Intake Screening (Program Statement 5295.01)

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

Field	Value
Program Statement	5295.01 (renumbered from 5290.15)
Subject	Intake Screening
Effective / current edition	September 3, 2026
Change notices	None. PS 5295.01 is a full reissue approved by Director William K. Marshall III.
Supersedes	PS 5290.15, Intake Screening (3/30/2009), rescinded — PS 5295.01 at p. 1. (PS 5290.15 had itself replaced P5290.12, Intake Screening, 3/16/99.)
Governing statute	The Program Statement cites none. The Bureau’s duty to “provide suitable quarters and provide for the safekeeping, care, and subsistence” and “for the protection … of all persons charged with or convicted of offenses against the United States” is 18 U.S.C. § 4042(a)(2)–(3).
28 C.F.R. anchor	Verified: 28 C.F.R. § 522.20 and § 522.21 — part 522, subpart C, titled “Intake Screening.” PS 5295.01 lists 28 CFR §§ 522.20–21 among its references (p. 6), and its regulatory-type passages reproduce the regulation word for word.
Related BP forms	BP-A0407 / BP-A0408 Acknowledgment of Inmate · Intake Screening Form (generated in the Bureau’s inmate management system) · BP-A0175 In-Transit Data Form · USM-129 Individual Custody and Detention Report
Official PDF	bop.gov/policy/progstat/5295_001.pdf

Checked against the BOP policy set · 2026-09-19.

Intake screening is the clearance a newly arrived person must pass before being placed in a federal prison’s general population: a private social interview to find non-medical reasons to house them somewhere else, a medical screen within 24 hours, and a separatee check against the Bureau’s Central Inmate Monitoring records. It is the moment when the institution decides whether the person in front of them can safely walk onto a compound — and it is where a known enemy, an unlisted medical condition, or a sexual-victimization risk is supposed to surface before anyone is hurt.

Six pages of Program Statement 5295.01 carry the whole thing. Intake screening is not the same as Admission and Orientation, the orientation program that follows over the next few weeks; our separate explainer covers Program Statement 5290.14, the Admission and Orientation Program. For the arrival day told as a story rather than a rule, see the federal prison intake process and First Day in Prison.

The rule itself: intake screening

PS 5295.01 uses a typographic convention that makes this page unusually easy to get right. Every page footer states: “Federal Regulations from 28 CFR: this type. Implementing instructions: this type.” The regulation’s own text, headed by its section numbers (§ 522.20 and § 522.21), is printed in the regulation type — binding law. Everything else is the Bureau’s internal instruction to its own staff. The statement’s reference list confirms the source: “28 CFR §§ 522.20–21” (PS 5295.01 at p. 6). PS 5290.15, the 2009 edition it replaced, marked the same regulatory text with square brackets.

We checked those regulatory passages against 28 C.F.R. § 522.20 and § 522.21 on eCFR. They match. So the block below is simultaneously the operative Program Statement text and the operative regulation.

The regulation, as reproduced in the Program Statement

Transcribed verbatim from bop.gov/policy/progstat/5295_001.pdf, regulatory text only:

1. § 522.20 Purpose and scope. Bureau of Prisons staff screen newly arrived inmates to ensure that Bureau health, safety, and security standards are met.

— PS 5295.01 at p. 1

2. § 522.21 Procedures.

(a) Except for such camps and other satellite facilities where segregating a newly arrived inmate in detention is not feasible, the Warden shall ensure that a newly arrived inmate is cleared by the Medical Department and provided a social interview by staff before assignment to the general population.

— PS 5295.01 at p. 2

(1) Immediately upon an inmate’s arrival, staff shall interview the inmate to determine if there are non-medical reasons for housing the inmate away from the general population. Staff shall evaluate both the general physical appearance and emotional condition of the inmate.

— PS 5295.01 at p. 2

(2) Within 24 hours after an inmate’s arrival, medical staff shall medically screen the inmate in compliance with Bureau of Prisons’ medical procedures to determine if there are medical reasons for housing the inmate away from the general population or for restricting temporary work assignments.

— PS 5295.01 at p. 3

(3) Staff shall place recorded results of the intake medical screening and the social interview in the inmate’s central file.

— PS 5295.01 at p. 3

Four things in that text carry weight. “Immediately upon an inmate’s arrival” governs the social interview; “within 24 hours” governs the medical screen; both must be done “before assignment to the general population”; and the results go in the central file, which is why they are retrievable years later.

The time frames and thresholds

What	The rule, in the source’s own words	Pin-cite
Social interview	“Immediately upon an inmate’s arrival, staff shall interview the inmate…”	28 C.F.R. § 522.21(a)(1); PS 5295.01 at p. 2
Medical screening	“Within 24 hours after an inmate’s arrival, medical staff shall medically screen the inmate…”	28 C.F.R. § 522.21(a)(2); PS 5295.01 at p. 3
If screening cannot be completed first	“If this is not possible, inmates are to be kept in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) until completion of the medical clearance and social interview.”	PS 5295.01 at p. 2
Camps and satellite facilities	The regulation excepts “camps and other satellite facilities where segregating a newly arrived inmate in detention is not feasible.” PS 5295.01 no longer repeats the 2009 edition’s separate instruction that the Warden still ensure medical clearance and a social interview at those facilities.	28 C.F.R. § 522.21(a); PS 5295.01 at p. 2
Modified screening threshold	Dropped. PS 5295.01 no longer contains the 2009 sentence letting the Warden modify intake screening for pretrial short-term (less than 48 hours) inmates and court returns; it applies the social and medical screening to new commitments, transfers, court returns, writ returns and holdovers before general population placement.	PS 5295.01 at p. 1
Where modified screening is appropriate	“Ordinarily, modified intake screening procedures would only be appropriate at Metropolitan Correctional Centers, Metropolitan Detention Centers or other institutions with a primary mission of providing pretrial confinement.”	PS 5295.01 at p. 3
PREA screening, ordinarily	“Intake screening shall ordinarily take place within 72 hours of arrival at the facility.”	28 C.F.R. § 115.41(b)
Filing	“The completed Intake Screening Form must be maintained with all previous Intake Screening Forms in Section 3 of the Inmate Central File.”	PS 5295.01 at p. 3

Who conducts the social interview, and what they review

PS 5295.01 at p. 2, transcribed verbatim:

The social interview is to be conducted in private area by a Unit Manager, Correctional Counselor, Case Manager, or other staff the Warden designates and who have been trained in intake screening. The interviewer conducting the social interview must have completed the Central Inmate Monitoring (CIM) Certification Program prior to conducting the interview.

The interviewer must also review the applicable Bureau inmate management system for information and the Inmate Central File or Presentence Investigation Report (PSI), if available, and decide whether the inmate is suitable for placement in general population.

“CIM” is Central Inmate Monitoring — the Bureau’s system for tracking people who need special management attention, including separatees. “The applicable Bureau inmate management system” is the 2026 policy’s term for the Bureau’s inmate information system, long known as SENTRY. The certification requirement is one of the more consequential lines in the policy: it means the social interview is not supposed to be delegated to whoever is available.

The sexual-history instruction, first added in the 2009 revision, now reads as follows (PS 5295.01 at pp. 2–3):

During the social intake screening process, the interviewer must review the PSI and the Inmate Central File for any documentation indicating the inmate has a history of sexually aggressive behavior or has recently been the victim of a sexual assault.

Unit Management staff will use the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Intake Objective Screening Instrument located on the PREA page of the Bureau’s intranet site.

In such cases, the interviewer must immediately forward a copy of the Intake Screening Form and any other comments to Psychology Services and Correctional Services for appropriate follow-up and or assessment.

Separatees, holdovers and transportation

A “separatee” is someone the Bureau has determined must be kept apart from a particular person — a co-defendant who cooperated, a documented enemy, a victim, a witness. The separation check is the sharpest edge of intake screening, and PS 5295.01 gives it several operative instructions.

At p. 3:

Staff must place particular emphasis on the CIM status of a holdover, since, ordinarily, an inmate may not be transported with or confined with inmates from whom they are to be separated.

To ensure separatees are not housed together, staff shall access the newly received inmate’s Intake Screening form generated in the applicable Bureau inmate management system and thoroughly review the CIM Clearance and Separatee Data to identify any separatees currently housed in the institution. Staff may also cross-check the names of separatees with an alphabetical list of all inmates in the institution.

SIS staff must review all available intelligence, conduct necessary interviews, and evaluate any security, gang-related, or investigative concerns relevant to an inmate’s placement in general population. This requirement ensures all pertinent information is considered during initial screening to support safe, appropriate, and well-informed housing decisions.

The policy also directs that the social interview is documented on the Intake Screening Form, “located in the applicable Bureau inmate management system, upon the inmate’s immediate arrival at the institution to ensure the most current CIM Clearance and Separatee Data Form is attached for the interview process,” because “[r]etrieval of this information prior to the inmate’s immediate arrival may result in outdated or even inaccurate information” (p. 3).

The holdover provisions, at pp. 3–4, add the transportation steps. Where a person has no Presentence Investigation Report or central file on hand, “Staff conducting the social interview shall use a National Crime Information Center (NCIC) record and USM-129, Individual Custody and Detention Report, along with data retrieved from the applicable Bureau inmate management system.” Where a separatee conflict appears on the transportation manifest: “If an inmate is scheduled for the same transport (e.g., plane, bus, van) as their separatee(s) staff shall remove one or more inmates from the scheduled transportation,” documenting the separation on the BP-A0175, In-Transit Data Form and notifying the U.S. Marshals Prisoner Coordination office. An overnight exception exists, but it is escalated: “An exception to this housing restriction may be made with overnight holdovers if appropriate safeguards can be and are taken to ensure there is no contact between separatees. Such a decision must be made by the Warden or designee.”

And the housing paragraph, at p. 4, closes the loop: “Staff making quarters assignments for a newly arrived inmate must review the result of the current intake screening to ensure restrictions are noted prior to assignment.” It now adds a second check: before a housing unit assignment, the Case Management Coordinator and the SIS Lieutenant review high-profile, special-interest and security cases, and the Associate Warden or designee approves the unit assignment.

What you sign: the Acknowledgment of Inmate forms

This is the most-signed and least-read paperwork in the federal system. PS 5295.01 at p. 4, transcribed verbatim:

3. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF INMATE. Staff who conduct intake screenings must also inform inmates about regulations regarding correspondence, the disposition of funds, monitoring of inmate telephone calls, procedures for unmonitored attorney calls, notifications in the event of death or illness, and the disposition of property.

The policy continues: these subjects “are discussed on the BP-A0407, Acknowledgment of Inmate Part 1 & 2 and BP-A0408, Acknowledgment of Inmate Part 3 & 4 forms which provide signature blocks for the inmate to acknowledge they have been advised and understand these regulations and for staff to certify the inmate was advised” (pp. 4–5). And then a sentence worth reading twice, at p. 5: “It is vital that each section of the BP-A0407 and BP-A0408 forms are completed accurately and legibly. These forms are relied upon for many reasons, including inmate litigation involving the Bureau.”

The forms are not one-time. “An inmate may change the data on either form at any time during incarceration,” and “[a] new form is required only if the information on the previous BP-A0407 and/or BP-A0408 has changed” (p. 5). On transfer, if the current form is still correct, the fact is documented on the existing form with the institution mnemonic code, the interviewer’s and the inmate’s initials, and the date — “The inmate must record their own initials” (p. 5). PS 5295.01 also directs that the forms be reviewed at the inmate’s program review meetings “to ensure the information has not changed” (p. 5), and the Unit Management Manual directs the team to check both at initial classification and every program review (PS 5321.10 at p. 12).

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: The two lines on the BP-A0407/408 that matter most later are the emergency-notification designation and the disposition-of-property designation. People sign them in a paper cup of a moment — exhausted, in a holding cell, hours off a bus — and then never revisit them. Years later a family cannot get a death or illness notification, or property is released to someone the person no longer speaks to, because a form completed on day one was never updated. The policy expressly permits changing that data at any time. Update it deliberately, early, and again whenever a relationship or address changes.

What the regulation binds, and what the policy only directs

The distinction decides what you can do about a failure, so it is worth being exact.

Section 522.21 is a published regulation. The Program Statement is the Bureau’s internal instruction for applying it — an “internal agency guideline,” in the Supreme Court’s words in Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50 (1995), “akin to an ‘interpretive rule’ that ‘do[es] not require notice and comment,'” though “still entitled to some deference.” So a Program Statement directs staff; a regulation binds the Bureau. That is why this page says the regulation requires the medical screen within 24 hours, but that the policy directs the interviewer to hold the interview in private and to forward sexual-history concerns to Psychology Services.

Even the regulation is not a script. In Brown v. United States, 569 F. Supp. 2d 596 (W.D. Va. 2008), a district court considering an intake-screening failure held: “While the BOP regulations require prison officials to interview an inmate immediately upon his arrival, ‘to determine if there are non-medical reasons for housing the inmate away from the general population,’ 28 C.F.R. § 522.21, the regulations do not mandate a non-discretionary course of conduct, but instead leave prison officials ample room for judgment.” The court reasoned that because § 522.21 “implicitly confers discretion on prison officials in deciding whether to place an inmate in the general population, it is presumed that such decision is grounded in policy” — placing the decision inside the Federal Tort Claims Act’s discretionary-function exception. Brown is an unreviewed district-court decision and it went against the plaintiff, but it is squarely about this regulation and it tells you what the rule is not.

What the Constitution independently requires is different and more demanding to prove. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994), sets the failure-to-protect standard: “a prison official cannot be found liable under the Eighth Amendment for denying an inmate humane conditions of confinement unless the official knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health or safety; the official must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference.” The Court added that “a factfinder may conclude that a prison official knew of a substantial risk from the very fact that the risk was obvious,” and that officials “who actually knew of a substantial risk to inmate health or safety may be found free from liability if they responded reasonably to the risk, even if the harm ultimately was not averted.” Read against PS 5295.01, the separatee check is precisely the mechanism by which a risk becomes known — which is why documentation of what was and was not reviewed at intake is worth preserving.

What intake screening means for you

If you are the person inside: say it at the social interview

Say the thing at the interview. The social interview exists for exactly one purpose — to find out whether there is a reason not to put you on that compound — and the interviewer is asking because the answer changes where you sleep tonight. If there is someone in that institution you cannot safely be around, name them and their register number if you know it. If you have been threatened, say by whom. If a co-defendant cooperated, say so. The policy directs that the interview be conducted “in private area” (PS 5295.01 at p. 2); if it is not private, ask to be interviewed privately, and if that is refused, note the time and who was present.

Answer the medical screen honestly and completely: current medications and doses, prescribers, allergies, recent surgeries or hospitalizations, mental-health history, current thoughts of self-harm. The screen exists to decide whether there are medical reasons to house you away from general population or to restrict work assignments (28 C.F.R. § 522.21(a)(2)) — and a medication that is not captured here is a medication you may go weeks without. See Patient Care and Medical and Dental Care in Prison.

You will also be screened for risk of sexual victimization and of being sexually abusive. That screening is required by 28 C.F.R. § 115.41, and it matters that you know two things about it. First, the screen ordinarily happens within 72 hours of arrival and considers ten listed factors, including prior victimization and “the inmate’s own perception of vulnerability.” Second, § 115.41(h) provides that inmates “may not be disciplined for refusing to answer, or for not disclosing complete information in response to,” the questions about disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, prior sexual victimization, and their own perception of vulnerability. You are not required to answer those four, and you cannot be written up for declining. See PREA and Sexual Abuse Prevention.

Read the BP-A0407 and BP-A0408 before signing, and update them later if anything changes.

If you are the family member: the first silent days

For the first day or two you will likely hear nothing, and the inmate locator may not yet show the new facility. That silence is usually intake processing, not a crisis. Calls will not connect until a phone list is entered, and visits will not happen until a visiting list is approved — both of which are set up during Admission and Orientation, in the days after intake screening, not during it.

There is one thing worth doing right away. If your loved one has a serious medical condition, takes maintenance medication, has a documented mental-health history, or has a known safety concern at that specific institution, that information is most useful in the first 24 to 72 hours, while the screening decisions are actually being made. Counsel can convey it to the institution; a family member can send a written, dated letter to the Warden and keep a copy. Do not expect confirmation. Do keep the copy. Our overview for families is What Families Should Know About Federal Prison, and if a safety concern is already concrete, Protective Custody explains what the institution can and cannot do about it.

If you are counsel: intake screening

Intake screening produces four discrete records, and knowing their names is most of the work. The Intake Screening Form, generated in the Bureau’s inmate management system on arrival with the CIM Clearance and Separatee Data attached, is filed in Section 3 of the Inmate Central File (PS 5295.01 at p. 3). The BP-A0407 and BP-A0408 acknowledgments are also in section 3. The In-Transit Data Form, which records separation decisions made during transportation, goes in Section 2 of the central file at the final destination (p. 4). Medical screening results are documented in the electronic health record. Request them through the unit team and, where necessary, by FOIA or Privacy Act request. Background on the file structure: Inmate Central File, Privacy Folder, and Parole Mini-Files.

Two practice points. First, if a client has a separation need, the leverage is at the Designation and Sentence Computation Center and in the CIM assignment, not at the intake interview — by arrival, the relevant record either exists in SENTRY or it does not. Getting a documented separation concern into the central file before designation is the highest-value intervention in this whole sequence. See Central Inmate Monitoring System (PS 5180.05) and Security Designation and Custody Classification. Second, calibrate expectations about remedies: Brown holds that § 522.21 leaves “ample room for judgment,” and Farmer requires subjective awareness of a substantial risk. A tort claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act is a separate track from an administrative remedy and runs on an SF-95 / BP-A0943 — see Federal Tort Claims Act.

The arrival window, hour by hour

Intake screening is one layer of a stack that all lands in the first three days. Every row below is from currently posted BOP policy or from the regulation.

When	What happens	Source
On arrival	Receiving and Discharge processing — identity, property, search, photograph, clothing issue	PS 5800.19, Receiving and Discharge Manual (5/7/2026)
Immediately on arrival	Private social interview by a CIM-certified Unit Manager, Counselor, Case Manager or designee; inmate-management-system records, central file and PSR reviewed; CIM Clearance and Separatee Data checked; SIS reviews intelligence and security concerns	28 C.F.R. § 522.21(a)(1); PS 5295.01 at pp. 2–3
Before general population, if screening is incomplete	“[I]nmates are to be kept in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) until completion of the medical clearance and social interview”	PS 5295.01 at p. 2
Within 24 hours	Medical screening by medical staff; Health Services and Unit Management observe and interview for indicators of mental illness and adjustment problems; concerns referred to Psychology Services	28 C.F.R. § 522.21(a)(2); PS 5310.17 at p. 14
Within 24 hours (pretrial detention facilities)	Psychology Services Inmate Questionnaire, BP-A0519, completed; staff alert Psychology Services immediately if self-harm is reported; a Suicide Risk Assessment follows	PS 5310.17 at p. 14
Before general population, where a Psychology Alert exists	“Ordinarily, an inmate with a PSY ALERT assignment will not be placed in general population until a psychologist reviews and clears him or her,” after a face-to-face interview	PS 5324.07, SENTRY Psychology Alert, at pp. 4–5
During intake	Information on the Bureau’s zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse and how to report; the A&O Handbook on Sexually Abusive Behavior is provided	28 C.F.R. § 115.33(a); PS 5333.01 at p. 27
Ordinarily within 72 hours	PREA risk screening on an objective instrument — the PREA Intake Objective Screening Instrument — with results recorded on the Intake Screening Form and a Psychology Services referral if further assessment is needed	28 C.F.R. § 115.41(b)–(e); PS 5333.01 at p. 31
Same day the unit is assigned	Unit Officer’s safety orientation and unit security overview, by lights out	PS 5290.14 at p. 9
Within 14 calendar days (initial designation)	Psychology Initial Intake Evaluation: PSIQ, record review, clinical interview, mental-health care level assigned	PS 5310.17 at p. 15
Within 30 days of arrival	PREA risk reassessment on any additional relevant information; comprehensive PREA education in person or by video	28 C.F.R. § 115.41(f); 28 C.F.R. § 115.33(b)

The screening results are not filed and forgotten. 28 C.F.R. § 115.42(a) directs the agency to “use information from the risk screening required by § 115.41 to inform housing, bed, work, education, and program assignments with the goal of keeping separate those inmates at high risk of being sexually victimized from those at high risk of being sexually abusive,” and § 115.42(b) to “make individualized determinations about how to ensure the safety of each inmate.” For transgender and intersex inmates, § 115.42(c)–(e) directs case-by-case placement decisions, reassessment at least twice a year, and “serious consideration” of the person’s own views about their safety. Section 115.42(g) prohibits placing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex inmates in dedicated units solely on the basis of that status, except under a consent decree, settlement or judgment. See BOP Transgender Offender Manual.

What changed in PS 5295.01

PS 5295.01, Intake Screening, dated September 3, 2026 and approved by Director William K. Marshall III, rescinded PS 5290.15, Intake Screening (3/30/2009). Its Summary of Changes lists three things: the policy is renumbered from 5290.15 to 5295.01; the Associate Warden, the Case Management Coordinator and the SIS Lieutenant must now approve all cell assignments for high-profile and special-interest cases; and SIS staff must review all pertinent information about incoming inmates (PS 5295.01 at p. 1). The rewrite also drops the square-bracket convention, replaces SENTRY with “the applicable Bureau inmate management system,” holds a person who cannot be screened before general population in the Special Housing Unit rather than “in detention,” uses the BP-A0407 and BP-A0408 form numbers, adds Correctional Services to the sexual-history referral, and no longer contains the 2009 text’s separate camp paragraph, its sentence allowing modified screening for pretrial stays under 48 hours and court returns, or an Institution Supplement requirement.

The 2009 edition, PS 5290.15, had rescinded P5290.12, Intake Screening (3/16/99). Its own Summary of Changes was a single sentence:

2. SUMMARY OF CHANGES. This revision clarifies the intake screening procedures for inmates with a history of aggressive sexual behavior or who have been victims of sexual assault.

That was the whole 2009 amendment: two paragraphs directing the interviewer to review the PSR and central file for sexual-aggression or recent-victimization history and to forward the Intake Screening Form to Psychology Services. It landed three years before the Department of Justice issued the national PREA standards, and it reads like an early, narrower version of what those standards later required.

Between 2009 and the 2026 reissue, the screening was rebuilt around it:

PREA. 28 C.F.R. part 115 now requires that “[a]ll inmates shall be assessed during an intake screening and upon transfer to another facility for their risk of being sexually abused by other inmates or sexually abusive toward other inmates” (§ 115.41(a)), ordinarily within 72 hours (§ 115.41(b)), “using an objective screening instrument” (§ 115.41(c)), against ten enumerated criteria (§ 115.41(d)). BOP implements this through PS 5333.01, Sexually Abusive Behavior Prevention and Intervention Program Manual (3/19/2026), which rescinded PS 5324.12 CN-1 (2/18/2025). PS 5333.01 at p. 31 states that “Staff are required to refer to the Program Statement Intake Screening, which outlines the steps to take during the intake screening process,” and that “To complete the Intake Screening Form, Unit Management staff will use the PREA Intake Objective Screening Instrument located on the PREA page of the Bureau’s intranet site.” In other words: the Intake Screening Form is still the form, but what goes on it is set by a 2026 PREA policy implementing a 2012 regulation, and PS 5295.01 now names the PREA Intake Objective Screening Instrument itself (p. 2).

Mental health. PS 5310.16, Treatment and Care of Inmates with Mental Illness (CN-1, 2/18/2025), at p. 11 describes what the intake policy’s bare “medical screening” now includes: “Medical staff provide an initial screening for physical and mental health concerns, including suicide ideation, symptoms of mental illness, and sexual victimization,” documented in the electronic health record, with Psychology Services advised of any concerns. PS 5310.17, the Psychology Services Manual (8/25/2016), supplies the timing at pp. 14–15: screening by Health Services and Unit Management within 24 hours, the PSIQ within 24 hours in pretrial facilities, and the Initial Intake Evaluation within 14 calendar days at the initially designated institution. See Treatment and Care of Inmates With Mental Illness and Psychology Treatment Programs.

Forms and referenced directives. Every substantive directive PS 5290.15 cross-referenced at p. 2 had been replaced or renumbered before the 2026 reissue: P5265.11 Correspondence is now PS 5265.14 (4/5/2011); P5310.13 is now PS 5310.16 and PS 5310.17; P5324.06 Sexually Abusive Behavior is now PS 5333.01; P5800.12 Receiving and Discharge Manual is now PS 5800.19 (5/7/2026); P7331.04 Pretrial Inmates is now PS 7331.05 CN-1 (2/27/2025); P6000.05 Health Services Manual has been succeeded by the current patient-care policy, PS 6031.06 (6/22/2026), which superseded PS 6031.05 in the June 2026 reissue. P5324.08 Suicide Prevention Program, cited at p. 2, does not appear on BOP’s currently published policy list. The forms are now numbered BP-A0407 and BP-A0408. The regulation itself, §§ 522.20–522.21, has not been amended — eCFR shows it as published at 45 FR 44229 (June 30, 1980).

None of that is a criticism of the underlying rule, which has held up. It is a warning against reading the rescinded 2009 document as if it described what happens now; PS 5295.01 is the text to use.

Where people get stuck after naming a separation concern

“They put me on the compound with someone I told them about.” This is the most serious intake-screening failure and it is time-critical, not paperwork-critical. Get to a staff member immediately and ask to be removed from the unit — verbally first, in writing as soon as possible. Then paper it: a BP-A0148 Inmate Request to Staff (“cop-out”) to the Unit Manager and the SIS lieutenant, stating the name, the register number if known, the basis for the separation, and the date and time you reported it. If you reasonably believe naming the issue at the institution would put you in danger, 28 C.F.R. § 542.14(d)(1) permits filing directly with the Regional Director, marked “Sensitive,” with a written explanation of why it was not filed at the institution. See Protective Custody, Administrative Remedy Program and Violence and Sexual Assault in Prison.

Medication stopped at intake. Extremely common, rarely a deliberate decision — the medical screen captured the condition but the prescription was not verified, or a formulary substitution is pending. Route it as a medical issue and be specific: drug, dose, frequency, prescriber, last dose taken, and the consequence of interruption. Start with a cop-out to Health Services, escalate to the Health Services Administrator, and file a BP-9 if there is no response. Family can help by getting a copy of the outside prescription record to counsel. See Patient Care, Inmate Copayment Program and Medical Designations and Care Levels.

The 24-hour medical screen did not happen, or the interview was not private. Both are documentable failures against a regulation and a policy respectively, and both are worth writing down while the date is fresh. The route is the administrative remedy ladder: informal resolution and a cop-out first, then BP-9 to the Warden, BP-10 to the Regional Director, BP-11 to the Office of National Inmate Appeals, under 28 C.F.R. part 542, subpart B. The clock is short — 28 C.F.R. § 542.14(a) sets “20 calendar days following the date on which the basis for the Request occurred,” with an extension available “[w]here the inmate demonstrates a valid reason for delay.” BOP publishes the BP-A0148 cop-out form but does not publish the BP-9, BP-10 or BP-11 forms; the unit team supplies those. See Request to Staff and Prison Grievances.

Nobody screened for PREA risk, or the screen was done in an open room. The PREA screening obligation lives in regulation, which makes it a stronger complaint than a policy-only failure. Cite 28 C.F.R. § 115.41 by section number, give the arrival date, and ask what the Intake Screening Form’s comment section reflects. Every institution has a PREA Compliance Manager. Remember that under § 115.41(h) you cannot be disciplined for declining to answer the four sensitive questions. See PREA and Sexual Abuse Prevention.

Where the real problem is designation, sentence computation, a medical care level, or a First Step Act credit calculation, the administrative remedy ladder is necessary but rarely sufficient by itself — those belong in a consult. See Federal Prison Consulting Services or contact us. And if court is ever on the horizon, exhaustion matters: under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), no action may be brought about prison conditions until available administrative remedies are exhausted. Exhaustion means completing every level of the internal ladder, on time, before filing anything in court.

Related BOP policy on intake screening

The paired information pages: the federal prison intake process walks through admission and orientation from the arriving person’s point of view, and First Day in Prison is the family-facing account of the same day. Both link back here for the rule.

Policies that meet intake screening directly: Security Designation and Custody Classification (PS 5100.08) and the Central Inmate Monitoring System (PS 5180.05), which together determine whether a separation is in SENTRY before anyone arrives; the Receiving and Discharge Manual for the processing that surrounds the screen; Unit Team and Program Review (PS 5321.10) for initial classification within 28 days; Detainers and the Interstate Agreement (PS 5800.15) where a holdover’s status is driven by a detainer.

Health, safety and housing: PREA and Sexual Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Care of Inmates With Mental Illness, Patient Care, Medical Designations and Care Levels, Special Housing Units, Protective Custody and Inmate Housing.

Records and routes: Inmate Central File, Privacy Folder, and Parole Mini-Files (PS 5800.17), SENTRY (PS 5890.13), FOIA and Privacy Act Requests, Administrative Remedy Program, and Federal Tort Claims Act for the separate injury-and-property track. Further reading on our site: The Processing of New Arrivals at Federal Prisons.

Frequently Asked Questions About Intake Screening

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