The June 2025 BOP memo outlines a clear rule: if you’ve earned fewer than 365 days of First Step Act (FSA) Time Credits toward supervised release, your Unit Team must consider adding up to 12 months of additional prerelease custody under the Second Chance Act (SCA). That time is based on the five-factor review—and it gets entered into the FSA Time Credit Work Sheet.
Here’s the problem: most people never see that number change. By default, the SCA line in the worksheet shows “0.” It stays at zero until your Unit Team manually updates it. If you haven’t done the prep work or asked the right questions, that field will stay blank—and you’ll lose months you could have served at home.
The five-factor review includes:
- Risk to public safety
- Program participation
- Job readiness
- Family/community support
- Housing stability
Those aren’t boxes to check. They’re questions that need documentation behind them. A release plan that lays out specific details across those five categories will influence how much time gets added under the SCA. And that’s not theory—it’s how the current referral system now operates.
Michael Santos saw this years ago. He developed the Release Plan Workbook so people could build a detailed plan that addressed these exact factors. That’s why he made it available to thousands of people inside the system—and why he created PrisonProfessorsTalent.com as a place to document it publicly. His own profile shows exactly how the plan looks in practice.
If your plan is vague or absent, staff have nothing to go on. If your plan is current, specific, and supported by published proof, staff have a file they can point to when deciding how many months to add. The memo gives them the authority to award up to 12. The paperwork you present tells them whether to award 0, 4, or 12.
Here’s what you should do right now:
- Ask to review your FSA Time Credit Work Sheet at your next team meeting.
- Look for the line labeled “Prerelease Time Under SCA.”
- If it says “0,” ask what your five-factor review score was—and when it was last completed.
- Bring updated documentation to influence that number. That includes program completions, housing letters, published content, and progress updates.
If your release plan is already on PrisonProfessorsTalent.com, make sure your team knows. Print a copy. Submit a BP-8 if it’s not being considered. The memo doesn’t say staff may review this worksheet—it says they must.
This isn’t about gaming the system. It’s about using the tools the policy makes available—and building a record that gives staff the information they need to act. Every month matters. Don’t lose 12 because your file was empty.
That wraps this four-part series. The system is changing—but it still rewards the people who prepare better than anyone else. Make sure your release plan reflects that.
Justin Paperny
