Lockdowns and Modified Operations

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

Program Statement 5525.01 at a glance

Field	Value
Program Statement	5525.01
Subject	Lockdowns and Modified Operations
Effective / current edition date	May 7, 2026, approved by William K. Marshall III, Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons (OPI listed as “DPI CPD”)
Change notice	None. This is the first edition
Supersedes / rescinds	Nothing. The Program Statement carries no “Program Statement Rescinded” line and no summary-of-changes block — it is a new policy, not a reissue
Governing statute	The Program Statement names no statute. The Bureau’s underlying custodial duties sit in 18 U.S.C. § 4042(a) — “have charge of the management and regulation of all Federal penal and correctional institutions”; “provide suitable quarters and provide for the safekeeping, care, and subsistence”; and “provide for the protection, instruction, and discipline” of persons in federal custody
Governing regulation (28 C.F.R.)	None. The Program Statement’s REFERENCES block has no “Federal Regulations” heading at all. It lists two Program Statements (Female Offender Manual; Food Services Manual), one Bureau form, and three Incident Command System forms. Nothing in 28 C.F.R. governs a lockdown as such — this policy is agency instruction, top to bottom
Related BP forms	BP-A1188, Monthly Lockdown and Modified Operations Tracking Log (prescribed by this Program Statement). Non-Bureau forms used: ICS 201 Incident Briefing; ICS 202 Incident Objectives; ICS 214 Activity Log
Official PDF	PS 5525.01 (bop.gov)

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

When a federal prison stops normal movement — visits canceled, phones off, meals delivered to cells — this Program Statement is the instruction that tells staff what level of restriction they are running, who had to authorize it, what services must keep operating anyway, and what has to be written down. It is brand new, effective May 7, 2026, and it is the first time the Bureau has set national minimums for what a person is owed while a facility is locked down.

If you are a family member trying to find out what is happening and when visits resume, start with for families, the companion page that covers how to reach an institution, what a canceled visit means, and how to keep contact going. This page is the rule set: the three operational levels, the thresholds that trigger showers, meals, commissary and mental-health rounds, and the notification the Bureau owes you and your loved one. Where restricted movement turns into individual placement in the SHU, the rules change entirely — that is special housing units (PS 5270.12), not this policy.

The rule itself: the three operational levels and the minimums that apply at each

The heart of this Program Statement is a pair of tables the Bureau does not present as tables at all: the three defined operational levels in Section 2, and the enumerated minimum conditions in Section 6. Reproduced below verbatim.

1. The three levels — what each is, and who may authorize it

Level	Definition, verbatim	Who may authorize it	When it is supposed to be used
Lockdown	“A total cessation of normal institution operations to maintain or restore the safety and security of an institution, staff, and inmates. During a lockdown, inmates are typically confined to their cells for extended periods, significantly restricting their movement and activities.”	“A full lockdown is only authorized by the Warden or designee”	“should be limited to situations having broad security implications which cannot be isolated or resolved to allow for lesser security restrictions.” And: “A lockdown should be used only when less restrictive measures such as modified operations are not feasible due to the scope and complexity of the precipitating incident”
Modified operations	“A precise, temporary security measure within a correctional institution, allowing for targeted restrictions in specific isolated areas while maintaining standard activities in unaffected areas of the institution. This approach involves restrictions on movement to certain areas, changes to daily routines, or the suspension of specific programs to isolate and contain a security threat or vulnerability and manage risk while allowing the least restrictive operation conducive to the orderly running of the institution.”	“Modified operations are only authorized by the Warden or designee”	“should be used whenever verified intelligence and known facts indicate a threat risk can be isolated to a specific area.” “The institution must prioritize these localized interventions over institution-wide lockdowns”
Temporarily secured	“An institution may be temporarily secured for emergent or non-emergent reasons such as conducting a preliminary investigation following an incident, conducting controlled maintenance, staff recalls, and other regulated events not considered lockdown or modified operations requiring reporting procedures.”	“The Warden or the highest-ranking Correctional Supervisor is authorized to temporarily secure the institution when deemed necessary”	“These instances should be limited to the time required to facilitate these events and ordinarily should not extend past one operational shift”

Source: PS 5525.01 at pp. 2–3.

The third category matters more than it looks. “Temporarily secured” is expressly outside the reporting and tracking requirements that attach to the other two. A facility that stops movement for a shift and calls it a temporary securing generates no BP-A1188 entry, no Incident Action Plan and no Regional Director notification.

2. The minimums during a lockdown or modified operation

These are the enumerated conditions in Section 6, with the numeric thresholds exactly as the Program Statement states them.

Area	The minimum the Program Statement sets	Threshold that triggers it
Showers	“Inmates must be provided with opportunities to shower at least three times per calendar week (Sunday – Saturday)”	Any lockdown or modified operation
Hygiene supplies	“Basic hygiene supplies including soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and toilet paper must be issued as necessary to maintain an acceptable level of personal hygiene.” Feminine hygiene products “will be provided as detailed in the Program Statement Female Offender Manual”	Any lockdown or modified operation
Meals	“Institutions must provide at least three meals within a 24-hour period. One meal should be served hot daily, absent exigent circumstances, such as critical utility issues that would not allow for preparation of a hot meal.” Medical and religious diets “are strictly maintained and accommodated.” And: “Food must never be withheld or its quality varied as a disciplinary measure”	Any lockdown or modified operation
Medical and mental health access	“Institutions must maintain continued access to necessary and routine medical treatment. This includes chronic care clinics, subspecialty consultations both inside and outside the institution, emergency care, and mental health services. This also includes daily distribution of self-carry medications and administration of all oral and injectable medications on pill line within the day and times ordered.” The Health Services Administrator “must establish and implement a procedure to ensure continued access to routine sick call sign-ups”	Any lockdown or modified operation
Cell checks	“housing unit officers must observe each inmate once per hour, not to exceed 60 minutes in between rounds, and the rounds must be documented electronically in the TRUSCOPE program”	Whenever general population inmates are secured in their cells
Mental health rounds	“a mental health professional must visit affected units at least weekly to assess inmate well-being,” documented in TRUSCOPE	If a lockdown exceeds three days
Department head rounds	“department heads or designee must visit each locked down or modified area at least once per week” and document it in TRUSCOPE. “Department heads will conduct meaningful rounds, observing all assigned inmates in the area to address any concerns related to their department”	If a lockdown exceeds three days
Written notice to the population	“the institution must provide affected inmates notification regarding the anticipated operational schedule and modifications. Additional updates should be provided when substantial operational changes occur”	If a lockdown or modified operation is expected to last more than three days
Commissary — limited	“the affected population must be afforded the opportunity to purchase limited commissary, such as over-the-counter (OTC) medication and hygiene items, at a minimum. Generally, the $25.00 spending limitation at least bi-weekly may be utilized”	If a lockdown or modified operations exceed seven days
Commissary — general	“the affected population must be afforded a reasonable amount of general commissary, particularly when the precipitating events are not inmate driven. Generally, a $50.00 spending limitation at least bi-weekly, not including OTC medication and hygiene items, may be utilized. This limit may be increased or decreased at the Warden’s discretion”	If a lockdown or modified operations exceed fourteen days
Telephones	“When circumstances allow for modifications which permit out of cell time, it is recommended inmates be permitted to use the telephones.” “Continued restriction of phone privileges should be reserved for events in which communications control is necessary to prevent the spread of information which could jeopardize the safety and security of the institution or agency mission”	Recommendation, not a minimum
Visitation	“Institutions must maintain normal visitation schedules to the greatest extent possible. Total visitation restriction must only be implemented as a last resort when verified security implications create an institution-wide risk that cannot be safely isolated or mitigated through modified operations.” “Any restriction on visitation must be limited to the minimum time necessary to restore institutional security”	Any lockdown or modified operation
Public notice of a visit cancellation	“If a cancelation is required, the institution must immediately post a notification on its official website to provide the public with as much notice as possible, thereby minimizing the burden on families and external support systems”	Whenever visitation is canceled
Special visits	“the Warden retains the discretionary authority to authorize special visits on a case-by-case basis for extraordinary circumstances (e.g., end-of-life situations, critical family emergencies, or urgent legal proceedings) provided the visit can be conducted without compromising the safety and security of the institution”	Warden’s discretion, at any level
Legal access	“the institution must explore alternative legal access arrangements. Legal visitation and access to counsel must be prioritized and maintained even during modified operations and lockdowns to the extent possible. Restriction of legal visits should occur only when necessary to protect the safety and security of staff, inmates, or the public”	For lockdown or modified operations that exceed 24 hours
Legal calls, law library, discovery	“On a case-by-case basis, the Unit Manager arranges access to required legal calls, access to law library, and discovery for those on documented deadlines, particularly at pretrial facilities. The Unit Manager must consult the Captain”	On a documented deadline
UNICOR	“To the extent possible UNICOR operations should continue during modified operations,” using measures such as “establishing UNICOR specific housing units, or expedited clearance procedures”	Modified operations
Termination	“institutions must terminate lockdowns and modified operations as soon as credible information and security needs indicate it is safe to do so”	Continuing obligation

Source: PS 5525.01 at pp. 4–9.

3. What the notification to the population has to contain

When a lockdown or modified operation is expected to run more than three days, the Program Statement sets out four required elements. This is the notice your loved one should receive, and it is worth knowing what it is supposed to say:

• “Operational Status. Clearly outline all restrictions or limitations including movement, areas affected, programs, visitation, etc.”
• “Essential Services. Briefly outline how essential needs like meals, medication, access to hygiene and laundry services will be handled. (e.g., delivered to cells) to manage expectations.”
• “Purpose. Provide a basic rationale, such as ‘to investigate an incident’ or ‘to ensure institutional safety following a disruptive event,’ without revealing specific intelligence or security protocols.”
• “Conclusion. Provide an anticipated return to normal operations or indicate the situation is being monitored and normal operations will resume when it is deemed safe.”

Source: PS 5525.01 at pp. 4–5.

4. The reporting chain — what has to exist on paper

Step	Requirement	Timing
Initial report	“Any staff member who observes an institutional emergency that may compromise the safety and/or security of the facility must immediately report the emergency via radio”	Immediately
Authorization	“Following initial containment, the Warden or designee must authorize lockdown or modified operations as the situation dictates”	After containment
Regional notification	“institutional lockdowns or modified operations must be reported to the Regional Director as soon as practicable”	As soon as practicable
Incident Action Plan	“the Warden will submit a written Incident Action Plan (IAP) utilizing the incident command structure. At a minimum, the written IAP must include Incident Command System (ICS) 201, Incident Briefing and ICS 202, Incident Objectives. This IAP must also include an anticipated operational timelines for periods exceeding 24 hours”	Following the initial notification
Regional review	“The Regional Director may review the plan and provide recommendations or authorize alternative measures as deemed appropriate”	Discretionary
Full ICS documentation	“all institutions are required to utilize formal ICS operations and utilize standardized ICS forms for any lockdown or modified operation expected to exceed a 24-hour period.” Minimum: “ICS 201, Incident Briefing; ICS 202, Incident Objectives; and ICS 214, Activity Log”	Expected to exceed 24 hours
Tracking log	“Each institution Captain must document all lockdowns and modified operations via the BP-A1188, Monthly Lockdown and Modified Operations Tracking Log,” recording institution name; month; event type; start date; start time; end date; end time; rationale; restrictions; and “verification of public notification when visitation is affected”	Continuously
Monthly submission	“Captains must submit the BP-A1188 via email to the Correctional Services Branch, Central Office, resource box by the 5th of the following month … or at the conclusion of any overlapping lockdown from the preceding month”	By the 5th

Source: PS 5525.01 at pp. 3–6.

What the lockdown policy means for you

If you are the person inside: the minimums during modified operations

The minimums above are the Bureau’s own instruction to its staff, and they are specific enough to ask about by number. Three showers a calendar week. Three meals in a 24-hour period, one of them hot. Hourly cell checks logged in TRUSCOPE. If the lockdown has run more than three days, a weekly visit from a mental health professional and a weekly round by department heads — also logged. If it has run more than seven days, a chance to buy at least over-the-counter medication and hygiene items. If more than fourteen days, general commissary.

Be precise and be brief when you write. A cop-out (BP-A0148) that says “we have not showered since Monday and the policy says three times per calendar week” is worth more than a page of general complaint, because it identifies a documented, checkable fact. The same is true of medication: the Program Statement directs “daily distribution of self-carry medications and administration of all oral and injectable medications on pill line within the day and times ordered.” A missed dose is a date and a time.

Understand the limit of what this document is. A Program Statement is the Bureau’s internal instruction; it is not a regulation and it is not a statute, and there is no 28 C.F.R. section behind this one. It tells you what staff have been directed to do, which is exactly what an administrative remedy measures conduct against — but it is not a right you can take straight to a court. If the response is inadequate, the path runs BP-8 through BP-11, with the deadlines in 28 C.F.R. § 542.14 and § 542.15.

If you are a family member: what to expect during a lockdown

The hardest part of a lockdown is the silence, and this policy is the first Bureau document that puts obligations against it. Three things are worth knowing tonight.

First, visit cancellations are supposed to be posted. “If a cancelation is required, the institution must immediately post a notification on its official website.” Check the facility’s own page on bop.gov before you drive. The BP-A1188 tracking log the Captain keeps includes a field for “verification of public notification when visitation is affected,” so the posting is something the Bureau records as done.

Second, a lockdown expected to run more than three days is supposed to come with written notice to the population — status, essential services, a basic reason, and an anticipated end or a statement that it is being monitored. If your loved one has received nothing after several days, that is a specific, answerable question to put in writing.

Third, special visits survive a lockdown. The Warden “retains the discretionary authority to authorize special visits on a case-by-case basis for extraordinary circumstances (e.g., end-of-life situations, critical family emergencies, or urgent legal proceedings).” Discretionary means discretionary — nobody can tell you the answer in advance. But if there is a dying parent or a critical family emergency, the request goes to the Warden and it should be made in writing, promptly, with documentation attached.

What we would not tell you: that phones will come back on a particular day. The policy makes phone access a recommendation (“it is recommended inmates be permitted to use the telephones”), not a minimum, and it expressly contemplates continued restriction where “communications control is necessary.” Silence on the phone is not a sign that something has happened to your loved one.

If you are counsel: lockdowns and modified operations

Two provisions are directly useful, and both attach at 24 hours. First: “To ensure inmates have access to legal counsel as soon safely possible for lockdown or modified operations that exceed 24 hours, the institution must explore alternative legal access arrangements. Legal visitation and access to counsel must be prioritized and maintained even during modified operations and lockdowns to the extent possible.” Second: “On a case-by-case basis, the Unit Manager arranges access to required legal calls, access to law library, and discovery for those on documented deadlines, particularly at pretrial facilities.” The operative phrase is documented deadlines — a filing date in hand converts a general request into the situation the policy names. Address it to the Unit Manager, copy the Captain, and attach the scheduling order.

For record-building, the document set is unusually clean for a Bureau policy. Ask for the BP-A1188 entry for the month in question, which carries the event type, start and end date and time, the rationale, the restrictions and the visitation-notice verification; the Incident Action Plan with ICS 201 and ICS 202, required for anything exceeding 24 hours, along with ICS 214 activity logs; and the TRUSCOPE round documentation for hourly cell checks, weekly mental health rounds and weekly department head rounds. Note the classification question that precedes all of it: an event logged as “temporarily secured” generates none of this paperwork, and the Program Statement’s own limit — “ordinarily should not extend past one operational shift” — is the test for whether that label was correctly applied. See inmate legal activities (PS 1315.08) for the underlying legal-access framework.

What changed: the first edition of PS 5525.01

Everything. This is a first edition. PS 5525.01 was signed by Director William K. Marshall III on May 7, 2026. Unlike almost every other Program Statement in the Bureau’s manual, it carries no “Program Statement Rescinded” line and no summary-of-changes block — the two elements the Bureau prints at the top of a reissue. There is no PS 5525.00. Before this document, lockdown practice was governed by whatever a given institution’s local supplement and the Correctional Services Manual provided, which is to say it varied by facility and was largely invisible from outside.

What is new in substance is the numbers. National minimums for showers, meals, cell checks, mental health rounds, department head rounds, and commissary during extended restricted movement did not previously exist in a public national policy. Neither did the graduated commissary thresholds at seven and fourteen days, the three-day trigger for written notice to the population, or the requirement that a visitation cancellation be posted on the institution’s own website.

Also new is the vocabulary. The Program Statement defines three distinct operational levels where the Bureau previously had one informal one, and it instructs that the least restrictive of them be used: “The institution must prioritize these localized interventions over institution-wide lockdowns to minimize disruption to unaffected populations, maintain essential inmate services, and ensure staff safety.” Read alongside the purpose statement — “The Bureau of Prisons is committed to the swift restoration of normal operations to minimize the duration of restricted movement and to ensure inmates’ access to programs, services, and family support is reinstated at the earliest possible opportunity” — the document’s stated direction is toward shorter and narrower restrictions.

And it imports federal emergency-management structure. Any lockdown or modified operation expected to exceed 24 hours must run on formal Incident Command System operations with standardized ICS forms, “ensuring that the transition back to normal operations is executed safely, efficiently, and in alignment with federal emergency management standards.” That is a governance change, not a comfort measure, but it is what produces the paper trail described above.

The one thing to hold steady on: there is no regulation behind this. The REFERENCES block names two Program Statements, one Bureau form and three ICS forms — and no “Federal Regulations” heading of any kind. Compare a policy like searches of inmates and housing (PS 5521.06), which reproduces 28 C.F.R. §§ 552.10–552.14 in the body of the document. Nothing in 28 C.F.R. governs lockdowns as such. That means the minimums here are Bureau instruction — real, checkable, and the correct measure for an administrative remedy — but the Bureau can revise them without notice-and-comment rulemaking and without a court saying a word.

Where people get stuck when a visit is canceled

“The visit was canceled and nobody told us”

Start with the institution’s page on bop.gov, because the Program Statement directs that the posting be immediate: “the institution must immediately post a notification on its official website to provide the public with as much notice as possible.” If nothing is posted and the visit was in fact canceled, that is a concrete failure to compare against a written instruction, and it is recorded — the Captain’s BP-A1188 log carries a field for “verification of public notification when visitation is affected.”

The route is not a family complaint form, because there is not one. 28 C.F.R. § 542.10 limits the Administrative Remedy Program to a person seeking “formal review of an issue relating to any aspect of his/her own confinement,” and provides that “An inmate may not submit a Request or Appeal on behalf of another inmate.” Family members are outside the program entirely. What works: a short, dated, factual letter to the Warden, and — where a complete visitation shutdown is running long — a request through counsel that names the policy’s own last-resort standard. Keep copies. See visiting regulations (PS 5267.09) for the underlying visiting rules.

“It has been two weeks and he cannot buy soap”

This is the clearest numeric obligation in the document, and it comes in two steps. Past seven days, the affected population “must be afforded the opportunity to purchase limited commissary, such as over-the-counter (OTC) medication and hygiene items, at a minimum,” generally at a “$25.00 spending limitation at least bi-weekly.” Past fourteen days, they “must be afforded a reasonable amount of general commissary,” generally at “$50.00 spending limitation at least bi-weekly, not including OTC medication and hygiene items.”

Two qualifiers the page will not hide from you. The Warden may raise or lower the general-commissary figure “based upon reasonable ability of the institution and security needs,” may limit items “too cumbersome” for satellite delivery, and may withhold general commissary entirely “When security needs dictate, such as when hoarding or amassing stockpiles may further jeopardize safety and security.” The limited commissary tier at seven days — OTC medication and hygiene items — carries no equivalent withholding clause, and separately the Program Statement states that “Basic hygiene supplies including soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and toilet paper must be issued as necessary” regardless of commissary. A cop-out that cites the seven-day tier and the hygiene-issue sentence together is the strongest version of this request. Related: trust fund and commissary (PS 4500.13).

“He is missing medical appointments and his medication”

The policy is unambiguous here, and it is the provision most worth quoting back. “Institutions must maintain continued access to necessary and routine medical treatment. This includes chronic care clinics, subspecialty consultations both inside and outside the institution, emergency care, and mental health services. This also includes daily distribution of self-carry medications and administration of all oral and injectable medications on pill line within the day and times ordered, in accordance with national policy and local procedures.” The Health Services Administrator “must establish and implement a procedure to ensure continued access to routine sick call sign-ups,” and that procedure is supposed to be written into the institution supplement.

Route it as a medical issue, not a lockdown issue: a cop-out to Health Services naming the medication, the ordered time and the dates missed, then the administrative remedy path if nothing changes. Where the person has a serious chronic condition and the interruption is continuing, this is a situation where a call is worth more than a form — the firm handles Bureau medical-care advocacy directly. See patient care (PS 6031.06) and mental illness treatment and care (PS 5310.16).

“They say it is not a lockdown, it is ‘modified operations'”

The label is not a dodge — it is a defined term with real consequences, and in most cases the narrower label is the better outcome. Modified operations means “targeted restrictions in specific isolated areas while maintaining standard activities in unaffected areas,” and the Program Statement directs that it be preferred: “The institution must prioritize these localized interventions over institution-wide lockdowns.” Both levels carry the same Section 6 minimums — showers, meals, medical access, cell checks, the three-day rounds, the seven- and fourteen-day commissary tiers — so nothing in the minimum floor turns on which word is used.

The label that does matter is the third one. “Temporarily secured” is defined as covering “regulated events not considered lockdown or modified operations requiring reporting procedures,” and it “ordinarily should not extend past one operational shift.” An institution that keeps a unit down for days while calling it a temporary securing is outside the policy’s own definition, and the absence of a BP-A1188 entry is the tell. That is a question for counsel or for a records request, not for an argument with a unit officer.

Related BOP policy on lockdowns and modified operations

Page	What it covers
For families	The companion page: reaching an institution, what a canceled visit means, keeping contact through a lockdown
Visiting regulations (PS 5267.09)	The underlying visiting rules that a lockdown suspends, and how visiting lists work
Inmate telephone regulations (PS 5264.08)	Phone access in ordinary operations, which this policy makes a recommendation rather than a minimum
Special housing units (PS 5270.12)	Individual restrictive-housing placement — a different status, different reviews, different rules
Searches of inmates and housing (PS 5521.06)	The search rules behind a “mass contraband search” lockdown
Trust fund and commissary (PS 4500.13)	How commissary normally works, against which the $25 and $50 lockdown tiers are set
Patient care (PS 6031.06)	Sick call, chronic care clinics and medication administration
Inmate legal activities (PS 1315.08)	Legal calls, legal visits and law library access — the framework behind the 24-hour legal-access provision
Administrative remedy program (PS 1330.18)	BP-8 through BP-11, the deadlines, and what happens when no one responds
Federal prison consulting services	How the firm works a Bureau-facing problem — records requests, advocacy letters and administrative remedies

Frequently Asked Questions About Lockdowns

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