p. 213). The appeal is filed with the Regional Director — by form if you are still in the RRC, by letter if you have been moved to a local jail without access to forms (p. 214). If you are transferred back to a federal institution, the manual directs that you wait and use the remedy procedure there (p. 214). Related: Inmate Discipline Program and prison disciplinary infractions.

“I was late once and now I’m on escape status.” The manual does not make escape status automatic. It says a person “may be placed on escape status after staff have completed and documented routine procedures to locate the inmate” (p. 204), and the escape-report guidance names where staff are supposed to look: “local jails, hospitals, job, and pass locations” (p. 206). The two documents to ask for are the sign-in/out log sheet the contractor is directed to maintain for each resident — “resident’s full name, register number, present legal status, time-out, destination, purpose, authorized return time, time-in, a section for special comments, and certification by staff’s signature or initials” (p. 139) — and the escape report itself (EMS Form 907). Where the placement was a condition of probation, supervised release or bond rather than a Bureau designation, the manual’s own position is that this is absconding from supervision, not escape from custody (p. 205), and that is a matter for the court and defense counsel, not a grievance. This is a consult, immediately: contact us.

“My release plan was rejected and nobody will tell me why.” There is a letter. “When a CCC does not accept an inmate, the CCC Director must write to the CCM outlining the reasons,” the field office is directed to check whether the rejection “is justifiable and not based on a lack of information,” and where placement cannot be made the institution is notified of the reasons and “the CCC rejection letter shall be mailed to the institution” (p. 198). Ask the unit team for it, in writing. Then fix the plan: the substantive work is on The Release Plan, and the placement-procedure policy is Halfway House Placement Procedures (PS 7310.04).

Where the underlying problem is designation, sentence computation, First Step Act credit calculation or a medical placement, the administrative remedy path is necessary but rarely sufficient on its own. Those belong in a consult — see Federal Prison Consulting Services and Federal prison early release lawyer. 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 community corrections

The paired money page is The Release Plan, which owns the question this page deliberately does not touch: what a workable RRC or home-confinement release plan has to contain, and how it is presented to the people who decide. This page owns the manual — the contract obligations, the resident’s obligations, and what happens when something goes wrong.

The two sibling policies that own placement. Halfway House Placement Procedures (PS 7310.04) owns the referral window and the transfer procedure — PS 7300.09 at p. 197 expressly routes you there. Home Confinement (PS 7320.01) owns home-confinement placement. Neither subject is covered in depth here on purpose.

First Step Act, which owns the credits. First Step Act Time Credits (PS 5410.01) and First Step Act Assessments, Programming, and Incentives (PS 5405.01) on the policy side; First Step Act time credits and The PATTERN risk score on the practical side.

Early-release routes that interact with community placement: Federal halfway houses, Federal home confinement, Home Confinement Eligibility, The Second Chance Act, Elderly offender home detention, RDAP, Good conduct time, and Challenging a BOP sentence computation.

Bureau policy that meets this manual directly: Release Preparation Program (PS 5325.09) for what happens inside before the referral; Unit Team and Program Review (PS 5321.09) for who makes it; Security Designation and Custody Classification (PS 5100.08) for the classification the referral depends on; Sentence Computation Manual (PS 5880.28) for the dates; Furloughs (PS 5280.09) for absences longer than a pass; Inmate Discipline Program (PS 5270.09) for the prohibited-acts table the CDC applies; and Administrative Remedy Program (PS 1330.18) for the grievance ladder. Facility contacts: Residential Reentry Management Field Offices.

Further reading on this site: CARES Act Home Confinement and House Arrest: A Comprehensive Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Community Corrections Manual

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Full text of the Program Statement

The Bureau’s own text of Program Statement 7300.09 is reproduced here in full, with page markers matching the BOP PDF so passages can be pin-cited: Program Statement 7300.09 — Community Corrections Manual (full text).

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