Report of Incident

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

Form number	BP-E583, as the Bureau writes it in its own policy
Title as printed	Cannot be verified — BOP does not publish this form. PS 5566.07 calls it Report of Incident
Form-face date	Cannot be verified — form not published
Prescribed by	Cannot be verified from the form. PS 5566.07 lists BP-E583 in its “Bureau Forms” block at p. 31
Replaces	Cannot be verified — form not published
Governing Program Statement	5566.07, Use of Force, Application of Restraints, and Firearms (July 17, 2024)
Governing regulation	28 C.F.R. § 552.27 — requires documentation, but names no form
Published by BOP?	No. BP_E583.pdf and every variant tested return 404 (checked 2026-09-07)
Distribution as printed	Cannot be verified from the form. PS 5566.07 at p. 18 states where copies go
Where it is kept	Electronically in TRUINTEL; a copy of the report goes in the Inmate Central File
Official PDF	None. Governing policy: PS 5566.07

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

A BP-E583, Report of Incident, is the document Bureau of Prisons staff prepare after using force, applying restraints, deploying chemical agents, or using a less-than-lethal weapon on someone in federal custody — it records what staff did, not what the incarcerated person is accused of doing. It is created and stored electronically, and the Bureau does not publish a blank copy of it. The policy that creates it is Program Statement 5566.07 on use of force and restraints; the document people most often confuse it with is the BP-A0288 Incident Report used in the inmate discipline program.

Why you cannot download this form

We tested this rather than assuming it. On 7 September 2026 we requested BP_E583.pdf from the Bureau’s public form directory at bop.gov/policy/forms/, along with every plausible variant — BP_A0583.pdf, BP_S583.pdf, BP_583.pdf, BP_E0583.pdf and lower-case spellings. Every one returned HTTP 404. As a control, in the same session we requested forms we know are published from that same directory: BP_A0148.pdf, BP_A0288.pdf and BP_A0394.pdf all returned live PDFs. The directory works. This form is not in it.

PS 5566.07 names six forms in its “Bureau Forms” list at p. 31 — BP-A0717, BP-A0718, BP-A0719, BP-A0720, BP-E583 and BP-E586. None is published. We also probed a spread of other “E”-prefixed numbers, from BP-E001 to BP-E600, and found no published form carrying an “E” prefix at all.

That lines up with what the policy says. PS 5566.07 states the BP-E583 “will be prepared electronically” and “is maintained electronically in TRUINTEL,” while the forms BOP does publish carry a printed notice reading “Paper Form. For Print Only.” So far as the Bureau’s own policy describes it, there is no blank to hand you — there is a screen a staff member fills in.

We will not reconstruct a form we have not read. You will find pages elsewhere describing “block 4” or “the signature line” of a BP-E583. We cannot verify that, so we do not print it — but we can show you what the Bureau’s policy says the document must contain.

A Report of Incident is not an Incident Report

Two different documents with almost the same name. They come from different policies, are written for different reasons, and only one is ever handed to the person it is about.

	BP-E583 Report of Incident	BP-A0288 Incident Report
What it records	What staff did — a use of force, restraints, chemical agents, a less-than-lethal weapon	What the incarcerated person is accused of doing — a charged prohibited act
Governing policy	PS 5566.07, Use of Force, Application of Restraints, and Firearms	PS 5270.09, Inmate Discipline Program
Governing regulation	28 C.F.R. § 552.27	28 C.F.R. § 541.5
Published by BOP?	No	Yes
Format	Electronic, in TRUINTEL	Paper form, printed “Prescribed by P5270”
Given to the person it is about?	No delivery requirement in the policy	Yes — ordinarily within 24 hours
Starts a hearing?	No	Yes — UDC, then possibly the DHO

The disciplinary side is the one with a clock attached. Under 28 C.F.R. § 541.5, a staff member “will issue you an incident report describing the incident and the prohibited act(s) you are charged with committing,” and “[y]ou will ordinarily receive the incident report within 24 hours of staff becoming aware of your involvement in the incident.” That delivery is recorded on the face of the BP-A0288, which carries numbered blocks for the deliverer’s signature and the date and time delivered. We walk that document through block by block on our BP-A0288 Incident Report page.

The BP-E583 has no equivalent — no instruction that a copy be handed to the person force was used on, and no deadline running in that person’s favor. It is prepared, routed upward and filed. One incident can generate both documents, which is precisely why the names get tangled.

What the Program Statement says the document must contain

This is the Bureau’s own description of the form. It is not the form. We quote it in full because it is the only verifiable account of what a BP-E583 has to say, and because the first paragraph — the part that binds — is the regulation itself.

10. § 552.27 Documentation of use of force and application of restraints incidents.

Staff shall appropriately document all incidents involving the use of force, chemical agents, or less-than-lethal weapons. Staff shall also document, in writing, the use of restraints on an inmate who becomes violent or displays signs of imminent violence. A copy of the report shall be placed in the inmate’s central file.

a. Report of Incident. A BP-E583, Report of Incident, will be prepared electronically documenting the use of force, chemical agents/OC, progressive restraints, and less-than-lethal delivery systems. This reporting requirement includes the application of progressive restraints on an inmate who complies with the placement of the restraints.

The report must establish the identity of all inmates, employees, and others involved in the incident. It must provide a detailed description of the incident. The report, including mental health and medical reports must be submitted to the Warden or designee no later than the end of the tour of duty. A copy of the reports is to be placed in the Inmate’s Central File. Copies are also to be sent within two workdays to the following:

• Assistant Director, Correctional Programs Division
• Assistant Director, Health Services Division
• Central Office Correctional Services Administrator
• Regional Director
• Regional Correctional Services Administrator

A report is not necessary for the general use of restraints (e.g., the routine movement or transfer of inmates).

b. Use of Restraints Documenting Requirements. The following reviews will be documented as indicated:

• 15-Minute Check utilizing the BP-A0717, Fifteen Minute Restraints Check Form (24-Hours)
• Two-Hour Lieutenant Check utilizing the BP-A0718, Two-Hours Lieutenant Restraints Check Form (24-Hours)
• Health Services Review utilizing the BP-A0719, Health Services Restraints Review Form (24-Hours)
• Psychology Review utilizing the BP-A0720, Psychology Services Review Form (24-Hours)

c. Documentation Maintenance. The Captain maintains all documentation, including the video. The BP-E583, Report of Incident, is maintained electronically in TRUINTEL.

Reproduced verbatim from Program Statement 5566.07 at pp. 18–19. This is the Program Statement’s description of the form, not the form itself.

Which half of that binds, and which half does not

PS 5566.07 flags this on every page: the Bureau prints regulatory text from 28 C.F.R. in one typeface and its own staff instructions in another. Typography does not survive text extraction, so we checked the regulation independently.

The first paragraph above is 28 C.F.R. § 552.27, word for word. That is a rule with the force of law behind it. Everything from “a. Report of Incident” onward is the Bureau instructing its own staff — and the regulation names no form number at all. No BP-E583, no deadline, no distribution list. The form, the end-of-tour deadline, the two-workday copies and TRUINTEL storage are the Bureau’s own additions.

That gap matters. In Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50 (1995), the Supreme Court described a BOP Program Statement as “an internal agency guideline” rather than a “published regulation[] subject to the rigors of the Administrative Procedur[e] Act, including public notice and comment,” and treated it as “akin to an ‘interpretive rule'” that is “still entitled to some deference.” A Program Statement is how the Bureau tells its staff to do the job — not a source of rights you enforce the way you enforce a statute or a regulation.

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: When we build a record around a use-of-force incident, the sentence that matters most is the one in the regulation: a copy of the report goes in the Central File. That single line converts an internal electronic entry into something a person can ask to see. Requesting a Central File review, and noting in writing what is and is not in it, is usually more productive than demanding a document the Bureau has never published.

What happens to it after it is written

The routing is unusually wide for an internal document: the Warden by the end of the tour of duty, then five separate offices within two workdays, including two Assistant Directors at Central Office. The Captain keeps the full documentation set, including any video.

It is also not the only paperwork an incident produces. Where restraints were applied, the four check forms listed above run alongside it on a 24-hour cycle, and PS 5566.07 at p. 19 directs that afterwards they “must be compiled and maintained in the Inmate’s Central File.” None of the four is published by BOP either, though all are described as forms staff complete on paper.

Separately, the review team completes a BP-E586, Use of Force After-Action Review. PS 5566.07 at p. 20 directs the Warden to submit it electronically through TRUINTEL to the Regional Director within two working days after the person is released from restraints, and states it “will confirm the review was conducted and specify if the use of force was appropriate.” That is a distinct document, and also unpublished. One incident can therefore generate an electronic report, four restraint-check logs, an after-action review, a medical assessment and video — most of it filed rather than delivered.

How to find out what it says about you

You cannot request a blank BP-E583, but you can ask to see the record it produced. That route runs through the Central File, and it sits in a regulation rather than a Program Statement — which makes it considerably more useful.

Under 28 C.F.R. § 513.40, “[a]n inmate may at any time request to review all disclosable portions of his or her Inmate Central File by submitting a request to a staff member designated by the Warden,” and staff “are to acknowledge the request and schedule the inmate, as promptly as is practical, for a review of the file at a time which will not disrupt institution operations.” Disclosable records expressly include documents relating to “conduct,” and this information “is available without filing a FOIA request.”

Three details are worth knowing beforehand. Staff remove a Privacy Folder of withheld documents first. The review is supervised, and the staff member records the date on the Inmate Activity Record and asks the person to initial it. And if documents were withheld, staff “shall advise the inmate of the inmate’s right under the provisions of § 513.61 to make a FOIA request for the withheld documents” — so ask on the spot what was held back, and write the answer down that day.

A family member cannot make this request; Central File review belongs to the person whose file it is. Families and counsel go through the Bureau’s FOIA and Privacy Act process under 28 C.F.R. part 513, subpart D.

If the report is wrong, or you think one should exist and does not

Both take the same path: the Bureau’s administrative remedy process, described on our administrative remedy program page. Start with an informal resolution attempt with unit staff — commonly an Inmate Request to Staff, the “cop-out” — then a BP-9 to the Warden, a BP-10 to the Regional Director, and a BP-11 to the Office of National Inmate Appeals. Filing promptly matters; short deadlines are the most common reason a grievance is rejected without anyone reading it.

Be precise about which document you are challenging. A grievance saying “the incident report is wrong” will be read as a disciplinary complaint about a BP-A0288 and routed accordingly. If your concern is the use-of-force documentation, say so: name PS 5566.07, name the BP-E583, and give the date, time and location.

Two things help. The medical assessment is an independent record — PS 5566.07 at p. 17 directs that after any use of force or forcible application of restraints the person “shall be examined by qualified health personnel, and any injuries noted, immediately treated,” so the health record is a second, parallel account of the same event, obtainable through the medical records route. And video exists in most cases, with the Captain as custodian; ask about it early and in writing, because retention schedules are finite.

Where the incident is tied to a disciplinary sanction, a Special Housing Unit placement, a transfer or a serious injury, it is worth having counsel look at the whole record rather than the report alone. Our attorneys handle Bureau administrative matters nationwide.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Report of Incident Form

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