Psychology Services Manual (Program Statement 5310.17)

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

Field	Value
Program Statement	5310.17
Subject	Manual de Servicios Psicológicos — the value carried in BOP’s policy index and used here as verified. Variance: that is the title of BOP’s Spanish-language edition. The English edition’s own header block reads “Psychology Services Manual” (PS 5310.17 at p. 1). Same Program Statement number, same date, two language editions. See Law-watch findings.
Effective / current edition	08-25-2016
Change notices	None. BOP’s published policy list carries 5310.17 with no change notice.
Supersedes	P5310.12, Psychology Services Manual (03/07/95), rescinded — PS 5310.17 at p. 2
Governing statute	The Program Statement cites none in its own authority line. The Bureau’s general duties are 18 U.S.C. § 4042(a)(2)–(3) — “safekeeping, care, and subsistence” and “protection, instruction, and discipline.” Its reference list at p. 42 names 5 U.S.C. §§ 552 and 552a and 18 U.S.C. §§ 4241–4247.
28 C.F.R. anchor	None. There is no regulation governing BOP psychology services generally — verified section by section, below. The adjacent rules are part 549 subpart C (Psychiatric Evaluation and Treatment, §§ 549.40–549.46), part 552 subpart E (Suicide Prevention Program, §§ 552.40–552.42), and § 541.46(i) (control-unit mental health services).
Related BP forms	BP-A0519, Psychology Services Inmate Questionnaire (PSIQ) — the only Bureau inmate form the manual prescribes. Staff-facing: the Core Clinical Skills Review Form.
Official PDF	Brief-verified: bop.gov/policy/progstat/5310.17.pdf — that file is the 53-page Spanish edition. The 43-page English edition, from which every pin-cite on this page is taken, is at bop.gov/policy/progstat/5310_017.pdf. Both resolve.

Checked against the BOP policy set · 2026-09-06. Verification methodology: see our How We Verify page.

Program Statement 5310.17 is the Bureau of Prisons’ master instruction for how psychological services get delivered inside a federal prison: who does the work, what order it happens in, how fast a request has to be answered, and what the psychologist may and may not tell the rest of the staff. It is the framework document — the specific programs sit in their own Program Statements, and the companion plain-language page is Mental Health Programs for Inmates.

Two things this manual is not. It is not the mental-illness treatment policy — care levels, serious mental illness, and treatment obligations live in PS 5310.16, covered at Treatment and Care of Inmates with Mental Illness. And it is not RDAP: residential drug treatment and the other Psychology Treatment Programs are PS 5330.11, covered at Psychology Treatment Programs and RDAP. Sex offender treatment is PS 5324.10, at Sex Offender Programs. This page covers the container those programs sit in.

The rule itself: psychology services

Everything in this section is transcribed from the English edition of the Bureau’s own text at bop.gov/policy/progstat/5310_017.pdf, with the page anchor for each passage. Where a quotation contains the word “must,” that is the Bureau’s word inside its own instruction to staff — not a regulatory command a reader can enforce in court. The difference is explained in What binds and what does not, below.

The three service priorities — this manual’s care-level structure

PS 5310.17 does not rank people into service levels. It ranks tasks, into three priorities, and that ranking is what actually decides whose problem gets worked on when a department is short-staffed. Transcribed from PS 5310.17 at p. 5:

(1) Priority 1 – Priority 1 tasks are Psychology Services functions essential to the safety and security of staff and inmates.

– Inmate Suicide Prevention Program, to include risk assessment, intervention, and staff training. – Activities geared toward staff health, wellness, and safety to include EAP, involvement in CST/CNT, suicide prevention, and related training. – Acute crisis intervention with suicidal, dangerous, psychotic, or sexually victimized inmates, to include consultation with staff regarding the management of these inmates. – Treatment and care of inmates diagnosed with a serious mental illness, to include the delivery of priority practices for this population. – Initial psychological screening and evaluation of inmates, to include assessments of risk for sexual victimization or abusiveness. – Restrictive housing rounds, reviews, and interventions. – Compliance with professional, correctional, and other standards applicable to safety and security.

Priority 2 tasks are described at p. 5 as “vital Psychology Services functions,” and include “[e]vidence-based individual and group treatment for inmate mental health issues that do not rise to the level of a serious mental disorder,” evidence-based programming to reduce misconduct and recidivism, the specialty Psychology Treatment Programs, “[c]ourt-ordered forensic evaluations, other policy mandated psychological evaluations,” clinical documentation, and consultation with the Unit Disciplinary Committee and Discipline Hearing Officer. Priority 3 tasks, at p. 6, “enhance and strengthen the functioning of Psychology Services Departments and the institution” — continuing education, student training, unit-team reentry consultation, research, special projects, and “[c]ollateral duties unrelated to Psychology Services.”

That ordering is the single most useful thing on this page for a family member who cannot understand why a request has gone unanswered for six weeks. Ordinary outpatient counseling for a condition that is not a serious mental illness sits in Priority 2, below suicide prevention, crisis intervention, serious mental illness, intake screening and restrictive-housing rounds. It is not being ignored; it is queued behind a list the Bureau wrote down.

Separately, the manual carries an anti-diversion rule at p. 6: “Except in emergency situations, psychologists and treatment specialists are not assigned non-Psychology Services duties; e.g., coverage of a custody post, unit management functions, acting department head (outside of Psychology Services), institution duty officer.” And at p. 6: “Bureau psychologists do not conduct investigations or perform fitness for duty evaluations.”

The response time frames

These are the numbers people come looking for. Each row is transcribed from the passage cited. Note how much work the Bureau’s hedges — “ordinarily,” “promptly,” “in a timely manner” — are doing.

What	The time frame, in the Program Statement’s own words	Pin-cite
A request for services (a cop-out to Psychology)	“Inmate requests for services are responded to immediately for crisis situations or potential suicide risk, and ordinarily within three (3) working days for routine requests.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 13
What a response to a routine request may be	“Responses for routine requests may include an appointment, an invitation to the department’s open house hours, placement on a waiting list for the desired services, clarification, or redirection.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 13
Arrival screening for indicators of mental illness	“All inmates entering a Bureau institution are screened by Health Services and Unit Management staff within 24 hours.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 14
PSIQ at a pretrial or detention facility	“Within 24 hours of an inmate’s arrival, he/she completes the BP-A0519 Psychology Services Inmate Questionnaire (PSIQ).”	PS 5310.17 at p. 14
Review of a completed PSIQ (all others)	“Ordinarily, completed PSIQs for all other inmates are reviewed by a psychologist within one working day.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 14
PSIQ reporting current suicidal thoughts	“Upon completion, institution staff (e.g., Receiving and Discharge, Health Services) review the PSIQ and immediately alert Psychology Services if the inmate reports he/she is thinking of harming or killing him-/herself.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 14
Initial Intake Evaluation, newly committed	“Within the first 14 calendar days of the inmate’s arrival at the institution” — PSIQ completed, records reviewed, clinical interview conducted, evaluation documented, SENTRY assignments entered.	PS 5310.17 at pp. 15–16
Transfer Intake Screening	Required for transfers and anyone out of the institution more than 30 calendar days; the Chief Psychologist ensures the steps occur “within 30 calendar days of the inmate’s arrival at the institution.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 16
When a Transfer Intake Screening is not required	“A Transfer Intake Screening is not required for inmates who have been out of the institution for less than 30 calendar days or for inmates transferred between institutions within a correctional complex served by the same Psychology Services Department.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 16
Restrictive housing — first psychological review	“An initial psychological review is conducted on or before the 30th calendar day of consecutive confinement in restrictive housing.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 17
Restrictive housing — repeat reviews	“Following this initial review, subsequent reviews occur approximately monthly, but not more than 35 calendar days after the preceding review.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 17
Someone carrying a PSY ALERT assignment	“Inmates with a PSY ALERT assignment are reviewed by a psychologist upon arrival. Inmates with a PSY ALERT assignment must always have a face to face interview with a psychologist before releasing to general population. Placement in SHU in lieu of general population is not an acceptable alternative to a face to face interview with a psychologist.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 18
Turning Point handouts in the SHU	“Psychologists are required to offer Turning Point handouts to any inmate housed in SHU for more than 30 days; however, use of the protocol is voluntary and inmates may refuse to make use of the materials.”	PS 5310.17 at pp. 21–22
Documentation of a crisis contact	“Crisis-related contacts should be documented as soon as possible, and always within 24 hours; crisis-related contacts include Suicide Risk Assessments, Suicide Watch Contacts, Post Suicide Watch Reports, Crisis Interventions, and Sexual Assault Interventions.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 25
Documentation of any other clinical contact	“Other individual clinical contacts are documented in PDS normally on the day they occur, or within three working days.”	PS 5310.17 at p. 25

Two structural points travel with that table. First, the comprehensive intake evaluation happens once: “This comprehensive intake screening is conducted only at the time of initial designation and is not repeated at subsequent transfers during a sentence, unless a significant change of status has occurred” (p. 15). Everything after that is the shorter Transfer Intake Screening. Second, after-hours coverage runs through a named duty officer: the Chief Psychologist “ensures a system is in place to respond promptly to emergency Psychology Services referrals, to include establishment of a fair and equitable on call Mental Health Duty Officer rotation for the department” (p. 22).

What the Initial Intake Evaluation is for, and what it produces

The intake evaluation is the document that sets a person’s mental-health trajectory for the rest of the sentence, and most people never see it. PS 5310.17 at p. 15 states its purposes:

– Inform inmates about psychological services and the limits of confidentiality. – Identify significant historical and current indices of inmates’ emotional, intellectual, or behavioral problems. – Assign an appropriate mental health care level. – Identify inmates who require additional psychological assessment to confirm a suspected diagnosis or establish an appropriate mental health care level. – Identify inmates who require psychological treatment to address mental health needs and generate the necessary referrals. – Identify inmates who could benefit from psychological programming to address reentry needs and generate the necessary referrals.

The inputs are the completed PSIQ, the Psychology Data System record, SENTRY data, “relevant sections of the inmate’s PSR,” and a clinical interview (p. 15). The outputs are entered into SENTRY: “a mental health care level assignment (i.e., CARE1-MH, CARE2-MH, CARE3-MH, CARE4-MH), a DAP REFER assignment if the inmate expresses an interest in drug treatment, and a PSY ALERT assignment if relevant” (p. 16). The manual assigns the care level here but does not define the levels — it routes that to PS 5310.16, our page on Treatment and Care of Inmates with Mental Illness. The care level then drives designation, because it is read alongside the medical care level in Medical Designations and Care Levels.

The PSY ALERT assignment deserves separate attention because of what it controls. Under p. 18, it “is applied to inmates with substantial mental health concerns that require extra care when their housing is changed or they are transferred,” its “guiding principle” is continuity of care, and it triggers a psychologist’s review “upon arrival,” “when under consideration for a transfer and when placed in restrictive housing.” The governing statement is PS 5324.07, SENTRY Psychology Alert Function.

The services an institution offers, and how you are told about them

The manual makes the institution tell arriving people what exists. PS 5310.17 at p. 13:

Each institution is responsible for providing newly arriving inmates with information about available psychological services – both locally and at other Bureau institutions as applicable. This information is presented to inmates during the institution’s Admission and Orientation (A&O) Program and in the A&O Handbook.

And it sets the floor for that briefing, same page: “The Psychology A&O Lesson Plan must include, at a minimum, information on drug treatment programs, mental health programs, sex offender programs, suicide prevention, privacy and confidentiality, and local procedures for obtaining psychological services. The Psychology Services A&O Lesson Plan is presented by a psychologist.” If that presentation did not happen, or happened without a psychologist in the room, that is a specific, checkable fact — and the arrival sequence it sits inside is walked through at the federal prison intake process. Our explainer on Program Statement 5290.14, the Admission and Orientation Program, carries the A&O rule itself.

The intervention set itself, from pp. 19–23, is: outpatient individual and group mental health treatment; brief individual counseling for “mild adjustment issues, or other short-term stressors,” which “do not require a current mental health diagnosis or a treatment plan” (p. 19); reentry programming such as Anger Management and Criminal Thinking groups; six named restrictive-housing strategies — prevention, diversion, mitigation, intervention, transition and oversight (p. 21); crisis intervention; and behavioral consultation on the management of disruptive inmates. Outpatient reentry groups carry their own numbers, at p. 20: they “[m]eet at least every other week” and “[h]ave a continuity in membership, no greater than 12 participants.”

Confidentiality, and its limits — read this part twice

This is the provision people most often get wrong, in both directions. Some assume prison psychology is fully confidential like a private therapist. Others assume nothing said is private. Neither is right. PS 5310.17 at p. 26, transcribed:

c. Privacy and Confidentiality. Psychology Services staff respect the privacy of inmates who disclose personal information. Inmates should be informed PDS data is not entirely confidential and can be released to a law enforcement entity with a need to know; e.g., Bureau attorney, U.S. Department of Justice employee, U.S. Probation Officer, or other law enforcement personnel. The Limits of Confidentiality statement should be provided to the inmate at the time of the Intake Screening – in verbal and/or written form – and posted in the Psychology Services area.

There is a second, separate disclosure channel — inside the institution, to correctional staff. PS 5310.17 at p. 27:

d. Internal Information Sharing. In furtherance of suicide prevention and the effective management of inmates with significant mental health issues, the Chief Psychologist is responsible for sharing basic mental health information about inmates on a “need to know” basis. Specifically, Psychology Services Departments ensure institution staff are made aware of inmates with serious mental illnesses, risk of suicide, and/or risk of sexual predation. This information is communicated to staff via the Psychology Advisory List, which is disseminated electronically to all staff. In addition to identifying an inmate with significant mental health issues, the list advises staff regarding potential behaviors of concern and offers recommendations for interacting effectively with the inmate.

So the honest answer is: what you say to a Bureau psychologist is protected against casual disclosure, is documented in a record that a Bureau attorney, a DOJ employee or your probation officer can obtain with a need to know, and — where it concerns serious mental illness, suicide risk, or risk of sexual predation — is deliberately pushed out to every staff member through the Psychology Advisory List. The Limits of Confidentiality statement is supposed to be handed to you at intake and posted on the wall of the department. Ask for it, and read it, before the first session rather than after.

The manual also sets out how you get your own records, at p. 27: “An inmate may review his/her PDS records by submitting a request to Psychology Services.” A psychologist screens first for harm; the Chief Psychologist makes the final call; “[i]f a portion of the records are withheld, the inmate will be so advised in writing and provided the address of the Freedom of Information Act office to which the inmate may address a formal request for the withheld records.” Raw test data and answer sheets are treated as proprietary and are not released where disclosure “would compromise the integrity and usefulness of the test.” Inmates “may not review the electronic medical record directly” — only printed copies. The route is our page on FOIA and Privacy Act Requests.

The form and the record

There is no “Required Forms” section in this Program Statement, and only one Bureau inmate form is prescribed anywhere in it.

Item	What it is	Pin-cite
BP-A0519 — Psychology Services Inmate Questionnaire (PSIQ)	The self-report questionnaire completed at intake. At pretrial and detention facilities, completed within 24 hours of arrival; at other institutions, completed as part of the 14-day Initial Intake Evaluation. Item #7 asks whether the person is thinking of harming or killing themselves, and a “yes” triggers immediate telephonic or in-person notification of Psychology Services.	PS 5310.17 at pp. 14–15; item #7 quoted in PS 5332.01 at p. 9
PDS — the Psychology Data System	“[T]he Bureau’s official documentation system for psychological services… a module within the Bureau Electronic Medical Record (BEMR).” All psychological services are documented there.	PS 5310.17 at pp. 2, 25
Named PDS notes	Initial Intake Evaluation · Transfer Intake Screening · Brief R&D Screening · Psychology Alert Screening · SHU Review · ADX Review · SMU Contact · Hunger Strike Review · Restraint Review · Individual Therapy · Diagnostic and Care Level Formulation · Treatment Plan · Clinical Contact · Crisis Intervention · Suicide Risk Assessment · Suicide Risk Management Plan · Contingency Contract · Disruptive Behavior Interventions · Mental Health Transfer Summary	PS 5310.17 at pp. 14, 16–18, 20, 22–23, 25
SENTRY assignments	CARE1-MH, CARE2-MH, CARE3-MH, CARE4-MH · DAP REFER · PSY ALERT · DRG and PTP program assignments	PS 5310.17 at pp. 16, 26
Core Clinical Skills Review Form	Staff-facing. A review of each psychologist’s core clinical skills is conducted “every two years” at a minimum.	PS 5310.17 at pp. 29–30

Supplemental documents — outside records, forms, releases — are “uploaded to the Document Manager in BEMR” and linked to a clinical note (p. 26). Work by practicum students, pre-doctoral interns and post-doctoral residents “are reviewed by a licensed psychologist within the department before being released to the inmates’ permanent PDS record” (p. 26).

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: The single most consequential document in this manual is the one nobody asks for: the Initial Intake Evaluation, written in the first fourteen days by a psychologist who has known the person for forty minutes and read part of a PSR. It sets the mental health care level, and the care level travels — into designation, into what programs are offered, into whether a later transfer request looks reasonable. If it says “no mental health treatment needs” because a frightened new arrival minimized everything, that assessment persists until somebody affirmatively moves it. Request a copy under the review procedure at p. 27, read what it actually says, and if it is wrong, correct it with a written request and supporting records early — not three years later when it is being used to deny a step-down placement.

What binds and what does not in PS 5310.17

This distinction decides what a reader can actually do with this manual, so it goes near the front rather than buried.

A Program Statement is the Bureau’s internal instruction to its own staff. It is not a regulation. The Supreme Court said so directly in Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50 (1995), describing a Program Statement as “an internal agency guideline” that is “akin to an ‘interpretive rule’ that ‘do[es] not require notice and comment,'” though “still entitled to some deference” where it is a permissible construction of the statute. So when this page says the policy “directs staff” to do something, that is precise language, not hedging.

PS 5310.17 is an unusually stark example, because nothing in it is regulation at all. We checked the Code of Federal Regulations section by section: there is no rule in 28 C.F.R. governing BOP psychology services, counseling, mental-health screening intervals, or access to a psychologist. The manual carries no bracketed rules text and no C.F.R. section numbers in its body — unlike, say, the suicide prevention statement, which reprints its regulation. What exists nearby is narrower:

Regulation	What it actually covers
28 C.F.R. part 549 subpart C, §§ 549.40–549.46	Psychiatric Evaluation and Treatment — hospitalization in a suitable facility, use of psychiatric medications, voluntary and involuntary hospitalization and medication. This is the psychiatric, not psychological, track. BOP implements it through PS 6010.03.
28 C.F.R. § 549.43	“The Bureau may transfer an inmate to a suitable facility for psychiatric or psychological examination to determine whether hospitalization in a suitable facility for psychiatric care or treatment is needed.” The one regulation using the word “psychological,” and it is about transfer for examination.
28 C.F.R. part 552 subpart E, §§ 552.40–552.42	Suicide Prevention Program — the one Priority 1 function that is regulated. BOP implements it through Program Statement 5332.01.
28 C.F.R. § 541.46(i)	Mental health services in a control unit specifically — not general population.

The practical consequence is unglamorous but important: a missed three-working-day response, a late Initial Intake Evaluation, a skipped restrictive-housing review — none of those is a violation of a regulation, because no regulation sets those intervals. They are the Bureau’s own commitments, and they are enforced administratively, through the grievance ladder and through supervisory review, not by a court order compelling compliance with PS 5310.17. That does not make them worthless. A documented, dated failure to meet the Bureau’s own published standard is exactly the material that moves a Regional Office, a Chief Psychologist, or a warden — and it is evidence, in a later proceeding, of what the institution said its own practice was.

What the Psychology Services Manual means for you

If you are the person inside: use the policy’s own words

Use the written route, and use the policy’s own words in it. A request to Psychology Services goes on an Inmate Request to Staff — form BP-A0148, universally called a “cop-out,” covered at Request to Staff. Date it, keep a copy, and say plainly which of the two clocks you are on: crisis and potential suicide risk are answered “immediately”; a routine request is answered “ordinarily within three (3) working days” (p. 13). A response is not the same thing as an appointment — under the same paragraph, a valid response includes being put on a waiting list or invited to open house hours.

Know what the department is supposed to have told you. Under p. 13 the policy directs that the A&O lesson plan be presented by a psychologist and cover, at a minimum, drug treatment, mental health programs, sex offender programs, suicide prevention, privacy and confidentiality, and the local procedure for obtaining services. Know your own record: you may request review of your PDS records (p. 27), and you may ask for the Limits of Confidentiality statement, which is supposed to be given to you at intake and posted in the department (p. 26).

Two things worth understanding before you decide how much to say. First, the Psychology Advisory List exists (p. 27), and information about serious mental illness, suicide risk, or risk of sexual predation is deliberately shared with all staff. Second, that is the trade the system makes for safety, and being on it is not a punishment — but you should know it happens, because nobody enjoys learning it by surprise. If you are in the Special Housing Unit, the review clock is 30 days and then roughly monthly (p. 17); if you have been in for more than 30 days, a psychologist is directed to offer you the Turning Point handouts, which are voluntary (pp. 21–22). Background: Special Housing Units and Solitary Confinement and Special Housing Units.

If you are the family member: when you are told he is on the list

You will hear that your person “is on the list” and nothing else, and it will be maddening. Here is what is actually happening. In the first two weeks after arrival at the designated institution, a psychologist reviews the questionnaire, the Bureau’s records and part of the presentence report, conducts a clinical interview, and assigns a mental health care level (pp. 15–16). After that, routine requests are answered — not treated, answered — ordinarily within three working days (p. 13). Actual therapy sits in Priority 2, behind the Priority 1 list on p. 5.

What you can usefully do is narrow. You cannot obtain your person’s mental health record; it is theirs, and the review procedure at p. 27 runs to them. You can pass information in. If you have observed something concerning — a change in tone in letters or calls, giving possessions away, a threat — call the institution’s Psychology Services department and say so, and follow up in writing to the Warden’s office. Under the suicide prevention statement, institutions are directed to place “posters in the visiting room encouraging family members to communicate potential risk to Bureau staff” (PS 5332.01 at p. 12). That channel is real and it is meant to be used. Do not send that information by email or voicemail alone; both the suicide statement and this manual treat live contact as the standard for risk information.

Keep your own dated notes of who you spoke to and when. Families are frequently the only party keeping a written chronology, and that chronology is what turns a vague complaint into a specific, dated filing. Our general orientation page for families is What Families Should Know About Federal Prison.

If you are counsel: psychology services

Three practical points. First, on records: PDS is a module inside BEMR, the record is electronic, and inmates “may not review the electronic medical record directly” — only printed copies (p. 27). Where the department screens material out for harm, the policy directs that the withholding be communicated in writing, with the FOIA office address (p. 27). Build the request accordingly: a client-executed release plus a Privacy Act request, and expect the raw testing data to be withheld as proprietary. See FOIA and Privacy Act Requests.

Second, on what the record contains that you will want. The Initial Intake Evaluation and the mental health care level are the two load-bearing entries for mitigation, for a compassionate release motion resting on mental health, and for any designation or transfer argument — the care level is read alongside the medical care level under Medical Designations and Care Levels. Restrictive-housing reviews (SHU Review, ADX Review, SMU Contact) establish what the institution knew and when. Under p. 17, clinically relevant observations “are required” in that note where the person carries CARE2-MH or above, a PSYCH ALERT assignment, or a Suicide Risk Assessment in the previous six months — so the presence or absence of those observations is itself informative.

Third, on what the manual cannot carry. Under Koray, a Program Statement is an internal guideline; a departure from PS 5310.17 is not itself a cause of action, and there is no C.F.R. section to enforce in its place. Set expectations early. The manual is powerful as a standard of practice document — it tells you what the Bureau says it does, in its own words, with dates — and it is that framing, not a compliance claim, that does work in a sentencing memorandum, a § 3582(c)(1)(A) motion, or an administrative appeal. Forensic and court-ordered evaluations run on a separate track under PS 5070.12, at Forensic and Other Mental Health Evaluations.

What changed from PS 5310.12 to 5310.17

PS 5310.17, dated August 25, 2016, rescinded P5310.12, Psychology Services Manual (03/07/95) — PS 5310.17 at p. 2. That is a twenty-one-year gap between editions, and the 2016 reissue listed seven modifications, transcribed from pp. 1–2:

– A refined mission statement and priorities for the delivery of psychological services, to include an increased emphasis on reentry services, to include cognitive-behavioral therapies and the Risk-Need-Responsivity model. – Enhancement of the psychological services offered in restrictive housing settings. – Incorporation of previously issued guidance regarding Transfer Intake Screenings. – Updated guidance regarding the creation and maintenance of professional clinical documentation. – Incorporation of strategies to assess and support the core clinical skills of correctional psychologists. – Incorporation of guidance regarding the operation of graduate student practicum programs in Psychology Services. – Removal of duplicative content addressed in other Psychology Services Program Statements.

That last bullet explains the shape of the document: it is deliberately a framework, having pushed program detail out to the specialty statements.

The manual is now ten years old, and the Bureau’s 2026 reissue wave did not reach it. Between February and June 2026 BOP reissued a large block of program statements, including twenty-three effective June 22, 2026. PS 5310.17 was not among them and remains on BOP’s published policy list with no change notice. Four kinds of drift follow, and they matter when you are reading the 2016 text against a 2026 institution.

The systems it names have been replaced or renamed. PS 5310.17 is written around PDS, BEMR and SENTRY, with resources on “Sallyport.” The March 2026 suicide prevention statement is written around the EHR, the Psychology Advisory List in TRUSCOPE, and “the PSB page of the Bureau’s intranet site” (PS 5332.01 at pp. 2, 10). PS 5332.01’s summary of changes expressly “[r]emoves specific references to a Bureau inmate management system and related codes,” directing staff to the intranet instead (p. 2). Read 5310.17’s system names as functional descriptions, not current product names. BOP also announced a core-systems cloud migration on August 27, 2026 — an IT change, not a policy change, but it touches the systems these records live in.

Three of the statements it cross-references have been replaced. PS 5324.08, Suicide Prevention Program (4/5/2007), which PS 5310.17 cites at p. 42, was rescinded by PS 5332.01 effective March 19, 2026 — so every suicide-prevention procedure this manual points to now lives in a different document with different numbers. PS 5324.12, the sexually abusive behavior statement, has been replaced by PS 5333.01 (3/19/2026); our page is PREA and Sexual Abuse Prevention. PS 5566.06, Use of Force and Application of Restraints, is now PS 5566.07. PS 5310.16 has carried Change Notice CN-1 since February 18, 2025.

The suicide-prevention interface has been rewritten around it. PS 5332.01 now directs that the staff member conducting the intake social screening personally review the PSIQ for item #7 (p. 9), that all institution psychologists participate in an on-call rotation for after-hours emergency referrals (p. 4), and that a psychologist make weekly rounds of restrictive housing units (p. 11). PS 5310.17 at p. 17 sets restrictive-housing review intervals of 30 and 35 days; PS 5332.01 at p. 11 adds weekly rounds. Both are current; they are different obligations, and reading only one of them produces the wrong picture.

The one thing that has not changed is the confidentiality architecture. The Limits of Confidentiality statement, the Psychology Advisory List, and the release-of-information procedure at pp. 26–27 are unamended, and PS 5332.01 continues to route risk information to staff through the PAL. If anything, the 2026 statement widened internal sharing: it directs the Chief Psychologist to ensure “critical mental health information, specifically suicide risk (e.g., acute, chronic) and known destabilizing factors are communicated to Unit Management, CTS, and the RRMB” for people heading to a halfway house or home confinement (PS 5332.01 at p. 5).

Where people get stuck waiting for psychology services

Four problems recur. Each has a route, and the route matters more than the complaint.

“I put in a cop-out and never heard anything.” Start by re-filing with the standard in it. Write a fresh BP-A0148 addressed to the Chief Psychologist, state the date of the first request, and quote the manual: routine requests are answered “ordinarily within three (3) working days” (PS 5310.17 at p. 13). Ask for one of the five responses the policy itself names — an appointment, open house hours, a waiting list placement, clarification, or redirection — so that “no answer” becomes visibly non-compliant with the Bureau’s own text. If that produces nothing, the formal ladder is the Administrative Remedy Program: 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 deadline is short — 28 C.F.R. § 542.14(a) sets “20 calendar days following the date on which the basis for the Request occurred,” subject to an extension “[w]here the inmate demonstrates a valid reason for delay.” BOP publishes BP-A0148 but does not publish the BP-9, BP-10 or BP-11 forms; you get those from the unit team. See Administrative Remedy Program.

“They will not give me a diagnosis, or they took mine away.” This is a clinical-judgment dispute, and the manual is candid about where the authority sits: “Mental health providers in Psychology Services make the final determination regarding who will receive psychological care, and the nature of the care they will receive” (p. 12), and “[c]linical decisions are the sole province of the responsible clinician and/or supervisory psychologist(s), and are not to be countermanded by non-clinicians” (p. 6). The realistic route is not to argue the diagnosis but to supply the record — prior treatment records, prescriptions, hospital discharge summaries — and ask in writing for reconsideration of the mental health care level, then escalate through the ladder if it goes nowhere. Where medication is the real issue, that is psychiatry, not psychology: it runs through Health Services under Patient Care, the Inmate Copayment Program rules on fees, and PS 6010.03 under 28 C.F.R. part 549 subpart C.

“I told the psychologist something and now the whole unit staff knows.” Check which channel it went through. Sharing on a “need to know” basis for serious mental illness, suicide risk, or risk of sexual predation is what the Psychology Advisory List is for, and the manual directs it (p. 27). Disclosure beyond that — a staff member repeating clinical detail in front of other inmates, a note left visible, a fax sent to the wrong number — is a confidentiality failure the manual expressly warns against at pp. 26–27. Those are separable complaints and should be filed separately: a cop-out to the Chief Psychologist identifying the specific disclosure, then the remedy ladder. A staff-misconduct allegation is a different track again.

“He is in the SHU and nobody from Psychology has seen him.” Two clocks apply and they are easy to confuse. Under PS 5310.17 at p. 17 the psychological review is due on or before the 30th consecutive calendar day and then approximately monthly, not more than 35 days apart. Under PS 5332.01 at p. 11, a psychologist makes weekly rounds of restrictive housing units “documented by their signature in the unit logbook” — a different obligation with a different record. Name whichever one is missing, by date, and ask for the logbook entry. See Special Housing Units.

Where the underlying problem is a designation, a medical or mental-health care level, a transfer, or a First Step Act calculation, the administrative remedy path is necessary but rarely sufficient on its own. Those belong in a consult — see Federal Prison Consulting Services or contact us. Exhaustion also matters if court is ever a possibility: 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 grievance ladder, on time, before filing.

Related BOP policy on psychology services

The paired information page is Mental Health Programs for Inmates — the plain-language walkthrough of what mental health care in federal prison actually looks like day to day. It links back here for the rule.

Policies that meet this manual directly: Treatment and Care of Inmates with Mental Illness (PS 5310.16) defines the CARE1-MH through CARE4-MH levels this manual assigns. Our explainer on Program Statement 5332.01, the Suicide Prevention Program, covers the Priority 1 function that has its own regulation. Psychology Treatment Programs and RDAP (PS 5330.11) and Early Release Procedures under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e) (PS 5331.02) carry residential drug treatment. Sex Offender Programs (PS 5324.10) carries the sex offender treatment track, with the plain-language version at Sex Offender Treatment Programs. Forensic and Other Mental Health Evaluations (PS 5070.12) covers court-ordered evaluations.

Where psychology meets the rest of the institution: the federal prison intake process and First Day in Prison for the arrival sequence that carries the psychologist-presented A&O session; Special Housing Units (PS 5270.12) and Solitary Confinement and Special Housing Units for restrictive housing; Inmate Discipline Program (PS 5270.09) for the UDC and DHO consultations named in Priority 2, with the practical version at Prison Disciplinary Infractions; Female Offender Manual (PS 5200.09) and Management of Aging Offenders (PS 5241.01) for the special-population accommodations; Management of Inmates with Disabilities (PS 5200.06) for accommodation requests; Unit Team and Program Review (PS 5321.09) for the unit-team consultations in Priority 3.

Medical and records routes: Patient Care (PS 6031.06), Medical Designations and Care Levels (PS 6270.02), Medical Care Levels in Federal Prison, Medical and Dental Care in Prison, Inmate Central File, Privacy Folder, and Parole Mini-Files (PS 5800.17), FOIA and Privacy Act Requests, Request to Staff (PS 5511.08), and Administrative Remedy Program (PS 1330.18). Further reading on our site: What Rights Do Prisoners Have? and Mental Health and Solitary Confinement in Federal Prison.

Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology Services

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