Designation

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

Designation is the Bureau of Prisons decision that assigns a sentenced person to a specific federal prison. It is made by the Designation and Sentence Computation Center (DSCC) in Grand Prairie, Texas — not by the judge, not by the prosecutor, and not by the prison itself — and it turns on a numeric score computed on a form called the BP-337, adjusted by two sets of overrides.

This page reproduces that scoring form item by item, with the point values, the cutoffs that convert a score into a security level, and the overrides that can move a person off their score in either direction. Those figures come from Program Statement 5100.08, Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification, whose most recent change notice is dated May 6, 2026. A Program Statement is the Bureau’s own internal policy — it is agency instruction, not law — but it is the instrument DSCC actually applies, so it is the document worth reading.

One thing to be clear about at the outset, because it governs everything below. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), the Bureau “shall designate the place of the prisoner’s imprisonment,” and that same subsection provides that “a designation of a place of imprisonment under this subsection is not reviewable by any court.” Nobody — not a lawyer, not a consultant, not a family member — can tell you where you will be sent. What can be done is to make sure the information DSCC scores is accurate, complete, and supported.

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Who makes the designation decision

The Designation and Sentence Computation Center (DSCC) at the Grand Prairie Office Complex in Grand Prairie, Texas makes initial designations and most later redesignations. It is an administrative office; it houses no prisoners. Its address is US Armed Forces Reserve Complex, Grand Prairie, TX 75051, and its telephone number is 972-352-4500. You can read the office record on our Grand Prairie / DSCC page. Do not send mail or money there: mail goes to the institution, and funds sent by mail go to the central processing center in Des Moines, Iowa.

DSCC’s authority runs through 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b), which directs the Bureau to designate “any available penal or correctional facility that meets minimum standards of health and habitability established by the Bureau,” considering five statutory factors. PS 5100.08 opens by saying so: the Bureau’s “classification, designation and redesignation procedures are consistent with the statutory authority contained in 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b)” (PS 5100.08 at p. 1).

The May 6, 2026 change notice added something new to that opening section: language recognizing that, under 28 U.S.C. § 509, “the Attorney General may exercise authority to designate or redesignate the place of a prisoner’s imprisonment, consistent with the requirements of 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b),” with notice to the Bureau “as soon as practicable.” Absent that notice, the Bureau follows its own procedures. That paragraph did not exist in the policy before 2026 (PS 5100.08 at p. 1).

The same section closes with a sentence that is worth quoting because people assume the opposite: “All classification, designation and redesignation decisions are made without favoritism given to an inmate’s social or economic status” (PS 5100.08 at p. 2). The statute says the same thing — “there shall be no favoritism given to prisoners of high social or economic status.”

The unit team at the institution, the case manager, and the warden do not make the designation. They generate and correct the scoring, and they route transfer requests to DSCC. Only DSCC (and in narrow categories, Central Office) can apply the override codes described below.

The five statutory factors the Bureau must consider

Section 3621(b) lists the factors the Bureau weighs in choosing a facility. They are worth knowing verbatim, because a judicial recommendation that speaks to one of them carries more weight than one that does not:

1. The resources of the facility contemplated.
2. The nature and circumstances of the offense.
3. The history and characteristics of the prisoner.
4. Any statement by the court that imposed the sentence — either concerning the purposes for which the sentence was determined to be warranted, or recommending a type of penal or correctional facility as appropriate.
5. Any pertinent policy statement issued by the Sentencing Commission under 28 U.S.C. § 994(a)(2).

Layered on top of those, the First Step Act added a placement instruction. The Bureau shall, “subject to bed availability, the prisoner’s security designation, the prisoner’s programmatic needs, the prisoner’s mental and medical health needs, any request made by the prisoner related to faith-based needs, recommendations of the sentencing court, and other security concerns of the Bureau of Prisons, place the prisoner in a facility as close as practicable to the prisoner’s primary residence, and to the extent practicable, in a facility within 500 driving miles of that residence.”

Note how many conditions precede the 500-mile clause. It is a directive with seven qualifiers, not a guarantee. The Bureau implemented it in PS 5100.08 through change notice CN-1, dated September 4, 2019 (PS 5100.08 at pp. 4–5), which rewrote the “Release Residence” override and the nearer-release transfer rule to track the statute.

Security levels and the point ranges that produce them

Bureau institutions are classified into five security levels — MINIMUM, LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, and ADMINISTRATIVE — “based on the level of security and staff supervision the institution is able to provide” (PS 5100.08 at p. 13). The level of a given institution turns on eight things the policy names: mobile patrol, towers, perimeter barriers, detection devices, internal security, type of inmate housing, inmate-to-staff ratio, and any special institutional mission.

A person’s own security level comes from their point total. These are the cutoffs, and they differ by sex:

Security level	Custody levels the institution houses	Male security point total	Female security point total
MINIMUM	COMMUNITY and OUT	0–11 points	0–15 points
LOW	OUT and IN	12–15 points	16–30 points
MEDIUM	OUT and IN	16–23 points	(no female medium level)
HIGH	IN and MAXIMUM	24+ points	31+ points
ADMINISTRATIVE	All custody levels	All point totals	All point totals

Source: PS 5100.08 at p. 14. Female security level institutions are classified as Minimum, Low, High and Administrative only — there is no female medium-security level (PS 5100.08 at p. 15).

Two warnings the policy itself gives. First, “an inmate’s security point score is not the only factor used in determining a commensurate security level” — a Public Safety Factor or a Management Variable “could effect placement at either a higher or lower level institution than the specified point total indicates” (PS 5100.08 at p. 15). Second, a security level cannot be assigned at all without a completed Inmate Load and Security Designation Form; if none exists, the Bureau’s system records the security level as “UNKNOWN.”

We cover what each level actually looks like on the federal prison security levels hub and its pages for minimum, low, medium, high, and administrative institutions, and the federal medical centers.

The BP-337 scoring form, item by item

This is the key document — the Inmate Load and Security Designation Form. Items 5 through 14 are the scored items; Item 15, the Security Point Total, is their sum (PS 5100.08 at p. 46). Item 6, Months to Release, is recorded but “is not figured into the security point total”; it drives the Sentence Length Public Safety Factor instead (PS 5100.08 at p. 39).

Item	Scoring category	Point values
5	Voluntary Surrender Status	0 = No · (−3) = Yes
6	Months to Release	Recorded, not scored. Total months remaining, less 15% for sentences over 12 months, less jail credit
7	Severity of Current Offense	0 = Lowest · 1 = Low Moderate · 3 = Moderate · 5 = High · 7 = Greatest
8	Criminal History Score	0 = 0–1 · 2 = 2–3 · 4 = 4–6 · 6 = 7–9 · 8 = 10–12 · 10 = 13+
9	History of Violence — Minor	None 0 · >15 yrs 1 · 10–15 yrs 1 · 5–10 yrs 3 · <5 yrs 5
9	History of Violence — Serious	None 0 · >15 yrs 2 · 10–15 yrs 4 · 5–10 yrs 6 · <5 yrs 7
10	History of Escape — Minor	None 0 · >15 yrs 1 · 10–15 yrs 1 · 5–10 yrs 2 · <5 yrs 3
10	History of Escape — Serious	None 0 · every other band 3, and triggers PSF “L”
11	Type of Detainer	0 = None · 1 = Lowest/Low Moderate · 3 = Moderate · 5 = High · 7 = Greatest
12	Age	0 = 55 and over · 2 = 36 through 54 · 4 = 25 through 35 · 8 = 24 or less
13	Education Level	0 = verified high school diploma or GED · 1 = enrolled in and making satisfactory progress in a GED program · 2 = no verified diploma/GED and not participating
14	Drug/Alcohol Abuse	0 = never or >5 years · 1 = <5 years
15	SECURITY POINT TOTAL	Sum of the scored items above

Source: BP-337 as reproduced at PS 5100.08 at p. 49, with the scoring instructions at pp. 38–47. Items 16 (Public Safety Factors), 17 (Remarks) and 18 (medical referral) are not point-scored.

Several of these repay a close look.

Voluntary surrender is worth three points, and the definition is narrow. The policy allows “the subtraction of three points from the Security Point Total” when the judgment shows the person was allowed to surrender voluntarily. For this item, “voluntary surrender means the inmate was not escorted by a law enforcement officer to either the U.S. Marshals Office or the place of confinement.” It applies only to post-sentencing voluntary surrender, and “does not include cases where the inmate surrendered to the U.S. Marshals on the same day as sentencing.” It may be applied only to the initial term of confinement — not to a later supervised release, mandatory release, or parole violation return (PS 5100.08 at pp. 38–39). Three points is the difference between a 12 and a 9 for a man, which is the difference between the low and minimum ranges.

Age carries more weight than most people expect. Eight points at 24 or under, dropping to zero at 55. That single item can exceed the entire violence score for someone with no violent history.

Education is the one item you can move while incarcerated. No verified diploma or GED and not participating scores 2; enrolling and making satisfactory progress drops it to 1; a verified diploma or GED drops it to 0. Our prison education page covers how that works inside.

History of violence and escape score the worst combination. “If there is more than one incident of violence, score the combination of seriousness and recency that yields the highest point score” — the policy’s own example: guilty findings for homicide 12 years ago, aggravated assault 8 years ago, and fighting 2 years ago score 6 points, for the aggravated assault (PS 5100.08 at p. 69). Only documented findings of guilt count. Attempted suicide, self-mutilation, and weapon possession “are not applicable behaviors for History of Violence scoring.”

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: The single highest-leverage document in a designation is the presentence report. DSCC scores severity of offense, criminal history, violence, escape, detainers, drug and alcohol history and education straight out of the PSR. An unchallenged narrative paragraph in the offense conduct section can add points years later, long after the sentencing hearing where it could have been objected to. That is why we treat PSR objections as a prison-placement issue and not only a guidelines issue, and why anyone doing post-conviction work should obtain the PSR and the file early.

Public Safety Factors: the overrides that raise a floor

A Public Safety Factor is “relevant factual information regarding the inmate’s current offense, sentence, criminal history or institutional behavior that requires additional security measures be employed to ensure the safety and protection of the public” (PS 5100.08 at p. 56). A PSF does not add points. It sets a minimum security level that overrides a low score.

A maximum of three PSFs may be applied at once; if more than three apply, “those which would provide the greatest security and public safety will be utilized.”

Code	Public Safety Factor	Effect
A	None	No PSF applies
B	Disruptive Group (males)	Housed in a High security institution unless waived
C	Greatest Severity Offense (males)	At least Low unless waived
F	Sex Offender (males and females)	At least Low unless waived
G	Threat to Government Officials	At least Low unless waived
H	Deportable Alien	At least Low unless waived
I	Sentence Length (males)	>10 years remaining → at least Low · >20 years → at least Medium · >30 years, including non-parolable life → High
K	Violent Behavior (females)	At least Low unless waived
L	Serious Escape	Males → at least Medium; females → FMC Carswell Administrative Unit
M	Prison Disturbance	Males → at least High; females → FMC Carswell Administrative Unit
N	Juvenile Violence	Applied to juvenile-age offenders with a documented violent adjudication
O	Serious Telephone Abuse	At least Low unless waived

Source: PS 5100.08 at pp. 56–61. Three Public Safety Factors have been discontinued — D Firearms, E High Drug, and J Designation Assessment (PS 5100.08 at p. 61). If you are reading an older guide that still lists a “firearms PSF,” it is out of date.

Two of these catch people by surprise.

The Sex Offender PSF does not require a conviction. It applies where the presentence report “or other official documentation clearly indicates” the listed behavior occurred in the current term or prior criminal history. The policy gives its own example: charged with an offense involving sexual assault, pled to simple assault — “Based on the documented behavior, application of this PSF should be entered.” Where a case was dismissed or nolle prosequi, the PSF cannot be entered (PS 5100.08 at p. 57). Attempts are treated as if completed. We deal with the practical consequences on our page about serving a sentence with a sex offense conviction.

The Deportable Alien PSF applies to any non-citizen and puts the floor at Low. It “shall not be applied, or shall be removed” when ICE or the immigration court has determined that removal proceedings are unwarranted or has found not to deport, and it does not apply to a naturalized U.S. citizen (PS 5100.08 at p. 58).

The Sentence Length PSF is the one that most often defeats a camp placement. More than ten years left to serve puts a man’s floor at Low regardless of a zero point score. This is the mechanism behind the “ten years” rule people hear about.

Management Variables: the overrides that move you off your score

A Management Variable is “required when placement has been made and/or maintained at an institution level inconsistent with the inmate’s scored security level” (PS 5100.08 at p. 50). Where a PSF raises a floor, an MGTV explains a placement that does not match the math — in either direction.

The rules on who may apply one are strict. “Application of a Management Variable requires review and approval by the DSCC Administrator.” Institution staff “may only enter a Management Variable which the DSCC previously approved.” A maximum of three may be entered per case. Requests go to DSCC on a form 409, and the system will not permit the Greater Security and Lesser Security variables to be applied at the same time.

Code	Management Variable	Expiration
A	None	N/A
B	Judicial Recommendation	N/A
D	Release Residence / Planning	N/A
E	Population Management	Up to 18 months
G	Central Inmate Monitoring Assignment	N/A
I	Medical or Psychiatric	6 months
N	Program Participation	Up to 18 months, at the Regional Director’s discretion
R	Work Cadre	N/A
S	Public Safety Factor Waived	N/A — requires a Management Security Level at least one level lower than the scored level
U	Long-Term Detainee	N/A
V	Greater Security	Up to 24 months — requires an MSL at least one level higher
W	Lesser Security	N/A — requires an MSL at least one level lower

Source: Management Variable Expiration Table 5-1, PS 5100.08 at p. 55. Where no expiration date is entered, the Bureau’s system defaults to 12 months. Ten Management Variables have been discontinued: C Age, F Racial Balance, H Voluntary Surrender, J Custody, K Detainer, L Discipline, M Grandfather Clause, O Security, P Sentence Limitation, and Q Sliding Scale.

Three of these are worth understanding in detail.

“B — Judicial Recommendation” is how a sentencing court’s placement request enters the system. “When consistent with policies or when such actions are consistent with sound correctional management, the Bureau of Prisons attempts to satisfy judicial recommendations. When this is not feasible, the court is notified in writing with an explanation outlining the reasons for not satisfying that recommendation” (PS 5100.08 at p. 52). A judicial recommendation is not binding — and for community corrections placement, § 3621(b) says explicitly that a court order or recommendation “shall have no binding effect on the authority of the Bureau.” But it is a factor the statute directs the Bureau to consider and a code the Bureau tracks, and a specific, reasoned recommendation on the judgment is materially better than none.

“D — Release Residence” is the 500-mile variable. The Bureau “attempts to place each inmate in an institution that is reasonably close to the anticipated release area,” with placement within 500 miles ordinarily considered reasonable, and, after CN-1, placement at “the closest facility within 500 driving miles of the release area” considered reasonable subject to the statutory conditions. The policy adds that this variable “may also apply to inmates who are within 36 months of release” (PS 5100.08 at p. 52).

“S — PSF Waived” is the route out of a Public Safety Factor. “Only the DSCC Administrator is authorized to waive a PSF,” on a form 409 identifying the request as a waiver request, with items 1 through 7 completed (PS 5100.08 at p. 53). Waiver mandates that the Administrator set a Management Security Level “at least one level less than the scored security level.” This is a real mechanism, it is used, and it is discretionary — which means a waiver request is worth building carefully and never worth promising.

From a score to a specific prison

Point total plus Public Safety Factor produces the security level. PS 5100.08 sets that out in two tables. For men (Table 5-2, PS 5100.08 at p. 61): a score of 0–11 with no PSF is Minimum; the same score with a Deportable Alien, Juvenile Violence, Greatest Severity, Sex Offender, Serious Telephone Abuse, Threat to Government Officials, or Sentence Length (>10 years) factor becomes Low; with Sentence Length over 20 years or Serious Escape it becomes Medium; with Sentence Length over 30 years, Disruptive Group, or Prison Disturbance it becomes High. A score of 24 or more is High regardless.

For women (Table 5-3, PS 5100.08 at p. 62): 0–15 with no PSF is Minimum; with Deportable Alien, Juvenile Violence, Serious Telephone Abuse, Sex Offender, Threat to Government Officials, or Violent Behavior it becomes Low; Prison Disturbance or Serious Escape makes it High. 16–30 with no PSF is Low; 31 or more is High. See our page on women’s federal prisons for how that smaller estate works in practice.

Only after the level is fixed does DSCC choose a facility, weighing bed space, medical and mental-health needs, programming, Central Inmate Monitoring separation requirements, release residence, and the sentencing court’s recommendation. Medical and psychiatric designations are made not by DSCC but by the Central Office Medical Designator in the Office of Medical Designations and Transportation — see medical designations and care levels and our page on care levels.

Initial custody assignment follows the level automatically (Table 4-1, PS 5100.08 at p. 47): Minimum → OUT; Low → IN; Medium → IN; High → IN, unless the initial designation is to USP Marion or ADX Florence, in which case it is MAXIMUM; Administrative → IN, unless the person is minimum security and the designation was not for security reasons, in which case OUT.

What happens after you arrive: the BP-338

Designation is not permanent. Once a person is at their institution, the scoring moves to a second form — the Custody Classification Form, BP-338.

The first custody classification is scored “at the first program review following initial classification (approximately 7 months after arrival at an institution).” After that, “subsequent reviews will occur at least every 12 months,” and may be earlier where something changes the overall security level — refusal of the Financial Responsibility Program, an incident report, a new sentence, a sentence reduction (PS 5100.08 at p. 63).

The BP-338 repeats the base scoring items and adds a custody section that scores institutional behavior:

Item	Custody scoring category	Point values
1	Percentage of time served	3 = 0–25% · 4 = 26–75% · 5 = 76–90% · 6 = 91%+
2	Program participation	0 = poor · 1 = average · 2 = good
3	Living skills	0 = poor · 1 = average · 2 = good
4	Type and number of most serious incident report	0 = any Greatest (100-level) in past 10 years · 1 = more than one High (200) in past 2 years · 2(A) = one High (200) in past 2 years · 2(B) = more than one Moderate (300) in past year · 3(A) = one Moderate (300) in past year · 3(B) = more than one Low Moderate (400) in past year · 4 = one Low Moderate (400) in past year · 5 = none
5	Frequency of incident reports (past year)	0 = six or more · 1 = two through five · 2 = one · 3 = none
6	Family/community ties	3 = none or minimal · 4 = average or good
7	Custody total	Sum of items 1–6
8	Custody variance	From the Custody Variance Table
9	Security total	Base score plus or minus the custody variance

Source: BP-338 as reproduced at PS 5100.08 at p. 82. Custody change recommendation: a variance in the (+) range means consider a custody increase; a variance in the (−) range means consider a decrease; zero means continue present custody.

Note that on this form, higher points are better — clean conduct and good family ties score high, and a high custody total produces a negative variance, which subtracts from the base score. Note also item 6: family and community ties are worth a point, which is a concrete reason the visiting and correspondence covered on our staying in contact and visitation pages matters beyond morale.

The form has a limit the policy states plainly: “the Custody Classification Form only recommends an inmate’s custody. The Unit Team and/or Warden is the final review authority” (PS 5100.08 at p. 63). Incident reports feed item 4 and item 5 directly, which is why a disciplinary finding is a classification event as much as a punishment — see incident reports and inmate discipline proceedings.

What changed — the supersession history of PS 5100.08

The base Program Statement is dated September 12, 2006. Three change notices sit on top of it, and most published guides to federal designation reflect only the first two or none at all.

Version	Date	What it did
PS 5100.08	September 12, 2006	Base policy — scoring, cutpoints, PSFs, MGTVs, transfer codes
CN-1	September 4, 2019	Implemented the First Step Act: added the 500-driving-miles placement language to the Introduction, rewrote the “D — Release Residence” Management Variable, and rewrote the Nearer Release Transfer rule so that further referrals can be considered even after placement within 500 driving miles
CN-2	March 6, 2025	Added definitions of FEMALE, MALE, MAN/MEN, SEX, and WOMAN/WOMEN to Chapter 2, stated to be for consistency with Executive Orders
CN-3	May 6, 2026	Rewrote Section 1, Purpose and Scope: restated the § 3621(b) basis, and added the Attorney General’s 28 U.S.C. § 509 authority to designate or redesignate, with notice to the Bureau

CN-1 matters most in practice. Before it, once a person had been moved within 500 driving miles of their release residence, “no further referrals will be made for nearer release transfer consideration.” CN-1 struck that sentence and replaced it: further referrals can be considered, subject to bed availability, security designation, programmatic needs, mental and medical health needs, faith-based requests, court recommendations, and other security concerns (PS 5100.08 at p. 5). That change tracks the statute, which directs the Bureau to transfer people closer to home “even if the prisoner is already in a facility within 500 driving miles of that residence.”

Our explainer on the underlying policy sits at Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification (PS 5100.08) and in shorter form at security designation and custody classification.

Where people get stuck with BOP designation

A scoring error nobody catches. PS 5100.08 builds in a correction route. If a scoring issue or error is identified, the institution’s Case Management Coordinator raises it with DSCC, supplying the presentence report so the case can be reviewed. “If the CMC and DSCC agree that an error has been made, the error will be corrected by the DSCC.” If they disagree, “the Central Office, Correctional Programs Administrator, will make the final determination,” and where the correction requires a new designation, DSCC enters it and notifies the U.S. Marshals Service (PS 5100.08 at pp. 27–28). Ask the unit team to pull the BP-337 and BP-338 and read every line against the judgment and the PSR.

A detainer nobody has resolved. Type of Detainer is worth up to 7 points on the BP-337 and it is scored whether or not the underlying charge is ever pursued. It also affects transfers and community placement. See detainers and the Interstate Agreement on Detainers.

Expecting the judge to control the outcome. The court’s recommendation is a statutory factor and a tracked Management Variable code. It is not an order. Where a court recommends a community corrections facility, the statute says in terms that the recommendation has no binding effect.

Confusing a facility’s name with its security level. Names drift. As of BOP’s own roster reconciliation in September 2026, FCI Yazoo City Low II is classified as medium security on the Bureau’s locations roster while still carrying “Low II” in its name. It is the only such discrepancy across the Bureau’s institution records, and it changes custody-scoring expectations, programming, and transfer analysis. Confirm the current level with the unit team rather than reading it off a name.

Assuming the map is stable. On July 1, 2026 the Bureau announced the closure of Beaumont FCI Low, Big Spring FCI and its satellite camp, La Tuna FCI and its FSL and camp, the Lexington FMC satellite camp, Petersburg FCI Low, and Taft FCI, and the conversion of Morgantown FPC and Duluth FPC from minimum-security camps to Federal Satellite Lows. We track the estate on our prison closures and deactivations page.

Frequently Asked Questions About BOP Designation

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