Financial Responsibility Program, Inmate

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

Program Statement 5380.08 at a glance

Field	Value
Program Statement	P5380.08
Subject	Financial Responsibility Program, Inmate
Effective / current edition date	8/15/2005 (the PDF header also carries “RULES EFFECTIVE: 1/27/2000”)
Change notice	None. No change notice has issued since 2005
Supersedes / rescinds	P5380.07, Financial Responsibility Program, Inmate (1/3/00)
Governing statute	18 U.S.C. § 3013 (special assessments); 18 U.S.C. § 3572(d) and § 3664(f)(2) (who sets a payment schedule); 18 U.S.C. § 3624(e) (installment agreement for unpaid fines before release)
Governing regulation (28 C.F.R.)	28 C.F.R. §§ 545.10–545.11, Part 545, Subpart B — “Inmate Financial Responsibility Program”
Related BP forms	BP-S864.053, Agreement to Adhere to Installment Schedule Agreement for Unpaid Fines; BP-338, Custody Classification Form; BP-A0148, Inmate Request to Staff (the cop-out that starts a dispute)
Official PDF	PS 5380.08, Financial Responsibility Program, Inmate

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

The Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (IFRP) is how the Bureau of Prisons collects court-ordered money — special assessments, restitution, fines and costs — from a person’s prison trust fund account while they are serving a sentence. Participation is voluntary in the narrow sense that no one can be forced to sign, but the regulation attaches a list of ten concrete losses to refusing (numbered to eleven, with item (10) reserved and blank), and those losses reach housing, pay, commissary, furloughs, UNICOR and halfway-house consideration.

This page explains the rule and reproduces the refusal-consequences list word for word. If what you actually need is how restitution works — what it is, how it is calculated, what happens to it after release, and how a payment dispute gets raised — read the companion page on restitution in federal prison, which covers the obligation itself; this page covers the Bureau’s collection machinery for it.

The rule itself: what happens when the Bureau puts you in “FRP Refuse” status

This is the part of the policy people search for. Below is the complete list of consequences that follow a refusal to participate in the IFRP or to comply with a signed financial plan. The text in the middle column is the rule — PS 5380.08 prints rule text in bracketed bold and implementing instruction in regular type (PS 5380.08 at p. 2), and every bracketed item below is also the binding text of 28 C.F.R. § 545.11(d). The right column is the Bureau’s own instruction to staff on how to apply it.

#	The rule (28 C.F.R. § 545.11(d), reproduced in PS 5380.08)	What PS 5380.08 tells staff
(1)	“Where applicable, the Parole Commission will be notified of the inmate’s failure to participate”	—
(2)	“The inmate will not receive any furlough (other than possibly an emergency or medical furlough)”	“This restriction does not apply to inmates requiring medical furloughs and inmates with ‘OUT’ or ‘COM’ custody who are transferring from one institution to a minimum security level institution via an unescorted transfer.”
(3)	“The inmate will not receive performance pay above the maintenance pay level, or bonus pay, or vacation pay”	“An inmate working above the maintenance pay level who fails to make satisfactory progress on his or her payment plan is to be reduced to maintenance pay.”
(4)	“The inmate will not be assigned to any work detail outside the secure perimeter of the facility”	“Additionally, inmates will not be permitted to participate in activities outside the secure perimeter, such as speaking engagements.”
(5)	“The inmate will not be placed in UNICOR. Any inmate assigned to UNICOR who fails to make adequate progress on his/her financial plan will be removed from UNICOR, and once removed, may not be placed on a UNICOR waiting list for six months. Any exceptions to this require approval of the Warden”	Priority UNICOR placement is ordinarily reserved for inmates with “obligations totaling at least $1,000 and limited outside resources.”
(6)	“The inmate shall be subject to a monthly commissary spending limitation more stringent than the monthly commissary spending limitation set for all inmates. This more stringent commissary spending limitation for IFRP refuses shall be at least $25 per month, excluding purchases of stamps, telephone credits, and, if the inmate is a common fare participant, Kosher/Halal certified shelf-stable entrees to the extent that such purchases are allowable under pertinent Bureau regulations”	“Inmates in IFRP ‘REFUSE’ status will not be permitted to spend more than $25 per month in commissary, excluding purchases of stamps and telephone credits. Staff will not approve any special purchase item request(s) for inmates in IFRP ‘REFUSE’ status, except for purchases of Kosher/Halal certified shelf-stable entrees for those inmates verified as common fare participants.”
(7)	“The inmate will be quartered in the lowest housing status (dormitory, double bunking, etc.)”	—
(8)	“The inmate will not be placed in a community-based program”	“The Unit Team is to consider the inmate’s participation in the IFRP as an important factor when determining Community Corrections Center (CCC) placement.”
(9)	“The inmate will not receive a release gratuity unless approved by the Warden”	“When a non-participating inmate’s need for funds is exceptionally great, the Unit Team may recommend to the Warden that a gratuity be given.”
(10)	“[Reserved]”	“(This section is reserved for future rule changes.)”
(11)	“The inmate will not receive an incentive for participation in residential drug treatment programs”	“Incentives are defined as early release, financial awards, maximum CCC placement consideration, and local institution incentives.”
(12)	Not in the regulation — Bureau instruction only	“The inmate’s score on ‘Responsibility’ on the Custody Classification form (BP-338), is to be zero, in accordance with the Security Designation and Custody Classification Manual Program Statement.”

Source: PS 5380.08 at pp. 11–13; rule text at 28 C.F.R. § 545.11(d).

Two details in that table matter more than they look. Item (10) is genuinely blank — the Bureau reserved the slot in 1999 and has never filled it, so anyone who tells you there is a hidden tenth sanction is reading a policy that does not exist. Item (12) is the reverse problem: it appears in the Program Statement but not in 28 C.F.R. § 545.11(d), which stops at (11). A zeroed “Responsibility” score feeds custody classification points and therefore security level and placement, so it can be the most consequential item on the list — but it rests on internal instruction rather than on the binding rule, and that distinction is worth preserving in any written challenge.

How the Bureau sets the number

The payment amount is not invented at the desk. The regulation fixes both the order in which obligations get paid and the floor for the payment itself.

Step	The rule	Pin-cite
Priority order of obligations	“(1) Special Assessments imposed under 18 U.S.C. 3013; (2) Court-ordered restitution; (3) Fines and court costs; (4) State or local court obligations; and (5) Other federal government obligations.”	PS 5380.08 at pp. 5–6; 28 C.F.R. § 545.11(a)
What comes off the top	“the Unit Team shall first subtract from the trust fund account the inmate’s minimum payment schedule for UNICOR or non-UNICOR work assignments … The Unit Team shall then exclude from its assessment $75.00 a month deposited into the inmate’s trust fund account. This $75.00 is excluded to allow the inmate the opportunity to better maintain telephone communication under the Inmate Telephone System (ITS).”	PS 5380.08 at p. 8; 28 C.F.R. § 545.11(b)
The six-month look-back	“determine the total funds deposited into the inmate’s trust fund account for the previous six months; subtract the IFRP payments made by the inmate during the previous six months; and subtract $450 (i.e., $75 x 6 months, ITS exclusion).”	PS 5380.08 at p. 8
Minimum payment, non-UNICOR and UNICOR grade 5	“Ordinarily, the minimum payment for non-UNICOR and UNICOR grade 5 inmates will be $25.00 per quarter. This minimum payment may exceed $25.00, taking into consideration the inmate’s specific obligations, institution resources, and community resources.”	PS 5380.08 at p. 9; 28 C.F.R. § 545.11(b)(1)
Minimum allotment, UNICOR grades 1–4	“Inmates assigned grades 1 through 4 in UNICOR ordinarily will be expected to allot not less than 50% of their monthly pay to the payment process. Any allotment which is less than the 50% minimum must be approved by the Unit Manager.”	PS 5380.08 at p. 9; 28 C.F.R. § 545.11(b)(2)
“Limited financial resources” at intake	An inmate “will be considered to have limited financial resources when he or she does not have enough institution earnings or trust fund account deposits to make a minimum IFRP payment of $25 per quarter.”	PS 5380.08 at p. 4

Source: PS 5380.08 at pp. 4–9.

Note what the six-month look-back means in practice: money sent in by family is deposited into the trust fund account, and everything above the $450 ITS exclusion is visible to the Unit Team and available for an upward adjustment. The Program Statement says so directly — “Any money remaining after the above computation may be considered for IFRP payments, regardless of whether the money is in the inmate’s trust fund or phone credit account” (PS 5380.08 at p. 8). Money moved into the phone credit account does not disappear from the calculation, and it generally cannot be moved back.

The six IFRP status codes

Every sentenced person carries one of these codes in SENTRY, and the code — not a conversation with a case manager — is what other departments act on.

Code	Meaning	When it is entered
UNASSG	“Unassigned”	Entered automatically at commitment; must be converted at initial classification
NO OBLG	“No Obligation”	No documented financial obligation, or none payable during incarceration, or the obligation has expired by time limitation
PART	“Participates in Program”	The person agrees to pay, signs an agreement, and is making payments
REFUSE	“Refuses to Participate in Program”	Entered “immediately when an inmate verbally refuses,” or at Unit Team discretion when agreed payments are not being made
EXEMPT TMP	“Temporarily Exempt from Participation”	Unable to participate adequately, “ordinarily because of medical or psychological restrictions which prevent the inmate from working”
COMPLT	“Completed the Program”	All obligations ordered payable during incarceration have been satisfied

Source: PS 5380.08 at pp. 14–16.

What the Financial Responsibility Program means for you

If you are the person inside: read your Judgment and Commitment Order

Read your Judgment and Commitment Order before your initial classification meeting, and bring it. The Unit Manager is directed to cross-reference the J&C against the SENTRY sentence computation “normally within 45 calendar days” of arrival (PS 5380.08 at p. 4), and the four fields that drive everything are the court of jurisdiction, the sentencing date, the docket number, and the financial obligations. If the J&C sets a payment schedule, “payments are to be collected according to the direction provided in the order” (PS 5380.08 at p. 7) — a court-ordered schedule is not something the Unit Team may quietly override.

Know which decision you are contesting. If you think the amount is wrong for your circumstances, the Program Statement puts that squarely with one person: “The Unit Manager is the determining authority when it comes to deciding whether an inmate’s IFRP payments are commensurate with his/her ability to pay. This decision is solely at the discretion of the Unit Manager and is to be decided on a case-by-case basis” (PS 5380.08 at p. 8). Ask in writing, on a BP-A0148 Inmate Request to Staff, for the six-month computation the team used. If the deposits figure or the payment history is wrong, that is a factual error you can document.

Understand what “REFUSE” costs before you choose it. The consequences begin immediately once the code is entered, and staff are instructed to tell you so and to document the counseling in your Inmate Activity Record (PS 5380.08 at pp. 14–15). Getting out of the status is not automatic either: “Once an inmate has been placed in ‘REFUSE’ status, the inmate must demonstrate a willingness to continue participation in the program” (PS 5380.08 at p. 15).

If you are a family member: how deposits affect the payment

The money you send is part of the calculation. Deposits into the trust fund account are counted in the six-month look-back, and only $75 a month is excluded for phone credits. A large one-time deposit — for a lawyer, a medical need, commissary for a year — can trigger an upward adjustment at the next program review. That is not a reason to stop sending money; it is a reason to know it happens and to talk about timing before you send a lump sum.

You cannot file an administrative remedy for your loved one. Under 28 C.F.R. § 542.10, an inmate “may not submit a Request or Appeal on behalf of another inmate,” and the program exists so a person can seek review of “any aspect of his/her own confinement.” What you can do is gather documents from the outside: the certified J&C, court receipts, a letter from a state Child Support Enforcement Unit. The Program Statement is strict about proof of outside payments — the original receipt must reach staff before the first of the month, and “[c]ancelled checks or copies of court receipts are not sufficient documentation as they may be altered” (PS 5380.08 at p. 10).

If you are counsel: the IFRP

Two structural points do most of the work. First, the sanction list in § 545.11(d) is a regulation, so the argument is not “the Bureau violated its policy” but “the Bureau applied a binding rule to facts that do not support it.” Second, the vehicle is settled in most circuits: in Fontanez v. O’Brien, 807 F.3d 84 (4th Cir. 2015), the Fourth Circuit held that “an inmate’s challenge to the BOP’s administration of the IFRP is a challenge to the ‘execution’ of a sentence that is cognizable under 28 U.S.C. § 2241,” and the same opinion records the parties’ agreement that “the IFRP is voluntary; the BOP cannot compel an inmate to make payments.” A § 2241 petition is filed in the district of confinement, after the administrative remedy process is complete.

The delegation question is the one worth screening at sentencing, not after. Where a judgment orders restitution due “immediately” and leaves the schedule to the Bureau, the Ninth Circuit held in Ward v. Chavez, 678 F.3d 1042 (9th Cir. 2012), that “where the sentencing court has failed to consider whether the defendant has the financial resources to pay restitution immediately, ordering immediate payment impermissibly delegates to the BOP the court’s obligation to set a payment schedule.” Circuits are not uniform on this and the citator flags Ward for caution, so treat it as a live question rather than a settled one — but the cheapest fix is a schedule in the judgment under 18 U.S.C. § 3664(f)(2), obtained at sentencing.

Finally, read the pre-release fine agreement against the statute. PS 5380.08 states that a person with a term of supervised release and a fine “must agree to adhere to an installment schedule to pay any remaining balance on this fine while under release supervision,” directs that the BP-S864.053 agreement be signed “no later than 60 days prior to the inmate’s release from custody,” and adds that anyone who refuses to comply with 18 U.S.C. § 3624(e) “must remain in Bureau custody” (PS 5380.08 at p. 7). The statute itself is narrower. Section 3624(e) directs that “[u]pon the release of a prisoner by the Bureau of Prisons to supervised release, the Bureau of Prisons shall notify such prisoner, verbally and in writing, of the requirement that the prisoner adhere to an installment schedule, not to exceed 2 years except in special circumstances, to pay for any fine imposed for the offense committed by such prisoner, and of the consequences of failure to pay such fines under sections 3611 through 3614 of this title.” That is a notification duty on the Bureau; the current text does not say that a person who declines to sign stays in custody, and it does not condition release on the signature. If a release date is being held over an unsigned BP-S864.053, that gap is the first thing to put in writing. The form is also only for fines — not assessments, costs, or restitution.

What changed since PS 5380.08 took effect

PS 5380.08 has been in force since August 15, 2005, and it is one of the oldest inmate-facing policies still operating unchanged. It replaced P5380.07 (January 3, 2000), and its header records “RULES EFFECTIVE: 1/27/2000” — the date the underlying rule took effect after publication at 64 Fed. Reg. 72799. The 2005 revision itself was administrative: the Program Statement lists three changes — instruction for documenting IFRP participation “at times other than regularly scheduled Program Reviews,” quality reviews by regional and institution staff, and replacing the word “contract” with “financial plan” (PS 5380.08 at p. 1). The Bureau’s June 22, 2026 mass reissue of Program Statements did not touch 5380.08, and no change notice has issued.

The regulation has aged better than the policy. 28 C.F.R. §§ 545.10 and 545.11 remain in force and, checked through the eCFR text current to August 6, 2026, carry the same sanction list this page reproduces. What has changed is everything around them. The Program Statement’s “Directives Referenced” list at pp. 2–3 points to editions that no longer exist — P5100.07 for security designation (now 5100.08), P5321.07 for unit management (now 5321.09), P5330.10 for drug abuse programs (now 5330.11), P4500.04 for the trust fund manual (now 4500.13), P7310.04 for community corrections. When a staff member tells you “policy says,” ask which policy: the sanction list is current, the cross-references generally are not.

The larger gap is the First Step Act. PS 5380.08 predates the Act by thirteen years and says nothing about earned time credits, PATTERN risk assessment, or the current framework for prerelease custody. Consequence (8) — no community-based program — and consequence (11) — no residential drug treatment incentive — were written against the halfway-house and § 3621(e) landscape of 2005, and they are now applied inside a system that also runs First Step Act time credits and FSA assessments and incentives. Neither the Program Statement nor § 545.11 has been amended to say how IFRP refusal interacts with FSA credit earning. That silence is a real open question, not a settled exclusion, and it should not be treated as one.

Where people get stuck when the payment jumps

The payment amount jumped after family sent money

This is the single most common IFRP dispute, and it is usually not an error — it is the six-month look-back doing exactly what it is written to do. The route is the same as any other: a written Inmate Request to Staff (BP-A0148) to the Unit Manager asking for the deposits total, the payments subtracted, and the $450 exclusion applied, then informal resolution, then a formal BP-9. Under 28 C.F.R. § 542.14, the deadline for completing informal resolution and filing the BP-9 is 20 calendar days from the date the basis for the request occurred, so the clock starts when the plan changes, not when the first higher payment posts.

“REFUSE” status was entered without a hearing

There is no hearing. The IFRP is not a disciplinary process, so nothing in 28 C.F.R. part 541 applies, and no incident report issues. The Program Statement directs staff to notify the person of the status change after it is made, to discuss the consequences, and to document the counseling — that is the entire procedural protection the policy provides (PS 5380.08 at pp. 14–15). The remedy is administrative, not adjudicative: BP-9 to the Warden within 20 days, BP-10 to the Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the Warden’s signature, and BP-11 to the General Counsel within 30 calendar days of the Regional Director’s signature. If no response arrives within the time allowed, 28 C.F.R. § 542.18 lets you “consider the absence of a response to be a denial at that level” and move up — do not sit on a silent file.

The obligation on the SENTRY screen is not the obligation in the judgment

Amended judgments, restitution ordered joint and several with co-defendants, interest added later, and obligations that have expired by operation of law all produce mismatches. Two time limits are stated in the policy itself, and one of them has moved. A special assessment obligation “ceases five years after the date judgment was imposed,” which tracks the statute exactly — 18 U.S.C. § 3013(c) reads “[t]he obligation to pay an assessment ceases five years after the date of the judgment.” Restitution is different. PS 5380.08 says the obligation “ceases 20 years after the inmate’s release from incarceration” for people convicted on or after April 24, 1996 (PS 5380.08 at pp. 5–6), but the current text of 18 U.S.C. § 3613(b) provides that liability to pay restitution “shall terminate on the date that is the later of 20 years from the entry of judgment or 20 years after the release from imprisonment of the person ordered to pay restitution” — the later of two dates, not one. Use the statute, not the 2005 summary of it. Interest is entered “as a separate obligation only after the principal has been paid in full” (PS 5380.08 at p. 7). Ask for the SENTRY IFRP screen and compare it line by line against a certified copy of the current judgment; a discrepancy here is a documentary problem with a documentary fix.

Custody points dropped and nobody explained why

A zeroed “Responsibility” score is a downstream effect of IFRP status, applied through the security designation and custody classification manual rather than through this policy. Because it can move a security level, and because it is the one item on the consequences list that has no counterpart in § 545.11(d), it deserves its own paragraph in any administrative remedy — and where the result is a transfer or a lost placement, it is worth a consult rather than a form. The firm handles designation, computation and BOP administrative advocacy nationwide; the phone number is (843) 620-1100.

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: The IFRP file that goes somewhere is almost always the one with arithmetic in it. Before anything is filed we want the SENTRY IFRP screen, the certified judgment, six months of trust fund statements, and the Unit Team’s own six-month computation — because “the payment is too high” is an opinion, and “the deposits total was $1,840, the exclusion is $450, and the plan was set as though the balance were $1,840” is a record. The same discipline applies to the consequences list: naming the subsection of § 545.11(d) that was applied, and asking which one authorizes item (12), turns a complaint into a question staff have to answer in writing.

Related BOP policy on restitution and the IFRP

Page	What it covers
Restitution in federal prison	The obligation itself — what restitution is, how it is calculated, disputes, and what survives release
Trust fund and commissary (PS 4500.13)	The account IFRP payments come out of, and the commissary limits the refusal sanction tightens
Inmate work and performance pay (PS 5251.06)	Maintenance pay, the pay grades, and the bonus and vacation pay that refusal forfeits
Furloughs (PS 5280.09)	The furlough that consequence (2) withholds, and the emergency and medical exceptions
Halfway house placement (PS 7310.04)	The community-based placement that consequence (8) blocks
Administrative remedy program (PS 1330.18)	The BP-9 / BP-10 / BP-11 route and every deadline in it
Inmate request to staff (PS 5511.08)	The cop-out that starts an IFRP dispute
Release gratuities, transportation and clothing (PS 5873.06)	The gratuity that consequence (9) makes discretionary
Early release from federal prison	Where sentence-shortening work is handled by the firm’s attorneys

Frequently Asked Questions About the IFRP

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