A new guide to the federal prison system will help those convicted of federal crimes and their families in navigating how the federal prison system works.
On March 8, 2021 The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the NACDL Foundation for Criminal Justice released a new manual on How to Navigate the Federal Prison System.
The association points out that navigating the federal criminal justice system’s policies, procedures, and practices can feel insurmountable.
From pre-trial through post-sentencing and on to pre-release, a web of “program statements” and institutional practices guide the Federal Bureau of Prisons in making decisions relating to confinement and release.
The most recent information from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) indicates there are 180,00 individuals in federal custody at any given time.
84% are incarcerated in a federal institution, 11% are in privately managed prisons and 5% are in other facilities.
Some other statistics:
Gender: 93% Male 7% Female
Race: 59% White 37% Black 2.3% Native American 1.5% Asian
Ethnicity: 67% Non-Hispanic 32% Hispanic
Regarding sentencing:
45% of the BOP population is serving a sentence between 5 and 15 years
25% of the BOP population is serving a sentence between 15 years and life
57 BOP inmates are on death row
It’s interesting to note that over 40,000 people are released from the BOP each year according to the manual.
Each section of the manual looks at obstacles to confinement and offers resources and strategies to overcome these barriers. You might find this helpful if you or your loved one is in a federal facility serving a sentence.
You can see and download the entire manual from this link on The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers website.
For transparency, just need to let you know that I am a member of The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
About The Attorney
Jacob Blizzard is board certified in both criminal law and criminal appellate law.
He regularly practices in the areas of state and federal criminal defense, criminal appeals, post conviction writs of habeas corpus.
In Texas, there are more than 100,000 attorneys licensed to practice, but only 7,450 are board certified.
In the entire State of Texas, as of the 2019 certification year, there were only 87 attorneys board certified in both criminal law and criminal appellate law, making Mr. Blizzard one of 0.087% of attorneys in Texas to hold both of those certifications.
