SS Jan 2019 Please HELP!

[vonvon35]

I have to surrender to Bryan location soon! Never been to jail. EVER!!! I don’t know what to expect besides what I see on TV. PLEASE. Any advice recommendation is greatly appreciated. How much of my time do I have to serve? My sentence is 23 months. Can I earn good behavior time? Can I weave my hair in braids (weave) or do they make you take it down? How much money should I bring in cash when I arrive? Are there any programs or college classes I can take to get more time off my sentence?

[fbopnomore]

Welcome to Prison Talk and to the federal forums. There are PTO members who have been designated to bop minimum security camps for females who can answer your specific questions about FPC Bryan.
https://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/bry/

Check the commissary list on the Bryan web page to estimate how much money you will initially need. Monthly spending limit is around $325.00 and stamps/phone/email and over the counter medicines do not count against the limit.

Here are some general answers at all bop owned prisons:

You will earn 90 days of good time off of your 23 month sentence (47 days for each 12 months). You are also eligible to spend the last portion of your remaining 20 months in a half way house or living at home on home confinement. That will be determined by your "unit team" (counselor, case manager, camp manager) when you have about one more year to serve.

Once you know your bop ID number (xxxxx-xxx) from the inmate locator
https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/

you can deposit money to your inmate account for commissary purchases, phone calls and email charges.
https://www.bop.gov/inmates/communications.jsp#money

Sending a US Post Office MO to the lockbox in Des Moines, IA is cheapest. Any other MO will be held for 15 days. You can also take money with you when you self surrender, but it may or may not be posted to your account quickly. Email costs 5 cents/min whenever you are logged in to either read or write messages. Phone calls cost 6 cents/min for local calls from Bryan, and 21 cents/min for long distance. The maximum phone allotment is 300 minutes/month with an extra 100 minutes in Nov & Dec.

Be sure to ask any other questions you have here.

[vonvon35]

Thank you for responding. When you say I have 90days of good behavior time off can you help me understand it better. I was told by my presentence probation officer that I just serve 85% of my time. Roughly around 19 months. And from there I can get good behavior time off as well. Is that right? Based on my sentencing being 23 months do you know roughly how much time I will have to do regardless of good behavior? I hope I’m asking the question right. Also are there any programs or classes I can take to get me additional time off. I’m basically trying to find out any possible ways to reduce my time. Also will I have to remove any weave from my hair when I get there? How should I be prepared with that? Should I just braid my natural hair back? Do they make you take any hairstyle down?

[fbopnomore]

No 85% (actually 87 1/2 %) is your initial sentence minus all of the good time you can earn. The law states 54 days of good time for each 12 months of your sentence, but the bop decided that Congress really meant 47 days instead, and the courts agreed.

There are no programs that award additional good time except for the residential drug abuse program, RDAP. which is not usually available to people with sentences that are as short as yours. You can find out for sure if RDAP is possible by asking your unit team.

Your end of sentence date will be 20 months (23 month sentence minus 90 days of good time) from when you self surrender whether it is a release from prison or from "community corrections" (HWH or Home Confinement)

Time living at either a half way house or home confinement at the end of your sentence is in addition to good time since you will still be in bop custody there, just not living in a prison camp. Your unit team case manager will decide how much, if any, community corrections time you will receive (maximum of 1 year in a HWH or 6 months on home confinement), but 10% of your sentence is much more likely. Some PTO members have posted that they had a much better living experience in their minimum security camp than in a HWH, and they wished they had declined HWH altogether.

A female will have to answer your hairdo questions. In male bop prisons just about any hair style/length was permitted, as was facial hair.

[Free At Last 5]

Restrictions on hair are almost nonexistent in the federal system - shouldn’t have any worries there. Read up as much as you can on PTO about basic prison etiquette. A short sentence such as yours at a camp will be relatively easy to navigate. Just stay out of trouble, which will insure that you get your good time credit and will also set you up for a good transition to whatever amount of time you have on supervised release.

[safran]

“Restrictions on hair are almost nonexistent in the federal system”

This is true for NATURAL hair - to keep things simple I suggest removing anything not naturally grown.

[TexMom2013]

I agree with the above and can add some more. I don’t know if you can come in with a weave but there is a cosmo program there and there are plenty of people who can help braid if they take them out upon arrival, which I doubt. They will take off acrylic nails and bright polish when you arrive. I went in with neutral and they left it alone. There was some classes through Blinn college, but that might be different now from what i’ve read. Nothing can take time off except RDAP and with your short sentence you won’t qualify even if you did have a drug/alcohol program that directly caused your crime.

[fbopnomore]

The "first step act" that was signed into law last week increased regular good time by one additional week per year of the sentence (from 47 days to 54 days/year). Since it was made retroactive, it should impact every federal prisoner who is serving sentences of one year + one day or longer, which means they will all be released from the bop sooner.

[rockchalk1]

After you're there about a month you'll get a letter from the BOP in Texas that tells you when you're eligible for Home Detention/HWH. It may take a little longer with the shutdown, but that will give you your first taste of knowing when the end is near.

Some prisons have different programs that enable you to participate in programs that may earn early release but I don't know about the women's prisons. I know someone that did a program in Ohio and got more halfway house time. My husband's facility however which is a camp, has nothing like that.

Looks like your entire sentence including HWH/HC should be just over 19.5 months, of which 2.3 months of that would be in the HWH/HC. So you would be in the acutal prison for just over 17 months, unless you lose good behavior, or qualify for some sort of program, or wind up in some sort of program that you are able to earn more than 10% halfway house time. The new provisions of the first step act, may be in place before you get out, however unlikely as most of the programming likely won't be in place to begin before 2022 and you'll be out long before then.

[fbopnomore]

The amount of "community corrections time" you will be offered near the end of your prison sentence, half way house and/or home confinement, will be decided by your bop unit team case manager.

You will be scheduled for a unit team meeting shortly after you arrive. They will know the answers to the amount of time you will probably receive, so be sure to ask.

Since you are still in bop custody in community corrections, you will be released from there to Supervised Release at the end of your prison sentence, so it won't show up on the "release date" that appears on the bop inmate locator.

If there are any programs available at that prison to get more HWH time, your counselor or case manager will know.

[mgarcia4402]

I was sentenced to 18 months on Jan. 8th, 2019. I will be self surrender but I am still waiting on my letter with the date and location. My judge made the recommendation to Bryan per my attorney's request so we are hoping that BOP goes along with it. I have a 4yr old autistic son and live close to the area so we are hoping for me to stay close so visitations are possible/frequent. I've never been in trouble or jail in my entire life (I've never even had a traffic ticket!) so this is about the scariest situation I have ever been in in my entire life. Not to mention leaving my disabled child behind. Thankfully my husband is around to take care of him but it's still very devastating to me mentally. I'm struggling really bad already and not coping well so I'm worried about how I am going to make it through. We are hoping I won't do more than roughly 13 months (give or take a few weeks) then about 2 months in HWH or HC (REALLY hoping for HC). These threads on what to expect, etc. have been very, very helpful and have eased some of my concerns regarding physical conditions and rules, etc. I do have 1 question, what is the restroom/shower situation there? All I know about jail/prison is what I've seen on TV so I don't know we it's really like. Are there just toilets in the rooms/cells? Or are there actual restroom facilities and when do you have access to them? What about showers? Is it 1 big shower room or are there individual showers? I know this sounds dumb all things considered but it's 1 thing I haven't seen asked/answered. Thanks in advance for the help.

[fbopnomore]

Welcome to Prison Talk. TV programs about prison are always sensationalized. Any bop minimum security camp will be nothing like that. The hardest part will be your separation from your Son, but it;s great that he will be taken care of by his Dad I hope you get sent to Bryan, and someone who has been there will answer your questions.

[Awesomemishelle]

I ss on 05/28/19 to Bryan FPC....Wondering about mp3 and how are they loaded. Can I bring my Bible that I have highlights in or do I need to purchase a new one

[fbopnomore]

If your Bible is not considered "hard backed", it can be mailed it from home to a bop camp. I never had an MP3, so someone else will have to answer.

[Awesomemishelle]

Originally Posted by fbopnomore

If your Bible is not considered "hard backed", it can be mailed it from home to a bop camp. I never had an MP3, so someone else will have to answer.

Ok thank you there Bible is paper back.

[Awesomemishelle]

I also read in the prison camp booklet that was suggested on this forum about wearing your white undergarments when arriving and I can keep those is that true? Also it says about all white shoes?