Youth Corrections Act (YCA) Inmates

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

Program Statement	5219.01
Subject	Youth Corrections Act (YCA) Inmates
Current edition	June 22, 2026
Change notices	None
Supersedes	PS 5215.07 Youth Corrections Act (YCA), Inmates (9/23/2016) — rescinded, and renumbered from the 5215 series to 5219.01
Governing regulation	28 C.F.R. §§ 524.20–524.25 (part 524, subpart C)
Governing statute	None in force. The Federal Youth Corrections Act, 18 U.S.C. ch. 402, was repealed effective October 12, 1984
Related BP forms	BP-A0571 Program Review Report (named in the Program Statement text)
Official PDF	https://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/5219_001.pdf

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

The Federal Youth Corrections Act was a rehabilitative sentencing scheme for young offenders that Congress repealed in 1984 — no court has been able to impose a YCA sentence for more than forty years. The Bureau of Prisons nonetheless still maintains a Program Statement for YCA inmates, and reissued it on 22 June 2026, because a person sentenced before the repeal remains a YCA inmate until a judge makes an in-person “no further benefit” finding or the YCA sentence is completely absorbed by an adult federal sentence. If you are looking at options for shortening a sentence being served today, start at our federal prison early release hub; if you are trying to understand how program plans and reviews work for anyone in custody, see unit team and program review.

Say the obvious thing plainly: this is not a sentencing option. Nobody can be sentenced under the YCA today, no lawyer can ask for it, and no judge can grant it. This page exists because the status has not been fully extinguished for everyone it once attached to, because the regulation is still on the books, and because the Bureau just rewrote the policy.

The rule itself: Youth Corrections Act inmates

Three pieces of 28 C.F.R. part 524, subpart C do the work here. All three were verified against the current text on eCFR. Program Statement 5219.01 reprints the regulation and adds the Bureau’s staff instructions around it.

1. Who is a YCA inmate — 28 C.F.R. § 524.21

“(a) YCA inmate: An inmate sentenced under provision of the Youth Corrections Act who has not received an in-person ‘no further benefit’ finding by his or her sentencing judge, and whose YCA sentence has not been completely absorbed by an adult federal sentence.

(b) No further benefit: An in-person finding by the inmate’s sentencing court that YCA treatment will not be of further benefit to the inmate. An inmate receiving such court finding is accordingly not considered to be a YCA inmate.”

Reproduced from 28 C.F.R. § 524.21 and from Program Statement 5219.01 at p. 2. Text identical in both.

That definition is the whole page. It contains two exits and one entry condition, and every practical question about YCA status runs through it:

• Entry: sentenced under a provision of the Youth Corrections Act. Because the Act was repealed in 1984, this can only describe a sentence imposed before that repeal took effect.
• Exit one: an in-person “no further benefit” finding by the sentencing judge. Note the words. Not a Bureau determination, not a Parole Commission determination, not a finding on the papers — an in-person finding by the sentencing court.
• Exit two: the YCA sentence has been completely absorbed by an adult federal sentence.

Until one of those exits occurs, the status persists, and with it the whole apparatus below.

2. The parole hearing schedule — 28 C.F.R. § 524.24

Provision	Regulation text (verbatim)
Opening	“All YCA inmates have been extended the parole procedures present in Watts vs. Hadden. YCA inmates shall be scheduled for interim hearings on the following schedules:”
(a)	“For those inmates serving YCA sentences of less than 7 years, an in-person hearing will be scheduled every 9 months.”
(b)	“For those inmates serving YCA sentences of 7 years or more, an in-person hearing will be scheduled every 12 months.”
(c)	“Upon notification of a response to treatment/certified completion of a program plan by the Bureau of Prisons, the Parole Commission will schedule the inmate for an in-person hearing on the next available docket, unless the inmate is paroled on the record. If a hearing is held and the inmate is denied parole, the next hearing shall be scheduled in accordance with the schedule outlined in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.”
(d)	“The hearings mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section are not required for inmates who have been continued to expiration or mandatory parole who have less than one year remaining to serve or to a CCC placement date.”

Reproduced from 28 C.F.R. § 524.24 and from Program Statement 5219.01 at p. 5.

9 months and 12 months. Those are the two numbers on this page a reader is most likely to be looking for, and the dividing line is a seven-year YCA sentence. Paragraph (c) is the one that matters most in practice: a certified completion of the program plan does not release anyone, but it does put them on the next available Parole Commission docket — unless the Commission paroles them on the record without a hearing.

3. Program reviews — 28 C.F.R. § 524.23

“Staff shall conduct periodic reviews of the inmate’s program plan and shall modify the plan in accordance with the level of progress shown. Each YCA inmate shall be afforded a review at least once each 90 days, and shall have a formal progress report prepared every year summarizing the inmate’s level of achievement. If the inmate’s program plan needs to be modified in light of the progress made, or the lack thereof, appropriate changes will be made and a revised program plan will be developed and documented. Staff shall ordinarily notify the inmate of the 90-day review at least 48 hours prior to the inmate’s scheduled appearance before the Unit Team. An inmate may waive in writing the requirement of 48 hours notice.”

Reproduced from 28 C.F.R. § 524.23 and from Program Statement 5219.01 at p. 5.

Three numbers: a review at least once each 90 days, a formal progress report every year, and 48 hours’ notice of the review, waivable only in writing by the inmate. The Program Statement adds one instruction the regulation does not contain: “YCA inmates must participate in program review meetings.”

This is a materially better entitlement than the ordinary regime. For most people in federal custody there is no annual progress report at all — the requirement for a periodic progress report was removed from the Bureau’s regulations in 2013, and reports are now event-driven only. See our page on progress reports for how that works for everyone else. For a YCA inmate, § 524.23 still requires one every year.

The three-phase program

Section 524.22 requires wardens to ensure “each committed youth offender is scheduled for a three-phase program plan which will include a classification phase, a treatment phase, and a pre-release phase,” developed by the Unit Team as part of the classification phase.

Classification phase. Begins on arrival at the designated institution; “consists of evaluation, orientation, unit assignment, and concludes when the inmate has attended the initial classification (or transfer classification) meeting with the Unit Team.” The Program Statement adds that “the YCA inmate is to have received a psychological screening prior to attending the initial classification meeting.” Program plans must include specific goals in three categories, which the Program Statement then illustrates (PS 5219.01 at p. 3):

Goal category (regulation)	Examples given in the Program Statement
(i) Behavior	“conduct, sanitation/hygiene, work performance, attitude/interpersonal skills, and/or communication skills”
(ii) Treatment/self improvement	“educational/social education, work assignment, vocational training, substance abuse, psychological counseling, and/or health and recreation”
(iii) Pre-release	“family visiting, vocational counseling, financial preparation for release, escorted trips/furloughs, and/or Residential Reentry Center (RRC) placement”

Treatment phase. The regulation is unusually blunt about compliance: “The ‘program day’ shall consist of morning, afternoon, and evening time periods, during which the inmate shall be scheduled for treatment programs, work, and leisure-time activities. The inmate shall be expected to comply with the program plan. The inmate’s participation in a treatment program is required, not optional. An inmate’s failure to participate may result in disciplinary action.”

Pre-release phase. “The YCA inmate shall enter the pre-release phase approximately 9 months prior to release. The pre-release phase is ordinarily divided into two segments: participation in the institution pre-release program and a stay at a Community Corrections Center (CCC), if otherwise eligible.” The Program Statement adds two clarifications: “Community Corrections Centers (CCC) are now referred to as RRCs,” and the pre-release phase “may be prepared in conjunction with the Release Preparation Program scheduled within 30 months of release, as long as it is no later than nine months prior to release” — a cross-reference to the Release Preparation Program, which the Bureau reissued as PS 5325.09 in the same June 2026 wave.

Incentives. “Staff shall establish incentives to motivate YCA inmates and to encourage program completion. Examples of such incentives which may be used are special recognition, awards, and ‘vacation days’.”

Placement. The Program Statement instructs that “ordinarily, YCA inmates are placed in institutions commensurate with their security levels, custody assignments, and program needs,” and that “every attempt is made to designate a YCA inmate to an institution near the release area” — with an exception “when the court has ruled the institution is prohibited from housing YCA inmates and there has not been an in-person ‘no further benefit’ finding to the contrary by their sentencing judge” (PS 5219.01 at p. 4). On ordinary placement factors generally, see security designation and custody classification.

The Parole Commission’s role

Section 524.25, as reprinted at p. 5 of the Program Statement, provides that “the U.S. Parole Commission is the releasing authority for all YCA inmates except for full term and conditional releases,” and requires that the Commission be provided a progress report:

“(a) Upon request of the Commission, (b) Prior to any interim hearing or pre-release record review, or (c) Upon determination by the inmate’s Unit Team, with concurrence by the Warden, that the inmate has completed his or her program plan.”

The Bureau adds two instructions (PS 5219.01 at p. 6): where staff want to flag a special post-release need, “Unit Management staff must either note this in the progress report or submits a separate report bringing the post-release need to the USPC’s attention,” with a substance-abuse aftercare contact given as the example; and — the requirement worth remembering — “Progress reports for YCA inmates prepared for parole hearings must include a complete summary of the program plan and describe the inmate’s progress in meeting program goals.”

And under § 524.22(d): “Upon full and satisfactory completion of the program plan, the Warden will notify the U.S. Parole Commission and make a specific recommendation for release.”

The Parole Commission still exists, and its authorisation now runs to 2031. Under section 235(b) of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 the Commission was meant to wind down; Congress has repeatedly deferred that. The current deferral, in the notes to 18 U.S.C. § 3551, provides that the expiration “shall not apply during the period beginning on October 1, 2025, and ending on January 30, 2031.”

Watts v. Hadden

The regulation names one case: Watts v. Hadden, 651 F.2d 1354 (10th Cir. 1981). We retrieved and read it. The Tenth Circuit held that the Parole Commission “must comply with the requirements of § 4206 and the requirements of the entire Youth Corrections Act as well,” and that in evaluating a YCA offender’s parole prognosis Congress intended the Commission “to consider both the factors set forth in § 4206 and the factors that are made relevant by the Youth Corrections Act” — rather than applying offense-severity guidelines to the exclusion of the Act’s individualized, rehabilitative focus. The court also held that the Bureau could not treat the Act’s segregation scheme as impractical as a whole.

Two cautions. First, the case is forty-five years old, construes a repealed statute, and carries a citator caution flag; we cite it because § 524.24 itself names it as the source of the parole procedures extended to YCA inmates, not as a freestanding basis for relief. Second, its segregation holding has been overtaken by the very regulation that cites it: § 524.20 states that “while the Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) may discontinue segregating Youth Corrections Act (YCA) inmates from adult inmates, it must continue to provide quality programs for YCA inmates.” What survives in current law is the programming obligation, not the separate-institutions obligation.

Records, expungement, and how staff find you

Two short sections of the Program Statement carry a lot of weight for anyone with an old YCA conviction.

Identification. “Once a YCA inmate arrives at the designated institution, it is critical for Unit Management staff to identify the inmate promptly in the applicable Bureau inmate management system using the Case Management Assignment ‘YCA.'” Inquiries “should be directed to the Regional Counsel or Consolidated Legal Center for the inmate’s designated facility” (PS 5219.01 at p. 6). There is no national YCA point of contact — the 2016 edition removed FCI Englewood from that role, and questions now go to Regional Counsel.

Records and expungement. “YCA inmate records are handled in accordance with the Program Statements Correctional Systems Manual and Inmate Central File, Privacy Folder, and Parole Mini Files,” and then:

“Information on former YCA inmates, including the fact they were confined, may not be released without Regional Counsel review to determine whether the conviction has been expunged. After review, Regional Counsel or designee may release information as appropriate.”

(PS 5219.01 at p. 6.)

That instruction exists because the YCA allowed a conviction to be set aside on unconditional discharge, and the Bureau treats the fact of confinement itself as information it may not release until a lawyer has checked whether the conviction still exists. If you are dealing with an old YCA record — a background check, a records request, an application that asks about confinement — that sentence is the one to point to, and the request should be routed through Regional Counsel. See also central file and records and the FOIA and Privacy Act route.

What changed from PS 5215.07 to 5219.01

PS 5219.01 rescinded PS 5215.07 (9/23/2016) and renumbered the policy. The Summary of Changes lists four items, and none of them is substantive:

“Program Statement Rescinded:

• 5215.07 Youth Corrections Act (YCA), Inmates (9/23/2016) Changes:
• Updates Program Statement title to Youth Corrections Act (YCA) Inmates.
• Updates Program Statement References.
• Updates American Correctional Association (YCA) Standards.
• Updates Program Statement number to 5219.01.”

(PS 5219.01 at p. 1.)

We read the superseded PS 5215.07 alongside it. Two things are worth reporting. The regulatory text — §§ 524.20 through 524.25 — is carried forward unchanged; both editions reprint the same regulation, which itself has not been amended. And the substantive change that people still ask about was made in the 2016 edition, not this one: PS 5215.07 “removes the requirement that staff at the Federal Correctional Institution in Englewood, Colorado (FCI Englewood) serve as the Bureau point of contact for YCA issues, and directs inquiries to Regional Counsel or the Consolidated Legal Center.” That instruction is carried into PS 5219.01. So if you are working from a source that says to contact FCI Englewood about a YCA question, that source is at least ten years out of date.

The renumbering is the practical trap. “PS 5215.07” is the number in every filing, consulting note and reference work written between 2016 and mid-2026. It now points to a rescinded statement. The current text is PS 5219.01, and the 2016 edition has been retired to the Bureau’s superseded set — cite the edition in force at the time of the conduct you are describing, and the current one for anything prospective.

The 2026 reissue wave. PS 5219.01 is one of 23 Program Statements the Bureau updated or added effective 22 June 2026, alongside dozens more reissued between February and May 2026. That the Bureau bothered to reissue a policy for a sentencing scheme repealed in 1984 is itself informative: the Bureau does not treat the category as closed.

And the repeal, precisely. Section 524.20 refers to “the repeal of 18 U.S.C. chapter 402, sections 5011 and 5015(b).” The chapter repeal is documented in section 235(a)(1)(A) of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (Pub. L. 98-473), set out in the notes to 18 U.S.C. § 3551, which provides that “the repeal of chapter 402 of title 18, United States Code, shall take effect on the date of enactment” — that is, October 12, 1984. Unlike the rest of the Sentencing Reform Act, which took effect thirty-six months later, the YCA repeal was immediate.

Where people get stuck asking whether YCA still applies

“Is my relative still a YCA inmate?”

This is the question, and it is answered by § 524.21(a) rather than by anything the Bureau will volunteer: the status persists unless a sentencing judge has made an in-person “no further benefit” finding, or the YCA sentence has been completely absorbed by an adult federal sentence. Note what is not on that list — the passage of time, the repeal of the Act, a transfer to an adult institution, or a Bureau or Parole Commission view of the matter.

The route. The Bureau records the status as a Case Management Assignment of “YCA,” so the first step is a written request on a BP-A0148 Inmate Request to Staff asking whether that assignment is present and, if it was removed, on what date and on what basis. If the answer is that a “no further benefit” finding was made, ask for the document — the regulation requires an in-person finding by the sentencing court, so there should be a court record of it. Where the answer is unsatisfactory or the assignment appears to have been dropped without a court finding, the Program Statement directs staff inquiries to Regional Counsel or the Consolidated Legal Center, and the administrative remedy program runs BP-8 informal resolution → BP-9 to the warden → BP-10 to the region → BP-11 to the Office of National Inmate Appeals.

The annual progress report has not been prepared

Section 524.23 requires that each YCA inmate “shall have a formal progress report prepared every year summarizing the inmate’s level of achievement.” That is a regulation, and it is more than the general population gets. Because § 524.25 makes the progress report the Parole Commission’s window into program progress, a missing annual report is not a paperwork problem — it is a gap in the record the releasing authority is supposed to be reading.

The route. Ask in writing for the most recent annual progress report and for the current program plan. If neither exists, say so in the request and cite § 524.23 and § 524.25 by section number rather than citing the Program Statement — the regulation binds, the Program Statement instructs. Then the ordinary remedy chain.

“Can I get a YCA sentence, or get my sentence converted to one?”

No, and this is where a lot of bad information circulates. The Act was repealed effective 12 October 1984. There is no mechanism in current law for a court to impose a YCA sentence or to convert an existing sentence into one, and nothing in Program Statement 5219.01 or in 28 C.F.R. part 524, subpart C creates one — the regulation governs the administration of sentences already imposed.

The route. If the goal is a shorter sentence being served now, the live avenues are entirely different ones: a sentence reduction or compassionate release motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), First Step Act time credits, RDAP and its early-release provision, a petition for commutation, or post-conviction litigation. Our federal prison early release hub sets out which is which.

An old YCA conviction is showing up where it should not

The Bureau’s own instruction says that “information on former YCA inmates, including the fact they were confined, may not be released without Regional Counsel review to determine whether the conviction has been expunged” (PS 5219.01 at p. 6).

The route. Direct the request to Regional Counsel and ask them to make the determination the Program Statement contemplates. Where a record has already been released, or where the underlying question is whether the conviction was set aside, that is a legal question about the judgment itself and belongs with counsel — and the answer will turn on the sentencing court’s records, not on the Bureau’s. For what the Bureau holds and how to ask for it, see central file and records and FOIA and Privacy Act requests.

Related BOP policy on Youth Corrections Act inmates

• Unit Team and Program Review — named in the Program Statement’s References, and the source of the BP-A0571 Program Review Report on which YCA program plans and progress are documented
• Progress Reports — the general regime, for contrast: no annual report requirement outside the YCA and parole contexts
• Release Preparation Program — reissued as PS 5325.09 on the same date; the pre-release phase may be prepared in conjunction with it
• Central File and Records — “Inmate Central File, Privacy Folder and Parole Mini-Files,” named in the Program Statement’s References
• Security Designation and Custody Classification — placement “commensurate with their security levels, custody assignments, and program needs”
• Halfway House Placement Procedures — the RRC segment of the pre-release phase
• Pretrial Inmates — this Program Statement expressly does not apply to pretrial or holdover inmates or detainees
• Juvenile Delinquents — a distinct and still-live regime under 18 U.S.C. ch. 403, frequently confused with the repealed YCA
• D.C. Code Sentence Computation — D.C. Code offenders sentenced under the former Federal Youth Corrections Act, and under the separate D.C. Youth Rehabilitation Act, are administered by the U.S. Parole Commission under 28 C.F.R. § 2.106
• Administrative Remedy Program — the route for a disputed YCA assignment
• Petition for Commutation of Sentence and Compassionate Release — the live routes to a shorter sentence

For the rest of the series, see the BOP policy library.

Frequently Asked Questions About YCA Inmates

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