Can Tina’s Fiance Serve his Ten-Year Sentence in a Camp?
I recently received a question from Tina. Her fiance was just sentenced to serve a ten-year prison term. Tina wanted to know whether it was possible for her fiance to serve that sentence in a prison camp. The short answer is yes, it’s possible.
In my article Security Level Classifications, I described the criteria that administrators use when classifying inmates. Essentially, an inmate who does not have a history of violence or gang affiliation, and who is within ten years of his release date, is eligible for camp placement–provided the inmate does not have any history of escape attempts. The articles available in the catalog offer considerable amounts of information about the differences between prisons, as well as strategies to ensure that an individual serves his time in the prison of the lowest possible security level.
If Tina’s fiance received a ten-year sentence, current law would require that he serve approximately eight years and two months before he would be sent to complete six-months in a halfway house. If the inmate completed the 500-hour drug program, he could be released one year sooner. As I describe in various posts here, however, I expect that with President Obama and the new Congress, we will see prison reform that brings opportunities for nonviolent offenders to earn their release through merit.
For further questions about the prison system, please leave a comment or send a new question.