The U.S. Sentencing Commission (USCC) released two interactive resources providing an overview of certain Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) programs. These resources are aimed at those interested in learning more about how the BOP administers the Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program (RDAP) and implements the First Step Act of 2018’s earned time credits system.
USSC stated that there were 8,474 prisoners during 2010, the study group timeframe, who were eligible to participate in RDAP. RDAP is the BOP’s “most intensive” drug treatment program and requires that participants receive treatment in a specialized unit that houses only RDAP participants. The program lasts approximately 9 months while the person is incarcerated at an institution and 4-6 months after the person is sent to prerelease custody (Halfway house and Home Confinement). For many who complete the program, there is an added incentive that reduces the prison sentence by up to a year and also maximizes placement in prerelease custody.
RDAP has been one of the most successful programs in the BOP and has been touted as a way to reduce recidivism. According to the USSC study, those who completed RDAP had lower rates of recidivism, compared to prisoners who did not complete or participate in the program. Less than half of those who completed RDAP (48.2%) recidivated in the eight-year follow-up period of this study, compared to 68.0 percent of RDAP Eligible Non-Participants. The BOP’s criteria for gaining admission into the program is documentation from the year prior to arrest from a probation officer, parole officer, or a social services professional who verifies the defendant’s problem with substance and a medical or substance abuse treatment provider diagnosing the offender with a substance abuse disorder. The person could also qualify with two or more convictions for Driving Under the Influence or Driving While Intoxicated in the five years prior to arrest.
Stephanie Forrest who retired from the BOP and worked as a case manager at an RDAP program in FCI Edgefield and is now an expert with the firm Prisonology, said that getting into the program is not always easy. “I think the program is successful because it makes productive use of time in prison,” Forrest said, “I’ve seen a big difference in the way men [she worked at a men’s prison] see their behavior after the program.” The statistics reflect this as well.
According to the Government Accountability Office, part of the interactive report issued by USSC, BOP released over 35,000 people in 2021 from federal prisons after serving their sentences. Approximately 45 percent of people released from federal prison are re-arrested or return to a federal prison within 3 years of their release. On December 21, 2018, the First Step Act was enacted and includes certain requirements for Department of Justice and BOP to help reduce recidivism among individuals incarcerated in federal prisons. It also provided an incentive for prisoners to earn time off of their sentence by participating in productive activities or taking certain programming. Many of the beneficiaries of First Step Act are non-violent offenders who are least likely to re-offend. The BOP assigns a risk factor for future chances of reoffending and violence. To qualify for First Step Act credits the prisoner has to be a minimum or low chance of reoffending or violence, something measured by a PATTERN score.
The BOP has had issues addressing First Step Act and as NBC News recently reported, many people remain in prison longer than they should because of either errors or the BOP’s own interpretation of the law. While improvements have been made, the BOP continues to have some problems in the program’s implementation. According to its 2024 report on the First Step Act, the effectiveness of the program in reducing recidivism will be highlighted in next year’s report so that more data can be accumulated. In next year’s review and revalidation report, the study sample will include a cohort of individuals released between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2020. This timeframe is significant for two reasons. First, the review and revalidation analyses conducted to date have all been conducted on pre-deployment cohorts of individuals, which was necessary to obtain three-year recidivism follow-up periods.
Look for the USSC to come up with more guidance on the use of reentry services, like halfway houses and home confinement, in its upcoming recommendations for 2024.
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