Life Connections and Threshold Programs

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

Program Statement	5319.01
Subject	Life Connections and Threshold Programs
Current edition	March 19, 2026
Change notices	None
Supersedes	Not stated — the document contains no “Directives Rescinded” or “Summary of Changes” block
Governing regulation	None cited in the Program Statement
Governing statute	34 U.S.C. § 60533 (post-release mentoring) — the only statute the Program Statement cites
Related BP forms	Prescribed by 5319.01: BP-A0741 (LCP Program Participation Request), BP-A0742 (LCP Referral Form), BP-A0743 (LCP Participation Agreement). Other forms used: BP-A0148 (Inmate Request to Staff), BP-A1068 (Transitional/Mentor Volunteer Contact), EMS-A409 (Request for Transfer/Application of Management Variable)
Approved by	William K. Marshall III, Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons
Official PDF	https://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/5319_001-1.pdf

Checked against the BOP policy set · 2026-09-07 · How we verify

Program Statement 5319.01 establishes two Bureau of Prisons programs run by the Chaplaincy Services Branch: the Life Connections Program (LCP), an 18-month residential program at designated low, medium and high security institutions, and Threshold, a shorter non-residential program for people who do not meet the LCP criteria. Both are usually described as faith-based, and the policy’s own words are more careful than that — it says they “build upon the inmate’s personal belief system, whether secular or religious.” For the wider picture of worship, diet, religious property and group services inside a federal prison, read this alongside religious programs in federal prison; the rules that govern religious practice itself are in religious beliefs and practices.

This is a new edition dated 19 March 2026 — recent enough that most pages describing these programs are working from older material.

The rule itself: Life Connections and Threshold

The thing a reader actually comes here for is the eligibility list: who can apply to the Life Connections Program, and what disqualifies them. The Program Statement sets it out as an enumerated list, and it is reproduced verbatim below.

Who may apply to the Life Connections Program

a. LCP Program Selection Criteria. To apply and participate in the LCP, inmates must meet the following requirements:

– Complete a BP-A0741, Life Connections Program (LCP) Program Participation Request form and a BP-A0743, Life Connections Program (LCP) Participation Agreement form. – Are ordinarily within 36 to 48 months of their earliest departure date to the community (e.g., FSA conditional placement date [FCPD], projected release date). To facilitate program completion, inmates with shorter time remaining on their sentence are given priority placement. – Must not have a written removal order. – Must have a clear disciplinary record for the past 12 months. – Must not be in Financial Responsibility Program (FRP) refuse status in the applicable Bureau inmate management system. – Are meeting or have met General Educational Development (GED) obligations in accordance with the Program Statement Literacy Program (GED Standard). Specifically, inmates who are in GED unsatisfactory status in the applicable Bureau inmate management system are not eligible for the LCP. – Have met English as a Second Language (ESL) obligations in accordance with the Program Statement English-as-a-Second Language Program (ESL). – Are willing to be designated to the LCP. – Participate in a three-session orientation at current institution.

Reproduced from Program Statement 5319.01 at p. 3, section 2.a. Transcription re-checked against the original PDF in layout mode.

Note the word “ordinarily” in the timing criterion, and note what the list does not do: it does not say that meeting every item entitles anyone to a place. Placement runs through a referral and approval chain described below, and the number of seats is fixed.

The numbers that constrain it

The Program Statement’s structure section carries the hard limits, verbatim:

Program Population. The number of participants in each program may not exceed 36 inmates per cohort for a total of three cohorts at one time. The second cohort of 36 inmates ordinarily begins after the first cohort completes 6 months of the LCP, and a third cohort begins after the first cohort completes 12 months of the LCP. The program duration is 18 months.

Reproduced from PS 5319.01 at p. 3, section 2.b.

Constraint	Life Connections Program	Threshold Program
Residential?	Yes — “The LCP is a residential program” (p. 4)	No — “a non-residential program” (p. 7)
Duration	“The program duration is 18 months” (p. 3)	“ordinarily meet weekly for six to nine months” (p. 1, p. 7)
Cohort size	“may not exceed 36 inmates per cohort for a total of three cohorts at one time” (p. 3)	“include no more than 20 participants” (p. 7)
Session pattern	“five days of regular afternoon and evening programming, as well as weekend activities” (p. 4)	“cohorts meet weekly in 90-minute class sessions” (p. 7)
Timing criterion	“ordinarily within 36 to 48 months of their earliest departure date to the community” (p. 3)	“Priority placement is given to inmates within two years of release from prison” (p. 1, p. 7)
How you apply	BP-A0741 and BP-A0743, plus a three-session orientation (p. 3)	“Inmates submit a BP-A0148, Inmate Request to Staff to a Chaplain requesting participation” (p. 7)
Transfer involved?	Yes — applicants must be “willing to be designated to the LCP” (p. 3)	No — “recruited locally and are not transferred from or to other institutions for program participation” (p. 7)
Work assignment	“institution work assignments for up to four hours a day during unscheduled program hours” (p. 4)	Not addressed
Re-entry after expulsion	“may re-apply for the program after 12 months” (p. 7)	Not stated in the Program Statement

All values quoted from PS 5319.01 at the pages indicated.

The four curriculum components

Every LCP participant completes all four. Quoted from PS 5319.01 at pp. 5–6, section 3:

a. Education. This component includes completing course-specific assignments and study material, as well as conducting interfaith or secular studies.

b. Community Mentoring. This component includes developing professional relationships with community-based mentors/mentoring organizations, establishing mentoring guidelines and boundaries, and meeting with participants on a regular basis/as needed in accordance with program needs.

c. Community Service. This component includes completing 500 hours of community service. Refer to the Program Statement Public Works and Community Service Projects for additional information regarding community service projects.

d. Victim Impact. This component includes developing the violation of relationship model, understanding and acknowledging the impact on victims, providing opportunities for interaction and dialogue with Victim Impact Panels, accepting responsibility for the harm done, and developing awareness of repercussions criminal activities have on society as a whole.

500 hours of community service is the number people miss. Over an 18-month program that is a substantial standing commitment, and it is a completion requirement, not an option.

Grounds for expulsion

Inmates may be expelled for:

– Violation of disciplinary rules and regulations as determined by the Unit Discipline Committee (UDC) or Discipline Hearing Officer (DHO). – Failure to meet program participation or requirements in accordance with the program guidelines, such as financial responsibility or education obligations.

Reproduced from PS 5319.01 at p. 7, section 6.

The policy adds that the LCP Review Committee “ordinarily consists of the LCP Chaplain, Unit Manager, and an Associate Warden,” that “Associate Wardens make the final decision regarding an inmate’s expulsion or re-application to the program,” that “[o]rdinarily, inmates expelled from LCP are returned to the sending institution,” and that expelled participants “may re-apply for the program after 12 months.”

Is this a religious program? What the policy actually says

This is the question that brings most people to this page, and it deserves the policy’s own words rather than a summary.

The Program Statement describes the LCP at p. 1 as “a structured residential, personal, and spiritual development program,” and states that the goals are “to foster personal and spiritual growth and social responsibility, as well as to reconcile relationships with victims, families, and the community.” Then, in the same paragraph:

These programs build upon the inmate’s personal belief system, whether secular or religious, and provide the life skills and tools to transition back into the community in a positive manner.

The first stated program objective, at p. 1, is that inmates “will demonstrate improved institutional adjustment and enhanced success in community reentry through living within the boundaries of their belief systems, whether secular or religious.”

On the course itself, at pp. 3–4:

Course Structure. The program is open to inmates seeking direction in personal spirituality, positive values, or responsibilities, whether or not they have a religious affiliation. The LCP is designed to facilitate the range of beliefs represented by the inmate population.

And the curriculum description at p. 5 lists, among the ways the curriculum promotes positive values, “participating in institutional worship services consistent with boundaries of faith or secular beliefs” and “providing opportunities for secular or religious personal reflection, direction, and counseling.”

Threshold is framed the same way, at p. 7: “The program is open to inmates seeking grounding in positive values and responsibility whether they have a religious affiliation or not.”

Read those together and the design is clear. The Bureau does not run a religious LCP alongside a separate secular LCP. It runs one program, administered by Chaplaincy Services, that is written to accommodate participants who have no religious affiliation as well as those who do. The eligibility list reproduced above contains no religious criterion of any kind — not membership, not belief, not practice. Nothing in the Program Statement conditions admission on a person’s faith or lack of one.

What the policy does not do is describe an alternative program for someone who objects to a chaplain-administered course as such. If that is your concern, the place to look is not this Program Statement but the rules governing religious accommodation generally, in religious beliefs and practices.

What about time credits?

Be careful here, because this is where inaccurate information does real damage.

PS 5319.01 does not state that completing the LCP or Threshold earns First Step Act time credits. It says something narrower, twice. The program objectives at p. 2 state:

Inmates will be afforded the opportunity to complete the LCP and/or Threshold program and may be eligible for First Step Act (FSA) incentives, in accordance with the Program Statement First Step Act Program Incentives.

And the incentives bullet at p. 4:

LCP Incentives. Institutions will refer to the Program Statement First Step Act Program Incentives and the CSB page of the Bureau’s intranet site for guidance about incentives for inmates participating in and completing the LCP.

The completion section at p. 6 does the same thing for good conduct time:

Institutions will refer to the Program Statements Good Conduct Time Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act and First Step Act of 2018 – Time Credits: Procedures for Implementation of 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4) for guidance regarding good conduct time (GCT) and FSA time credits (FTC) for inmates participating in and completing the LCP.

In plain terms: this Program Statement routes the question elsewhere rather than answering it. Whether a particular activity earns FSA time credits depends on whether it is an approved Evidence-Based Recidivism Reduction program or Productive Activity, on the person’s eligibility and risk level, and on the credit rules themselves — none of which are decided in PS 5319.01. Anyone who tells you that signing up for Life Connections earns time credits is stating something this policy does not say. Take the question to First Step Act time credits and First Step Act assessments, programming and incentives, and check the current approved-programs guide for the specific institution.

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: When we look at whether a program is worth applying for, the credit question is only half of it. The other half is the eligibility list — because four of the nine LCP criteria are things a person can fix in advance. Financial Responsibility Program refuse status, GED unsatisfactory status, unmet ESL obligations, and a disciplinary incident inside the last twelve months each close the door on their own. Two of those are administrative statuses that can be corrected long before an application is filed. That is the part of a program plan that is actually within someone’s control.

What Life Connections and Threshold mean for you

If you are the person inside: check yourself against the eligibility list

Start with the eligibility list above and check yourself against it honestly. Three of the criteria are database statuses you can verify at a program review: FRP refuse status, GED status, and ESL obligations. The disciplinary criterion is a clean 12 months — a shot inside that window is disqualifying on its face.

For Threshold, the entry route is simple and local: submit a BP-A0148 Inmate Request to Staff — the cop-out — to a Chaplain asking to participate. No transfer, no referral packet.

For LCP, the route is longer. The Program Statement at p. 4 describes a self-directed three-session orientation:

– Session 1: Overview of the LCP. – Session 2: Feedback and exploration of the LCP. Completion of the BP-A0741, Life Connections Program (LCP) Program Participation Request form and of the BP-A0743, Life Connections Program (LCP) Participation Agreement form. – Session 3: A private interview with an institution Chaplain regarding program eligibility and a review of application materials.

Understand that applying to LCP normally means agreeing to be transferred. One of the criteria is being “willing to be designated to the LCP,” and the referral packet includes a “Request for EMS-A409, Transfer/Application of Management Variable form with program participation code 324” (p. 5). If you are near family and the LCP site is not, that is a real trade-off to weigh before you sign the participation agreement.

One consolation on the back end: at p. 6, on completion, “[u]nless there are documented security concerns preventing transfer, regardless of release date, inmates are ordinarily designated to an institution close to their release destination to enhance ties with the community.”

If you are the family: mentoring is built in

Two things worth knowing.

Mentoring is built into the program, and it can follow your loved one home. The Program Statement provides at p. 8 that “[a] trained mentor is matched with each participant during the incarceration phase by the Mentor Coordinator or designee,” and describes a post-incarceration phase as well, including “the connection with a mentoring organization at the inmate’s release destination.” Mentor Coordinators are directed to “establish and maintain communication with shareholders and community partners including U.S. Probation, Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs), faith-based and community mentoring organizations.”

Every contact with a mentor is documented, and calls are monitored. At p. 8: “Phone calls and correspondence within the institution are subject to monitoring and other agency screening procedures. All instances of telephone, electronic, and written communication between an incarcerated inmate and a mentor, whether initiated by the mentor or the inmate’s family, must be documented by mentors using form BP-A1068, Transitional/Mentor Volunteer Contact – Form. Mentors submit these forms to the Chaplain monthly, or as otherwise determined by the Chaplain.” If your family is arranging a mentor through a community organization, they should expect the paperwork.

If a transfer to an LCP site is on the table, weigh what it does to visiting. Distance is the practical cost of this program, and it lands on the family.

If you are counsel: Life Connections and Threshold

Four points that matter in a placement or transfer dispute:

• The referral chain is documented and reviewable. Application packet to the institution Chaplain; consultation with the Unit Manager for a recommendation on appropriateness; Warden approval; packet to the Central Office LCP address; review by the Chaplaincy Faith-Based Coordinator; then “forwarded to the Designation and Sentence Computation Center (DSCC) for final approval and processing” (pp. 4–5). Each step generates a record.
• A security threat group flag routes the file elsewhere. “Any applicant with the security threat group assignment of International or Domestic Terrorism must be reviewed by the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) for potential safety and security concerns” (p. 5). Where the applicant is already at an LCP institution, the LCP Chaplain “consults with Special Investigative Services (SIS) regarding each applicant to determine if security threat group codes are present.”
• Expulsion decisions rest with an Associate Warden, on a committee record, with a 12-month bar on re-application (p. 7). Where an expulsion follows a disciplinary finding, the underlying finding is usually the better target.
• The Program Statement is the Bureau’s instruction to its own staff, not a regulation. It confers no entitlement to a place, and it cites no 28 C.F.R. part. Program placement is discretionary, and this document does not change that.

What changed with Program Statement 5319.01

PS 5319.01, dated 19 March 2026 and approved by Director William K. Marshall III, contains no “Summary of Changes” section and no “Directives Rescinded” block. That is not an oversight in our reading — the document runs ten pages and closes with a References section listing program statements, forms, statutes and ACA standards, with no supersession statement anywhere in it. Older-format Bureau statements carry a “DIRECTIVES AFFECTED” block near the front; this one does not.

We also checked the Bureau’s superseded-policy set from the June 2026 reissue, which retired 24 program statements. No 5319-series statement appears there, and no earlier 5319 edition appears in the current policy set alongside this one. On the face of the available record, we cannot say what edition this replaced or what was changed from it, and we are not going to guess. What we can say is what the document itself establishes: the operative text of the Life Connections and Threshold policy carries a March 2026 date, and that is more recent than almost anything else written about these programs.

Two things in the March 2026 text are worth noticing as markers of how current it is. First, the timing criterion is written in terms of the “earliest departure date to the community (e.g., FSA conditional placement date [FCPD], projected release date)” — FSA conditional placement date is a First Step Act concept, so the eligibility window is pegged to the modern credit framework rather than to a raw release date. Second, the statement repeatedly refers to “the applicable Bureau inmate management system” rather than naming SENTRY, which is the phrasing the Bureau has adopted as it migrates its core systems.

Where people get stuck in the five-step referral chain

“I applied and never heard anything.” The referral chain has five or six hand-offs before a seat is assigned, and the seats are capped at 36 per cohort with three cohorts running at once. Ask at your next program review where the packet is and get the answer recorded. Unit Management staff and the LCP Chaplain are directed to “communicate about inmate program participation and progress during regular Inmate Program Review meetings” (p. 2) — so the program review is the right forum, and unit team and program review explains how that meeting works. If the answer is that a database status disqualified you, that status is the thing to fix.

A disqualifying status you did not know about. FRP refuse status and GED unsatisfactory status each independently close the door. Both are correctable, and both take time. FRP status runs through the inmate financial responsibility program; education obligations run through the literacy program (GED standard) and, where relevant, the ESL program. Fix the status first; the application is second.

Expelled after a disciplinary finding. Expulsion follows a UDC or DHO determination, so the disciplinary case is usually the real issue. If the incident report itself is defective, that is where to fight — see the inmate discipline program. If the expulsion decision itself is the complaint, it runs through the grievance system.

Being told the program automatically earns time credits, or being told it counts for nothing. Both are wrong. The Program Statement says participants “may be eligible” for FSA incentives and sends staff to the incentives and time-credits statements for the answer. Get the actual program designation for your institution rather than relying on what anyone says in the unit.

The route for a formal complaint. Program placement disputes run through the ordinary administrative remedy process. Under 28 C.F.R. § 542.13, you “shall first present an issue of concern informally to staff” — the BP-8 or cop-out stage. Then under 28 C.F.R. § 542.14, “[t]he deadline for completion of informal resolution and submission of a formal written Administrative Remedy Request, on the appropriate form (BP-9), is 20 calendar days following the date on which the basis for the Request occurred.” Appeals follow 28 C.F.R. § 542.15: a BP-10 to the Regional Director “within 20 calendar days of the date the Warden signed the response,” then a BP-11 to the General Counsel “within 30 calendar days of the date the Regional Director signed the response.” Our administrative remedy program explainer and how to file a BP-9 cover the mechanics. Nothing in PS 5319.01 creates a separate appeal for program decisions.

Related BOP policy on faith-based programs

• Religious programs in federal prison — the plain-language companion to this page, and its paired guide.
• Religious beliefs and practices — the Bureau’s core religious-accommodation policy, distinct from these two programs.
• First Step Act time credits and First Step Act assessments, programming and incentives — where the incentives question is actually answered.
• Good conduct time — the other credit stream the completion section references.
• Literacy program (GED standard) and the ESL program — two of the eligibility gates, named in the criteria list.
• Inmate financial responsibility program — FRP refuse status is disqualifying.
• Inmate discipline program — the 12-month clear-conduct requirement and the expulsion trigger.
• Unit team and program review — where progress and referrals are discussed.
• Release preparation program and halfway house placement procedures — the reentry track these programs feed into.
• BP-A0148 Inmate Request to Staff — the form Threshold applicants use.
• The full BOP policy library — every program statement we have mapped.

Frequently Asked Questions About Life Connections and Threshold

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