Every offender is sent a copy of his or her Master Prison Record document reflecting the calculation of their sentence when the calculation is complete.  If there are questions about time computation, offenders housed in state facilities should write the Records Office at his/her assigned facility.  For offenders housed in local facilities, he/she is advised they may submit his/her questions in writing following the Administrative Remedy Process.  While offenders often ask family members or friends to contact the Office of...

Offenders are assigned to facilities based on custody classification, space availability, level of care designations (medical and/or mental health), and many other contributing factors.  While DOC would like to make assignments with only geographical considerations in mind, it is not possible to do this based on the demand for beds in various areas of the state.  As such, offenders are placed in locations that best meet their needs and the space needs of the Department.  Written transfer requests should be...

Proposition 57 passed in California on November 8, 2016, but the release of eligible inmates did not happen the day after the election. That is not how ballot measures work in practice. When a proposition passes, the implementing regulations have to be written, reviewed, and adopted before the system can act on them. For Prop 57, that process played out over months as the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation developed the specific rules governing who qualified, how the parole board...

The short answer is no, and understanding why makes it clear that no amount of searching is going to change that outcome. WITSEC, the federal Witness Security Program administered by the United States Marshals Service, has never had a protected individual found by someone they were hidden from. That is not an accident or a lucky streak. It is the result of a program specifically engineered to make people unfindable. New identity, new location, severed ties to everything from the previous...

A SAFPF sentence in Texas is not the same as a traditional prison sentence, though it is managed within the TDCJ system. SAFPF stands for Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility, and it is an intensive in-prison drug treatment program for felony offenders whose substance abuse is directly tied to their criminal behavior. Participants live in a structured therapeutic environment and complete a treatment curriculum rather than doing general population time. It is still incarceration, but the program is treatment-oriented rather...

SHU inmates at Wasco State Prison are permitted one fifteen-minute phone call per week. That is the standard allowance for segregated housing in the California system, and it applies regardless of the reason for placement. One call, fifteen minutes, once every seven days. When that window comes up, make sure you are available to answer because missing it means waiting another full week. On visitation approval, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation processes visitor applications on a timeline that varies...

At USP Big Sandy, which is a high-security federal penitentiary in Kentucky, segregation is called the SHU, the Special Housing Unit. It is solitary confinement, and inmates end up there for one of two broad reasons: disciplinary or administrative. The disciplinary side covers a wide range of infractions. Fighting is the most common reason at a high-security facility like Big Sandy, but the list also includes possession of contraband such as a cellphone, drugs, or tobacco, failing a drug or alcohol...