Addressing The Details Before You Leave
Preparing to leave federal prison should start the day you arrive.
But, here’s a pro tip. About halfway through your sentence, you need to make sure you don’t have any existing warrants or detainers. The BOP will not release you to a halfway house if these haven’t been addressed.
To do this, attend your prison’s “records open house.” You can ask your counselor or case manager when this takes place – every prison has one. It’s usually during main line, at lunch time.
At the records office, fill out the cop out and ask for an NCIC. Search and make sure you don’t have any open warrants or detainers.
If you do, you need to take care of them.
Most prisons will have an IAD, or Interstate Agreement on Detainers form you can fill out and mail to your local court.
Of course, you can always hire Federal Prison Tips, the Legal Advocacy Center, or Freedom Fighters PC to help you with the paperwork.
This form helps you clear up a state detainer by telling the state or local authority to pick you up. If they don’t do so within 180 days, which they can’t, it’s supposed to squash the detainer. They could also determine that you’re a non-extraditable detainee.
Once this occurs and the agency in question determines they are not coming to pick you up, according to federal prison programming statements, they should let you go on to Halfway House.
If you need help with that, contact us on our website, or call 407-434-0175 Monday through Friday 10am to 10pm Eastern Time, and Sundays from 12pm to 7pm Eastern Time.