Getting Out

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

There are roughly a dozen distinct legal routes out of federal prison, and they divide cleanly into two groups: things the Bureau of Prisons decides, and things a court or the President decides. Confusing the two is the single most common and most expensive mistake families make — a request to the warden cannot fix a sentencing error, and a motion to a judge cannot make the Bureau give someone a halfway house.

This page maps every route, states what each one actually requires under the current statute, and says who decides. It does not tell you which one applies to your situation, and it never computes a release date — those depend on facts only your own sentence computation and your own record can answer.

Every route out, at a glance

Route	Legal basis	Who decides	What it changes	Where to go deeper
Expiration of the term	18 U.S.C. § 3624(a)	Bureau (computation)	Nothing — this is the default	Sentence computation
Good conduct time	18 U.S.C. § 3624(b)	Bureau	Up to 54 days per year of the sentence imposed	Good conduct time
Prior custody credit	18 U.S.C. § 3585(b)	Bureau	Credit for pre-sentence detention not credited elsewhere	Prior custody credit
First Step Act time credits	18 U.S.C. §§ 3632(d)(4), 3624(g)	Bureau	10 or 15 days per 30 days of programming, toward prerelease custody or up to 365 days of early supervised release	FSA time credits
Halfway house (RRC)	18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(1); 28 C.F.R. § 570.21	Bureau	Where the last up to 12 months are served — not how long the sentence is	Halfway houses
Home confinement	18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2)	Bureau	Where the last 10% of the term or 6 months, whichever is shorter, are served	Home confinement
RDAP early release	18 U.S.C. § 3621(e)	Bureau	Up to one year off, for a nonviolent offense, after completing residential drug treatment	RDAP
Elderly offender home detention	34 U.S.C. § 60541(g)	Bureau / Attorney General	Home detention for the remainder of the term; age 60+, two-thirds served, nonviolent	Elderly offender home detention
Compassionate release	18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)	Sentencing court	Reduces the sentence itself	Compassionate release
Guideline-amendment reduction	18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2)	Sentencing court	Reduces the sentence where the Commission lowered the range retroactively	Federal sentence reduction
Direct appeal	Fed. R. App. P.; 28 U.S.C. § 1291	Court of appeals	Can vacate the conviction or the sentence	Federal appeals
§ 2255 motion	28 U.S.C. § 2255	Sentencing court	Collateral attack on the conviction or sentence	§ 2255 motions
§ 2241 petition	28 U.S.C. § 2241	District of confinement	Challenges the execution of the sentence — computation, credits, discipline	§ 2241 petitions
Clemency / commutation	U.S. Const. art. II, § 2	The President	Shortens or ends the sentence as an act of grace	Clemency
Parole (pre-1 Nov. 1987 offenses only)	Former 18 U.S.C. ch. 311, preserved by SRA § 235(b)	U.S. Parole Commission	Release on parole supervision before expiration	See “The pre-1987 cohort” below
Treaty transfer	18 U.S.C. ch. 306	DOJ + both countries + the person	Transfers the sentence abroad; it does not end it	Treaty transfer program

Every figure in this table was verified against the current statutory text on 7 September 2026. Nothing in it tells you what will happen in a particular case.

The one distinction that organizes everything

Before anything else, sort the route you are considering into one of two boxes.

Box one — the Bureau of Prisons controls it. Good conduct time, First Step Act credits, prior custody credit, halfway house, home confinement, RDAP, elderly offender home detention. These are administrative decisions made inside the institution and at the Designation and Sentence Computation Center. You challenge them through the Bureau’s own administrative remedy process — BP-8 through BP-11 — and, only after exhausting it, in a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 filed in the district where the person is confined. A judge in the sentencing district generally cannot order the Bureau to give someone more halfway house time. Congress said so directly: under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), “a designation of a place of imprisonment under this subsection is not reviewable by any court.”

Box two — a court or the President controls it. Compassionate release, § 3582(c)(2) reductions, direct appeal, § 2255, clemency. These change the sentence itself, or the conviction. They are filed in court (or with the Office of the Pardon Attorney), they have deadlines, and the Bureau’s opinion is at most evidence.

Almost every dead end we see comes from a family working the wrong box: filing administrative remedies about a sentencing error, or writing to a judge about a halfway house date. Get the box right and the rest of the process follows.

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: When we open a file, the first document we want is the sentence monitoring computation sheet — not the judgment, not the PSR. It shows the Bureau’s own arithmetic: the statutory release date, good conduct time projected and disallowed, prior custody credit applied, and the release method code. Most of what families believe is a “denial” turns out to be a computation input nobody has looked at. Ask for it, in writing, through the unit team.

Good conduct time — and what the First Step Act changed

Good conduct time is the largest single reduction most people will ever receive, and it is automatic in the sense that nobody has to apply for it. 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b)(1) provides that a person serving a term of more than one year, other than life, “may receive credit toward the service of the prisoner’s sentence of up to 54 days for each year of the prisoner’s sentence imposed by the court, subject to determination by the Bureau of Prisons that, during that year, the prisoner has displayed exemplary compliance with institutional disciplinary regulations.”

Two phrases in that sentence do the work. “Up to” means it can be reduced or withheld — good conduct time is a disciplinary sanction available to a Discipline Hearing Officer, so a serious incident report can cost days. “Sentence imposed by the court” is the language the First Step Act put there, and it is the reason the numbers changed in 2018.

Before the First Step Act, the statute said credit “of up to 54 days at the end of each year of the prisoner’s term of imprisonment,” and the Bureau read “term of imprisonment” to mean time actually served. The Supreme Court upheld that reading in Barber v. Thomas, 560 U.S. 474 (2010), holding that “the Bureau’s method reflects the most natural reading of the statute.” The Court spelled out the practical result: on a ten-year sentence, the maximum award under the Bureau’s method was 470 days rather than 540 — “about 15% of the prison time actually served.” The First Step Act of 2018 amended the text to read “sentence imposed by the court,” which is the language in force today. Barber remains good law about the old statute; it no longer describes how the calculation is done.

Good conduct time interacts with everything else on this page. It sets the projected release date from which halfway house and home confinement are measured backward, and it is the baseline that First Step Act credits then move. It is also the credit most often miscomputed after a transfer, a writ, or a state sentence running alongside a federal one. For the mechanics, see good conduct time and challenging a BOP sentence computation.

First Step Act time credits

First Step Act time credits are the newest and most misunderstood route, and they are the one where a confident sentence on a website can do real damage. Here is what the statute says, without any application to your facts.

Earning. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(A), a prisoner who successfully completes Evidence-Based Recidivism Reduction (EBRR) programming or Productive Activities “shall earn 10 days of time credits for every 30 days of successful participation.” A prisoner “determined by the Bureau of Prisons to be at a minimum or low risk for recidivating, who, over 2 consecutive assessments, has not increased their risk of recidivism, shall earn an additional 5 days of time credits for every 30 days of successful participation.” The Bureau’s implementing policy, PS 5410.01 (Change Notice 2, 10 Mar. 2023), calculates credits automatically in 30-day increments and awards no partial credit; days short of 30 carry over to the next monthly cycle (PS 5410.01 at pp. 15–16).

When earning starts. Credits begin accruing when the term of imprisonment commences — “the date the inmate arrives or voluntarily surrenders at the designated Bureau facility where the sentence will be served” (PS 5410.01 at p. 13; see 18 U.S.C. § 3585(a)). No credits accrue during pretrial detention, in U.S. Marshals custody before designation, or for programming completed before 21 December 2018 (§ 3632(d)(4)(B)).

Who cannot earn. Section 3632(d)(4)(D) lists the disqualifying offenses of conviction — a long enumerated list running to clause (lxviii). The Bureau also treats certain prior convictions as disqualifying where the current offense is a “serious violent felony” as defined by 18 U.S.C. § 3559(c)(2)(F), the current sentence exceeds a year, and the person served more than a year for a prior federal or state murder, voluntary manslaughter, assault with intent to commit murder, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, kidnapping, carjacking, arson, or terrorism conviction (PS 5410.01 at pp. 10–11). The Bureau also excludes people in state custody, state boarders, treaty-transfer prisoners, military prisoners sentenced under the UCMJ, and — unless and until the D.C. Council acts — people sentenced under the D.C. Code.

Earning is not the same as applying. This is the distinction that trips everyone. A person can be earning credits and still be unable to use them. Under § 3632(d)(4)(E), someone subject to a final order of removal cannot apply credits at all. The Bureau’s policy adds that people with unresolved pending charges or detainers “may earn FTCs, if otherwise eligible,” but “will be unable to apply them to prerelease custody or release to supervision unless the charges and/or detainers are resolved,” and treats unresolved immigration status the same way (PS 5410.01 at p. 18).

How they are applied. Section 3624(g) sets the gate. Credits may be applied only where the person has earned credits “in an amount that is equal to the remainder of the prisoner’s imposed term of imprisonment,” has shown a demonstrated recidivism risk reduction or maintained minimum or low risk, and has had the remainder of the term computed under applicable law. For prerelease custody, the person must be minimum or low risk on the last two reassessments — or have a petition approved by the warden on findings that they would not be a danger to society, made a good faith effort to lower their risk, and are unlikely to recidivate. For early transfer to supervised release, the statute caps the benefit: application must “result in transfer to supervised release no earlier than 12 months before the date that transfer to supervised release would otherwise have occurred.” The Bureau implements that cap as up to 365 days automatically applied where a defined set of conditions is met (PS 5410.01 at p. 21).

The interaction nobody explains correctly

Good conduct time, First Step Act credits, and halfway house placement are three different things that all land on the same calendar. Here is how they relate, stated as rules rather than arithmetic.

Question	Answer	Source
Do FSA credits replace good conduct time?	No. They are separate statutory credits with separate rules. Good conduct time reduces the term under § 3624(b); FSA credits move a person to prerelease custody or supervised release under § 3624(g).	§ 3624(b), § 3624(g)
Is there a cap on FSA credits?	Only on the portion applied to early transfer to supervised release — 12 months by statute, implemented as up to 365 days. Credits beyond that are applied to prerelease custody (RRC and/or home confinement).	§ 3624(g)(3); PS 5410.01 at pp. 19, 21
Do FSA credits guarantee a longer halfway house stay?	No. The Bureau’s referral is the Five Factor Review days under § 3621(b) required by the Second Chance Act, plus remaining FSA credit days not applied to supervised release. Placement remains “dependent on, but not limited to, the inmate’s release residence, program requirements, and available contract bed space and funding.”	PS 5410.01 at pp. 20–21
When does the halfway house referral go in?	Ordinarily to the Residential Reentry Management office 12 months in advance of the projected release date, or at least 60 days before the projected placement date, whichever is greater.	PS 5410.01 at p. 20
Can FSA credits be lost?	Yes. Only earned credits can be lost, by a Discipline Hearing Officer sanction for a prohibited act; loss cannot be a suspended sanction. Restoration requires clear conduct for two consecutive risk and needs assessments and a Warden-level decision on form BP-A1156.	PS 5410.01 at pp. 16–17
What stops credits accruing?	Disciplinary segregation, designation outside the institution for a full 24-hour day, custody of another jurisdiction, mental health or psychiatric holds, material-witness or civil-contempt detention, civil commitment, and “opting out.” Administrative detention does not stop earning.	PS 5410.01 at pp. 8–9, 15
Does RDAP early release stack with FSA credits?	The § 3621(e) benefit is applied first, then FSA credits — but the person must retain enough time to complete the 120-day community-based treatment component, and the FSA days applied are reduced if necessary to preserve it.	PS 5410.01 at p. 22

How to check rather than guess. Every person earning credits has an FSA Time Credit Assessment, informally the FTC Worksheet. PS 5410.01 at p. 16 provides that these “will be automatically uploaded to the Inmate Central File during each auto-calculation,” and that “[i]nmates will be provided a copy of the most recent FTC Worksheet during regularly scheduled program reviews.” Ask for it. It is the document that shows earning status, eligibility coding, and the credits posted — and it is where an error, if there is one, will be visible. If the coding is wrong, the route is a request to staff, then the administrative remedy process, then § 2241. Since PS 5511.08 took effect on 19 March 2026, that request is submitted through the electronic Request to Staff Service in TRULINCS — one per department per day, with a response ordinarily completed within 30 calendar days if warranted. The paper BP-A0148 Inmate Request to Staff is the exception, for people the Warden exempts and for anyone housed in a Protective Custody Unit (PS 5511.08 at p. 2).

Halfway house and home confinement

These do not shorten a sentence. They change where the last part of it is served — which for most families is the difference that matters most.

The halfway house maximum is 12 months. Section 3624(c)(1) directs the Director “to the extent practicable” to ensure that a prisoner “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,” and provides that “[s]uch conditions may include a community correctional facility.” The regulation is identical: 28 C.F.R. § 570.21 permits designation to community confinement “during the final months of the inmate’s term of imprisonment, not to exceed twelve months.”

The home confinement maximum is different and smaller. Section 3624(c)(2) provides that the authority “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,” and adds a direction the First Step Act inserted: “The Bureau of Prisons shall, to the extent practicable, place prisoners with lower risk levels and lower needs on home confinement for the maximum amount of time permitted under this paragraph.”

The decision is individualized and runs on five statutory factors. Section 3624(c)(6) requires the Bureau’s regulations to ensure placement is “conducted in a manner consistent with section 3621(b),” “determined on an individual basis,” and “of sufficient duration to provide the greatest likelihood of successful reintegration into the community.” The § 3621(b) factors — the ones staff call the Five Factor Review — are: the resources of the facility contemplated; the nature and circumstances of the offense; the history and characteristics of the prisoner; any statement by the sentencing court about the purposes of the sentence or recommending a type of facility; and any pertinent Sentencing Commission policy statement.

Neither limit is a floor. Section 3624(c)(4) provides that “[n]othing in this subsection shall be construed to limit or restrict the authority of the Director of the Bureau of Prisons under section 3621,” and 28 C.F.R. § 570.21 adds that the time frames “may be exceeded when separate statutory authority allows greater periods of community confinement as a condition of pre-release custody” — which is the hook First Step Act credits hang on.

There are 22 Residential Reentry Management offices nationwide — Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City, Long Beach, Miami, Minneapolis, Montgomery, Nashville, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Sacramento, San Antonio, Seattle, and St. Louis. The RRM office covering the release district, not the institution, contracts for the bed. See Residential Reentry Management offices and, for the placement rules themselves, halfway house placement procedures and home confinement policy.

Preparation matters here in a way it does not elsewhere: the Release Preparation Program is a practical precondition, and a release plan with a verified address and a probation-office contact is what makes a referral straightforward. See RRC release plan.

Court-ordered routes: compassionate release and sentence reductions

Compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) is a motion to the sentencing judge, not a request to the Bureau — although it starts with one. The statute allows the court to act “upon motion of the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, or upon motion of the defendant after the defendant has fully exhausted all administrative rights to appeal a failure of the Bureau of Prisons to bring a motion on the defendant’s behalf or the lapse of 30 days from the receipt of such a request by the warden of the defendant’s facility, whichever is earlier.” The court may then reduce the term “after considering the factors set forth in section 3553(a) to the extent that they are applicable,” if it finds “extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant such a reduction” and the reduction “is consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission.”

That 30-day clock is the most important date on this page for anyone considering the route: it starts when the warden receives the request, and it is a floor, not a waiting period you can skip. Our compassionate release pages cover the standard, the policy statement, and how district courts actually apply it — start at compassionate release and request to warden and exhaustion. The Bureau’s own side of the process is compassionate release / reduction in sentence.

Guideline-amendment reductions under § 3582(c)(2) are the other court-ordered route that does not require finding an error. Where a person “has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment based on a sentencing range that has subsequently been lowered by the Sentencing Commission,” the court may reduce the term — on the defendant’s motion, the Director’s motion, or its own motion — after considering the § 3553(a) factors and consistent with the Commission’s policy statements. This is the mechanism that carried Amendment 821 relief. It is narrow: the amendment has to have been made retroactive, and the reduction is bounded by the amended range. See federal sentence reduction.

Attacking the conviction or sentence itself is a different project again, with its own deadlines. A direct appeal comes first and is time-barred quickly. A § 2255 motion is the collateral attack, subject to a one-year limitation period and strict rules on second or successive filings. A § 2241 petition is not an attack on the sentence at all — it challenges how the sentence is being executed, which is where computation, credits, and discipline live.

Clemency, parole, and the routes people forget

Clemency. The President’s pardon power under Article II, § 2 is not bounded by any of the rules on this page. A commutation shortens a sentence; a pardon forgives the conviction after it is served. Petitions go to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and the Bureau has its own procedure for handling a commutation petition from inside an institution — see petition for commutation of sentence. Because clemency is discretionary in the fullest sense, no one can honestly predict an outcome; what can be done is build a petition that presents the record clearly. See clemency, commutation of sentence, and our explainer on commutation of sentence: definition, criteria, how to secure relief.

Parole — the pre-1987 cohort. Federal parole was abolished for offenses committed on or after 1 November 1987. The Sentencing Reform Act’s effective-date provision made the new sentencing chapters applicable “only to offenses committed after the taking effect of this chapter,” calculated as the first day of the first calendar month 36 months after 12 October 1984. For offenses committed before that date, former 18 U.S.C. chapter 311 and the U.S. Parole Commission still govern, and Congress has repeatedly extended the Commission’s life. The current extension provides that the expiration date in § 235(b) of the Sentencing Reform Act “shall not apply during the period beginning on October 1, 2025, and ending on January 30, 2031.” The Bureau maintains a separate computation manual for these sentences, PS 5880.30, distinct from the manual for post-1987 sentences, PS 5880.28. If the offense conduct predates 1 November 1987, none of the good conduct time or First Step Act analysis above applies in the same way, and the file needs to be read against the old-law manual.

Elderly offender home detention. 34 U.S.C. § 60541(g) authorizes a program to place eligible elderly and terminally ill offenders on home detention “until the expiration of the prison term to which the offender was sentenced.” The statutory definition of “eligible elderly offender” requires that the person be not less than 60 years of age, be serving a non-life sentence for offenses that do not include a crime of violence, a sex offense, a terrorism offense described in 18 U.S.C. § 2332b(g)(5)(B), or an offense under chapter 37 of title 18, and has served two-thirds of the term of imprisonment — plus five further conditions including no prior conviction for such an offense, no escape history, a Bureau finding of substantial net cost reduction, and a Bureau determination of no substantial risk. An “eligible terminally ill offender” must meet the same offense and conduct criteria and be determined by a Bureau-approved physician either to need nursing-home, intermediate-care, or assisted-living care, or to have a terminal illness. See elderly offender home detention, and, for how the Bureau handles aging in custody more generally — accommodations, care levels, and the authorization window on this pilot — elderly prisoners in the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Deportation and removal. Immigration status is not itself a route out — it is a set of limits. A final order of removal makes a person ineligible to apply First Step Act credits under § 3632(d)(4)(E), and is one of the ordinary exemptions from the Release Preparation Program (PS 5325.09 at p. 9). An unresolved immigration status is treated by the Bureau like an unresolved pending charge for purposes of applying credits (PS 5410.01 at p. 18). Release in these cases is usually a transfer to ICE custody at the completion of the federal term, not a release to the street. The related Bureau process is the institution hearing program.

Treaty transfer. A person who is a citizen of a country with a prisoner-transfer treaty may apply to serve the remainder of a federal sentence in that country. It requires the consent of both governments and of the person, and it transfers the sentence rather than ending it. See transfer treaty program.

Transfer to state custody before release. Where a state detainer is lodged, the Bureau has a procedure for transferring a person to state custody before the federal sentence expires. See transfer to state custody before release.

What actually happens on release day

The last step is mechanical, and knowing it prevents a great deal of avoidable panic.

Weekend and holiday releases move earlier, not later. Under 28 C.F.R. § 571.30, quoted at PS 5140.36 at p. 1, the Bureau “may release an inmate whose release date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, on the last preceding weekday” unless a detainer or other reason requires otherwise. See release before a weekend or holiday.

There is a release gratuity, and it has a ceiling. PS 5873.06 at p. 2 provides that people whose offenses were committed on or after 1 November 1987 “may be authorized a discretionary gratuity of up to $500, based upon the inmate’s needs and financial resources,” under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(d); for pre-November 1987 offenses the figure is up to $100 under 18 U.S.C. § 4281. Unit staff may recommend up to $250 with the Case Management Coordinator’s approval; above $250 requires the Warden. The same policy requires release clothing “appropriate for the time of year and the inmate’s geographical destination” and transportation to the release destination. See release gratuities, transportation and clothing.

Identification should already be handled. PS 5325.09 at p. 10, effective 22 June 2026, requires that Unit Management provide all original identification documents to Correctional Systems two weeks before release, and that if the person does not receive them, the facility forward them by certified mail to the RRC or the release address on file, keeping the tracking receipt.

Supervised release starts immediately. For nearly everyone, walking out is the start of a court-supervised term, not the end of the case. Reporting deadlines are short and are set by the judgment and the probation office. See supervised release basics.

Frequently Asked Questions About Getting Out

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