Second Chance Act
Do you really want the maximum amount of halfway house time or home detention?
The Second Chance Act, SCA, is one of four programs the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has that can reduce the time of incarceration of an inmate. It is also a federal law which was signed by President George Bush in 2008. It clearly states that it ensures that a prisoner serving a term of imprisonment spends a portion of the final months of that term (not to exceed 12 months) in a community correctional facility (halfway house) or appropriate conditions that will afford the prisoner a reasonable opportunity to adjust and prepare for the reentry of that prisoner to the community, (home detention).
The Second Chance Act clarifies the statute governing federal halfway house placement prior to release, and ensures consideration of longer halfway house and home detention placements. It does not require the BOP to place inmates in halfway houses earlier or for longer periods of time. But the bill does require the BOP to ensure that, to the extent practicable, an inmate is considered for halfway house placement for up to 12 months, not just up to a maximum of six months or 10% of his time served, whichever is less, as set forth in the previous law. Under the old law, an inmate with a sentence of 24 months could only get a maximum of 2.4 months of halfway house time. Now, under the SCA, he must be considered for up to 12 months of halfway house time and/or home detention.
The Second Chance Act allows the BOP discretion to place a prisoner in home confinement instead of in a halfway house.
Initial SCA (Second Chance Act) Program Component©
We provide to you, through research, documents, court cases, central office files, communication with both you and your family via telephone and SCA Questionnaire©, the Court, the DSCC, the Regional CCM Administrator, and other appropriate entities, documentation to support your eligibility and application for the maximum halfway house time and home confinement via the Second Chance Act. We do this by following the very guidelines that are in both the June 24, 2010 and May 5, 2013 Memorandums from the BOP Central Office.
We tell you what you need to do, what you need to say, what not to do, what classes to take, what behavior pattern you need to follow, and most important how to increase your chances for maximum halfway house/home confinement via the Second Chance Act. Best of all, we are with you every step of the way!
Then we put together our Initial SCA (Second Chance Act) Package © and send it to all the various BOP staff members that make that decision on your additional halfway house time/home confinement. We are experts at preparing and positioning clients for the Second Chance Act and have the resources, knowledge, and skills to help you prepare and position yourself for eligibility and acceptance. We provide to the BOP current, accurate, precise, and truthful information about your existing circumstances and condition, not what they were months, years, and decades ago.
Enhanced SCA (Second Chance Act) Program Componet©
Their are only five criteria for inmates in the Second Chance Act. The Bureau of Prisons has been relying more and more on one specific criteria when considering additional halfway house time/home confinement for inmates. That factor is “any statement by the Court that imposed the sentence.”
In the Enhanced Program section we have developed some additional elements which we do to present a true and realistic picture of the inmate’s current situation, circumstances, and rehabilitation to both the sentencing judge and the BOP. We communicate with the sentencing judge through both a specially designed inmate letter, telephone communication, and a detailed motion to the court for a recommendation for the maximum amount of halfway house and home detention.
But we do not stop here. We then contact the CCM Regional Halfway House Administrator in the inmate’s region to check on bed space availability and to follow the inmate's progression through the system and to speed it up if possible. The CCM Regional Halfway House Administrator is the individual that the Unit Team sends their halfway house recommendation to and who decides halfway house and home confinement time. This step is very important as the BOP frequently drops the ball on Halfway House assignments, timely mailings, and inmate notifications.
This is a three-pronged attack as the facility (Warden, Unit Team members) receive our recommendation, the sentencing judge is sent a motion to recommend, and the CCM Regional Halfway House Administrator is contacted. This section is called the Enhanced SCA Program©.
This program is highly successful as many hundreds of inmates have benefited from this program since 2008