The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, the non-partisan investigative arm of the federal government, in a recently-released study of the Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) methods for estimating community custody, or halfway house expenses. This recent report followed up on a February, 2012 study which revealed for the first time that the BOP has no way to account for their community custody costs accurately.
All halfway houses, where released prisoners are routinely sent after release from prison or a camp, are considered low custody facilities, with minimal supervision, and are all operated by contractors under the respective facility contracts, but despite that fact, the contracts provide for all individuals in them to pay 25% of their net income while they are in halfway house status, even if they are eventually placed in home confinement.
The inability of the BOP to properly estimate the true cost of these individuals prevents the public and Congress from knowing "the true costs of detention," according to the study, frustrating Congress' efforts to gauge the cost savings for encouraging home confinement instead of the costly halfway house alternative.
According to the study, "these limitations raise questions about the reliability of the BOP's evaluation for estimating future costs." Indeed. Hard to save money when you don't know what your costs are.
Additional links: www.gao.gov, news@fedlegalctr.com
