Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual

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

Program Statement 4500.13 at a glance

Field	Value
Program Statement	4500.13
Subject	Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual
Effective / current edition date	May 7, 2026 (printed on the PDF header as “Date May 7, 2026”); approved by William K. Marshall III, Director; DPI ADM
Change notice	None on this edition
Supersedes / rescinds	4500.12 CN-1, Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual (3/06/25)
Governing statute	31 U.S.C. § 1321 — subsection (a)(21) classifies “Funds of Federal prisoners” and (a)(22) “Commissary funds, Federal prisons” as trust funds
Governing regulation (28 C.F.R.)	Part 506 — Inmate Commissary Account, §§ 506.1–506.2. The Program Statement’s own References page cites 28 C.F.R. § 506.1
Related BP forms	BP-197 Temporary Receipt; BP-199 Request for Withdrawal of Inmate’s Personal Funds; BP-201 Withdrawal Record – Inmate; BP-A0200 Special Purpose Order Request – Inmate; BP-A0328 Stamps, Negotiable Instrument & Other Returned to Sender; BP-A0407 Acknowledgment of Inmate, Part 1 & 2; BP-A0905 LockBox Field Submission; BP-A1054 TRULINCS Contact Request Form
Official PDF	PS 4500.13, Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual (May 7, 2026)

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

Program Statement 4500.13 is the Bureau of Prisons’ 134-page manual for the money side of federal prison: the account your loved one’s funds sit in, how much they may spend at the commissary each month, how deposits must reach them, and when the Bureau may freeze what is in the account. It matters legally because the money is not the Bureau’s — Congress classified the funds of federal prisoners and federal prison commissary funds as trust funds in 31 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(21)–(22), and those amounts “are appropriated to be disbursed in compliance with the terms of the trust.”

Two companion pages carry the practical side. Commissary items and canteen covers what is actually on the shelf and how a shopping list works. How to send money to someone in federal prison covers the mechanics of a deposit — money order, Western Union, MoneyGram — and what to do when funds do not post. This page is the rule set: the monthly spending limit and every dollar figure around it, the deposit rules, the encumbrance rules and the IFRP interaction, quoted from the Program Statement with page pin-cites.

The rule itself: the money limits in PS 4500.13

The heart of this manual is the spending limitation at Section 3.2, together with the small set of dollar figures scattered across the chapters on commissary, deposits, encumbrances, pay and withdrawals. Every figure below is quoted verbatim with its page anchor. All of it is Bureau policy — the manual contains no numeric limits drawn from the Code of Federal Regulations, and the Bureau can change any of these figures in the next edition without notice and rulemaking.

The monthly commissary spending limit

“3.2 SPENDING LIMITATION. Inmates are given the opportunity to purchase goods from Commissary. To lessen the disparity between affluent inmates and inmates with few resources, the Bureau implements a spending limitation of $460 per month.

The spending limitation is the maximum amount an inmate is allowed to spend per month on sales items not excluded from the monthly spending limitation, described in paragraph b. below.

The spending limitation will be increased by $50 during the November/December holiday period. The increased spending limitation for each inmate is in effect for no more than one validation period.”

Source: PS 4500.13 at p. 28.

The limit is revalidated on a clock, not on a calendar month: “The spending limitation is automatically revalidated once per month for each inmate except where weekly or bi-weekly validation is used” (p. 29). Institutions may also set local quantity caps: “local controls, including quantity limitations, may be set to restrict trafficking of Commissary items” (p. 28).

What does not count against the limit

The Program Statement states this list is closed — “The only items excluded from the spending limitation are”:

#	Excluded item, verbatim
1	Postage stamps
2	Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) patches or lozenges
3	Over-the-counter medications, medical products, and vitamins/mineral supplements as defined in Section 3.3.f(15)
4	Kosher/Halal shelf-stable entrees for inmates who are IFRP Refusal status
5	Copy cards and copy paper
6	Footwear to include sneakers and safety shoes
7	Mattresses
8	Secured media device

Source: PS 4500.13 at p. 28.

That list is worth reading twice. Postage stamps do not eat into the $460, which means the correspondence rules and the spending limit do not compete. Neither do over-the-counter medications, copy cards and copy paper — the items a person needs to litigate a case and to treat a minor medical problem out of pocket.

Every other dollar figure in the manual

What	Figure, verbatim from PS 4500.13	Pin-cite
Monthly commissary spending limitation	“$460 per month”	p. 28
November/December holiday increase	“increased by $50,” for “no more than one validation period”	p. 28
Special Purpose Order (SPO) frequency	“Inmates are limited to one SPO per month. Exceptions may be approved by the Warden in writing.”	p. 40
SPO quarterly ceiling	“The maximum dollar amount allowed for SPO items is $600 per quarter, inclusive of markup and shipping.”	p. 40
SPO and the monthly limit	“Purchases within any single validation cycle must not exceed the established institution spending limit, regardless of the remaining quarterly balance.”	p. 40
Leather items needing written Warden approval	“individual leather items with a unit cost of $100, including markup, or more”	p. 40
Trust Fund (commissary) worker pay	“$0.55 per hour starting. $0.75 per hour after 3 months’ service, if warranted. $0.95 per hour after 6 months’ service, if warranted. $1.20 per hour after 9 months’ service, if warranted.”	p. 24
Cap on Trust Fund worker pay increases	“Any increase in pay (not to exceed $1.20 per hour) is based on the inmate’s work performance and availability of funds.”	p. 24
Trust Fund bonus pay	“It may not exceed one-half of the inmate’s monthly pay.”	p. 24
Hold on most deposits	“A 15-day hold is placed automatically on negotiable instruments, except those in paragraph 9.3.b.”	pp. 72–73
Hold on foreign instruments	“Foreign negotiable instruments payable in U.S. dollars are held for 45 days.”	p. 73
Minimum IFRP deduction from UNICOR pay	“If the IFRP deduction does not meet the $25 minimum requirement, the process deducts available funds (available before pay posting) from the inmate’s balance.”	pp. 79–80
Withdrawal approval threshold	“Associate Wardens and Camp Administrators for withdrawal requests over $500.”	p. 82
IFRP exemption from that threshold	“Withdrawals made under the IFRP are exempt from the $500 limit.”	p. 82
Western Union / MoneyGram posting speed	“posted to the inmate’s account within two hours of the transfer, if it was initiated between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST. Fund transfers after 9:00 p.m. EST are posted by 7:00 a.m. the following day.”	p. 79
Advance pay before release	“Staff post an advance pay transaction at least three days before the inmate’s release.”	p. 80

Source: PS 4500.13 at pp. 24, 28, 40, 72–73, 79–80, 82.

How money must be sent

The Bureau accepts deposits at one national processing point, not at the prison. Section 9.5 states: “The Bureau has an Interagency Agreement with the U.S. Treasury to operate a LockBox Program. … Funds for deposit to inmate accounts (Inmate Deposit Fund) are sent to the LockBox.” The Program Statement does not print the LockBox address. It states twice — at Section 9.4 and again at Section 9.5.a — that “[t]he address can be found on the Trust Fund Branch intranet page,” which is not publicly accessible. Get the current address from the institution, from the Bureau’s own public inmate-money page, or from your loved one’s Unit Team, and do not rely on an address printed on a third-party website.

The binding rule is in the regulation. 28 C.F.R. § 506.2 provides that “[f]amily and friends must mail deposits to the centralized inmate commissary account at the address we provide,” that “[t]he deposit envelope must not contain any enclosures intended for delivery to the inmate. We may dispose of any enclosure,” and that “[t]he deposit must be in the form of a money order made out to the inmate’s full name and complete register number.” Funds from “other sources, (such as tax refunds, dividends from stocks, or state benefits) must be forwarded for deposit to the centralized inmate commissary account.”

Method	What PS 4500.13 states	Pin-cite
LockBox, by mail	“Inmates’ family and friends send negotiable instruments to the LockBox. The LockBox receives mail seven days a week, excluding federal holidays, and processes negotiable instruments the same day they are received.” Funds are distributed after the nightly process and “are available to the inmate the following day.”	p. 76
Western Union Quick Collect / MoneyGram	“Inmates are given Western Union, Quick Collect, and MoneyGram Express Payment Program procedures to forward to family and friends upon arrival at the designated institution or during A&O.” Ordinarily posted within two hours if initiated 7:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. EST	pp. 72, 79
Sent to the prison instead	“Funds received through the mail at the institution for credit to the Inmate Deposit Fund are returned to the sender with a letter containing the LockBox address.”	p. 77

What the Bureau will accept, from Section 9.2.a (p. 72): money orders; U.S. government checks (federal, state, county, municipal); foreign negotiable instruments payable in U.S. dollars only with a U.S. correspondent bank and routing number on the instrument; business checks; cashier’s checks, certified checks and bank drafts. “The inmate’s committed name and register number must be printed legibly on all negotiable instruments and on the outside of the envelope containing the negotiable instrument.”

What it will not accept, from Section 9.2.b (p. 72): instruments without both a valid committed name and eight-digit register number; instruments with expired dates; instruments that “appear suspicious in nature or appear to have been altered”; personal checks; foreign funds not payable in U.S. dollars or lacking a U.S. correspondent bank and routing number; cash received through the mail; mailings without sender information; mailings to the LockBox lacking a valid committed name and eight-digit register number on the envelope; and counter checks. Anything unacceptable is “returned to sender or the issuing agency, or deposited into the U.S. Treasury Miscellaneous Receipts Account.”

Two traps sit in Section 9.1.c (p. 71). First, enclosures: “[a]ny enclosures received with the negotiable instruments (letters, pictures, etc.) will be discarded” (p. 72). Second, power of attorney: the BP-A0407 contains a power-of-attorney assignment letting the Bureau endorse instruments for deposit, and if a person refuses to sign it, “[f]unds received through the LockBox for an inmate with no power of attorney authorized are not deposited but returned to sender.” People flagged no-power-of-attorney “are not allowed to receive Western Union or MoneyGram funds.”

When the Bureau can freeze the money — encumbrances

An encumbrance is defined in the manual’s glossary as “[a] transaction which temporarily places a hold on an inmate’s available balance” (p. 10). Section 8.8 sets the authority and its limits:

“Encumbrance of inmate funds for various reasons is essential. Careful consideration is given before any action; encumbrances are not made indiscriminately. An encumbrance may be made for various reasons (e.g. to ensure inmates do not seriously deplete their funds before release, disciplinary measures, inmate’s request, claims). Encumbrances are at the Warden’s discretion or the result of a disciplinary hearing sanction or notification of a pending federal court order. This authority is not delegated below the Associate Warden. Funds the Warden encumbers may only be released upon their approval or upon inmate release.”

Source: PS 4500.13 at p. 67.

Documentation is required in every case, and the required document differs by source: a memorandum signed by the Warden for a local encumbrance; “the signed DHO sanction replaces the memorandum” where it follows a disciplinary hearing; and “the pending order replaces the memorandum” where it follows a pending federal court order, in which case it “is processed by Central Office Deposit Fund staff” (p. 67). The memorandum is scanned into TRUFACS and attached to the record, and “[u]pon the inmate’s transfer, the gaining institution has access to the comments and the scanned document image associated with the encumbrance.”

Two other kinds of hold work differently and are often confused with a Warden’s encumbrance. Special Purpose Order encumbrances are automatic: “The inmate’s account is encumbered automatically for each SPO ordered in TRUFACS,” and if the person then refuses to buy the item, “the encumbrance will remain on the requesting inmate’s account until the SPO is sold” (p. 41). Pre-release encumbrances are voluntary and set up by the person on TRULINCS — they designate a percentage of income and a target balance, and once transferred the funds “may not be transferred back to the available balance by staff” except on release or “[i]n rare or unusual circumstances as the Warden deems appropriate.” Two conditions attach: “All outside source income and payroll received by an inmate will be applied to outstanding debts prior to being encumbered towards the pre-release encumbrance,” and pre-release balances “will be utilized when IFRP payments are processed if necessary to meet the required minimum payment determined on the IFRP financial plan signed by the inmate” (p. 70).

What IFRP refusal does to the account

The Inmate Financial Responsibility Program is a separate Program Statement, but PS 4500.13 is where its consequences land on the money. Three effects, quoted:

Effect of IFRP refuse status	Pin-cite
“Inmates on Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (IFRP) refuse status and/or on maintenance pay status … may not work in the Trust Fund operation.”	p. 24
“If the minimum IFRP requirement is not met, the inmate is flagged as ‘IFRP refuse’ by Unit Management staff … The nightly process flags the inmate as IFRP refuse and applies the appropriate spending limit.”	p. 80
Special Purpose Orders are rejected where they exceed limits or where the person is on IFRP refuse status — but “Inmates in IFRP refuse status may not be denied the ability to purchase Kosher/Halal shelf-stable entrees through the SPO Program.”	pp. 40–41

Source: PS 4500.13 at pp. 24, 40–41, 80. Note what the manual does not say: it does not print the reduced dollar figure applied to a person on IFRP refuse status. It says only that the system “applies the appropriate spending limit.” The refusal decision and its consequences are set out in the inmate financial responsibility program page.

Withdrawals and getting money out

Money leaves an account on a BP-199, Request for Withdrawal of Inmate’s Personal Funds, or a BP-201, Withdrawal Record – Inmate. Requests over $500 require approval from an Associate Warden or Camp Administrator, and the manual instructs staff to ensure that multiple forms “are not used to circumvent the $500 withdrawal limitation” (p. 82). IFRP withdrawals are exempt from that threshold and are approved by Unit Management staff.

One passage in Section 10.2 is the clearest statement in the manual of what the trust relationship actually means for a person’s own money. Where the institution prepares a BP-199 for signature to pay for damage to government property and the person will not sign, “funds may not be withdrawn; this would be contrary to the terms of the trust.” The Bureau’s remedy in that situation is an encumbrance rather than a taking: “[t]he inmate is advised of the institution’s intention to encumber their personal funds up to the amount represented by the government’s claim for damage; the encumbrance remains on their account for the rest of the inmate’s sentence” (p. 82).

Staff do not initiate a check tracer on a BP-199 “unless at least 90 days have passed since it was certified” (p. 82). On release, “[i]nmates receive all personal funds at the time of their release,” with an advance pay transaction posted at least three days before (p. 80).

What the Trust Fund Manual means for you

If you are the person inside: the two numbers that shape a month

Learn the two numbers that shape a month: $460 and the validation date. The limit resets on a per-person validation cycle, not on the first of the month, and it is revalidated “once per month … except where weekly or bi-weekly validation is used.” Knowing your own cycle is what prevents an order being rejected for exceeding the limit when the balance is there.

Use the exclusion list deliberately. Postage stamps, copy cards and copy paper, and over-the-counter medications do not count against the $460 — so buying stamps to file a remedy or copy paper to prepare a filing does not cost you commissary. If you have a religious dietary need and you are on IFRP refuse status, kosher and halal shelf-stable entrees are excluded from the spending limit and may not be denied to you through the Special Purpose Order program.

If money is frozen, find out which kind of hold it is before you file anything. A Warden’s encumbrance requires a signed memorandum stating the amount and the reason; a DHO sanction substitutes the signed sanction; a pending federal court order substitutes the order and is handled by Central Office. Ask for the document. An automatic SPO encumbrance and a 15-day deposit hold are not discretionary decisions at all and cannot be appealed as though they were.

If you are a family member: three rules that prevent lost deposits

Three rules prevent almost every lost deposit. Send a money order, not a personal check — personal checks, cash in the mail and counter checks are all on the unacceptable list and will be returned or sent to the Treasury. Put the committed name and the full eight-digit register number on the instrument and on the outside of the envelope; an envelope missing either one is returned to sender if you gave a return address, and if you did not, the funds go to the U.S. Treasury Miscellaneous Receipts Account. Send nothing else in the envelope — letters, photographs and cards enclosed with a deposit “will be discarded.”

Get the LockBox address from the institution or the Bureau’s own public page. PS 4500.13 deliberately does not print it, so any address you find on a third-party site may be stale. If you mail money to the prison itself it will be returned to you with a letter containing the correct address — which costs weeks.

If a deposit has not appeared, understand the built-in delay before you panic. A LockBox deposit is processed the day it is received, distributed on the nightly process and available the next day, but most negotiable instruments then sit under an automatic 15-day hold — 45 days for a foreign instrument. During the hold the amount shows on the balance but not the available balance. Western Union Quick Collect and MoneyGram post within about two hours during business hours, which is why they are the route to use in an emergency.

If you are counsel: trust fund accounts

The trust characterization is the analytical starting point and it is statutory, not regulatory. 31 U.S.C. § 1321(a) classifies “(21) Funds of Federal prisoners” and “(22) Commissary funds, Federal prisons” as trust funds, and § 1321(b)(1) provides that “amounts accruing to these funds are appropriated to be disbursed in compliance with the terms of the trust.” PS 4500.13 traces the history at p. 15 — the 1930 and 1932 DOJ circulars, congressional approval of the commissaries in the 1933 appropriation bill, and the 1934 designation of both funds as trust funds — and confirms the account symbols at p. 16: Trust Fund 15X8408, Inmate Deposit Fund 15X6085. The manual applies the trust concept against the Bureau itself at p. 82, refusing to permit a withdrawal without signature because it “would be contrary to the terms of the trust.”

Two procedural points recur in practice. First, an encumbrance must be documented and attributable: a Warden-signed memorandum stating amount and reason, or a signed DHO sanction, or a pending federal court order; the authority “is not delegated below the Associate Warden”; and the memorandum is imaged in TRUFACS and follows the person on transfer. A remedy or a records request that asks for that specific document is far more productive than a general challenge to the hold. Second, a restitution or fine collection dispute is not a trust fund dispute — the IFRP determination is made by Unit Management under a separate Program Statement, and PS 4500.13 records only its downstream effects on pay eligibility, the spending limit and SPO approval.

Finally, note what the manual does not contain: no indigence threshold. PS 4500.13 sets no dollar figure defining indigence and no automatic relief tied to a low balance. The nearest definitions live elsewhere — PS 5265.14 defines an “inmate without funds” for postage purposes as one “without sufficient commissary balance to purchase a postage stamp sufficient for first-class, 1-ounce domestic mailing,” and 28 C.F.R. § 549.74 exempts a person who “is considered indigent and unable to pay” from the health services copayment without defining the term numerically.

What changed with Program Statement 4500.13

PS 4500.13 took effect May 7, 2026, approved by Director William K. Marshall III, and rescinded 4500.12 CN-1, Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual (3/06/25) — a little over a year after the prior edition’s change notice. The Summary of Changes runs several pages. The single change that matters most to a family is stated in one line at p. 2:

“Increases spending limit from $360 to $460 per month.”

That is a $100 increase, effective May 7, 2026 — a 27.8% rise in what a person may spend at the commissary in a month. Any page, book or handout still stating $360 predates this edition. The same summary records a second commissary change: the edition “[r]evises the spending limitation exclusion list including nicotine lozenges, sneakers,” which is why NRT lozenges and footwear now appear on the eight-item exclusion list reproduced above.

Chapter 2 changes recorded in the same summary bear on how the department is run rather than on any individual account: the edition “[c]larifies the different names the Trust Fund department and funds are referred to such as the ‘Commissary Fund’, ‘Funds of Federal Prisoners’ or ‘Inmate Deposit Fund'”; “[a]dds the procedures for when Commissary is closed”; “[a]dds requirement that Trust Fund positions be approved by Central Office, prior to being announced”; and revises the holiday package program so that “inmates will not receive a holiday package if they are in disciplinary segregation during package distribution.”

The commissary-closure procedure is new and worth knowing by name. Under Section 2.1.b, “Commissary will be open daily, except in cases of scheduled inventories, emergency situations, or upon direction or notification from the Trust Fund Branch, Central Office,” and any other closure requires “a written memorandum identifying the reason for the closure and its anticipated duration … routed from the Warden through the Regional Trust Fund Administrator to the Chief, Trust Fund Branch. This requirement includes closures resulting from staffing shortages” (p. 16).

The regulation, by contrast, has not moved. 28 C.F.R. part 506 contains two short sections and neither sets a spending limit, a deposit ceiling or an indigence threshold. Every dollar figure on this page is Bureau policy, not law. Section 2.1.b of the manual says as much in its own terms: “The use of Trust Fund services is, however, a privilege; the Warden or an authorized representative may limit or deny the privilege of a particular inmate. Similarly, the maximum amount that may be expended by an inmate for Trust Fund items or services is a controllable privilege” (p. 16).

Where people get stuck when money never arrives

Money was sent and never showed up

Work through four causes in order before filing anything. Wrong destination — funds mailed to the institution are returned to the sender with a letter containing the LockBox address, which can take weeks. Unacceptable instrument — a personal check, cash, a counter check or a foreign instrument without a U.S. correspondent bank will not be deposited. Missing identifiers — an instrument or envelope without the committed name and eight-digit register number goes back to the sender, or to the U.S. Treasury Miscellaneous Receipts Account if there is no return address. A hold that has not expired — 15 days on most instruments, 45 on foreign ones, during which the amount appears on the balance but not the available balance.

The manual routes inquiries deliberately. A person inside is “advised to direct LockBox inquiries to local Trust Fund staff,” and institutions “do not communicate directly with the U.S. Treasury or the LockBox contractor.” Family and friends with an inquiry are directed to call 202-307-2712 “for assistance after enough time has passed for the mail to reach the LockBox,” and may need “to place a tracer on these funds with the originator of the negotiable instrument” (PS 4500.13 at p. 77). Start there. An administrative remedy about a deposit that is still inside its hold period will simply be denied.

An account is frozen and nobody will say why

Encumbrances require documents, and the document is what you ask for. Begin with an Inmate Request to Staff, BP-A0148, to the Trust Fund Supervisor and the Unit Manager, asking for the amount encumbered, the reason, and the underlying document — a Warden-signed memorandum, a signed DHO sanction, or a pending federal court order. PS 4500.13 at p. 67 requires each of these and requires that the memorandum be imaged in TRUFACS, so it exists somewhere.

If that produces nothing, the administrative remedy route runs informal resolution → BP-9 within 20 calendar days of the date the basis for the request occurred (28 C.F.R. § 542.14) → BP-10 to the Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the Warden’s signed response → BP-11 to the General Counsel within 30 calendar days of the Regional Director’s signed response (§ 542.15). If no response arrives within the time allowed, § 542.18 permits the absence of a response to be treated “to be a denial at that level.” Where the encumbrance followed a disciplinary hearing, the DHO finding is the thing to attack — see the inmate discipline program page. The remedy route itself is at administrative remedy program.

IFRP refusal and a shrinking commissary limit

This is the most consequential money decision in a federal sentence and it is made outside this manual. PS 4500.13 records the downstream effects — no Trust Fund work assignment, an automatic overnight flag that “applies the appropriate spending limit,” and SPO rejection — but the refusal determination itself is made by Unit Management under the Financial Responsibility Program. The manual does not print the reduced spending figure, so the number a person is actually held to comes from the IFRP policy and the institution supplement, not from here. Two protections survive refusal on the money side: kosher and halal shelf-stable entrees remain excluded from the spending limit and may not be denied through the SPO program. Read the inmate financial responsibility program page before signing or refusing a financial plan, and the inmate restitution page for how court-ordered obligations interact.

Not enough money for basic needs

There is no indigence threshold in this Program Statement. That is a real gap rather than an oversight in your reading: PS 4500.13 sets no dollar figure below which a person is treated as indigent and no automatic relief tied to a low balance. Relief is scattered across other policies and has to be requested under each one. For postage, PS 5265.14 directs Wardens to provide up to five stamps a week for legal mail and administrative remedy filings, and stamps for a reasonable number of letters to maintain community ties, to a person with “neither funds nor sufficient postage” — see the correspondence policy page. For legal copies, 28 C.F.R. § 543.11(g) permits staff to waive the cost “if the inmate is without funds,” with reimbursement later on a BP-199 — see the inmate legal activities page. For health care copayments, 28 C.F.R. § 549.74 provides that “[y]ou will not be charged a health care service fee if you are considered indigent and unable to pay” — see the inmate copayment program page. Each is a separate request to a different staff member.

Related BOP policy on trust fund accounts

Page	What it covers
Commissary items and canteen	What is actually on the shelf and how the shopping list works
How to send money to someone in federal prison	Money orders, Western Union and MoneyGram — the deposit mechanics
Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (PS 5380.08)	The financial plan, refusal, and what refusal costs
Inmate Work and Performance Pay (PS 5251.06)	Institution pay grades, as distinct from Trust Fund commissary work
Inmate Personal Property (PS 5580.10)	What may be kept, including items bought through the commissary
Correspondence (PS 5265.14)	Why funds may never be enclosed in a letter, and the free-postage provisions
Inmate Copayment Program (PS 6032.01)	The health services fee and the indigence exemption
Administrative Remedy Program (PS 1330.18)	The BP-9 / BP-10 / BP-11 route and its deadlines
Inmate restitution	Court-ordered financial obligations and how they are collected
Release gratuities, transportation and clothing (PS 5873.06)	What a person leaves with, alongside the release of personal funds

Frequently Asked Questions About the Trust Fund and Commissary

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Full text of the Program Statement

The Bureau’s own text of this policy is reproduced in full on a separate page: Program Statement 4500.13 — Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual (full text), with page markers matching the source PDF.

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