Fostering family ties inside prison walls is important, and the Second Chance Act even allowed for much longer stays in halfway houses for federal inmates. The limitation now is up to one year. However, my observation is that the BOP has made no attempt to change their behaviors, only their stated policies. Just because they “can” grant more time in a halfway house, which means more time with family and more chances to truly re-enter society, does mean they “must”.

What better way to prevent recidivism than to give inmates more time of their sentence to spend back in the community and close to home? Why is the BOP so intent on keeping inmates behind the walls? Money, and the machine which keeps the budged bloated, is the only reason I can think of. Less inmates means smaller budgets and less employees of the BOP.

I can take a while and delve into the Correctional Officer’s Unions, their lobby, and influence over the BOP, etc. but I don’t feel this is the forum. The simple fact is that, even when Congress has made LAWS to make a change, the BOP is too autonomous to care or respect the law of the country that created it.