Federal Halfway Houses in Texas: Placement, Rules, and Fees

Federal halfway houses in Texas, formally known as Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs), are transitional facilities where people finishing a federal prison sentence spend their final months before release. Texas has roughly 15 of them, contracted by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to private operators and spread across the state from Brownsville to Lubbock. Residents use this time to find work, reconnect with family, and line up housing before supervised release begins.

Where the Texas Facilities Are

The BOP publishes a directory of contracted RRC providers but does not disclose exact street addresses for security reasons. The directory lists the operating company and the city. As of the most recent BOP listing, Texas has the following contracted facilities:

Houston — GEO Reentry, Inc.
Fort Worth — Volunteers of America Texas, Inc.
Hutchins (Dallas area) — Volunteers of America Texas, Inc.
San Antonio — Crosspoint, Inc.
El Paso — Dismas Charities, Inc.
Corpus Christi — Dismas Charities, Inc.
Lubbock — Dismas Charities, Inc.
Laredo — Dismas Charities, Inc.
Del Rio — Dismas Charities, Inc.
Midland — Dismas Charities, Inc.
Brownsville — GEO Reentry, Inc.
Edinburg — GEO Reentry, Inc.
Del Valle (Austin area) — ACS Corrections of Texas, LLC
Tyler — County Rehabilitation Center, Inc.
Post — Cornerstone Programs Corporation

If you are trying to locate someone who has been transferred to an RRC, the BOP’s online inmate locator will show the Residential Reentry Management (RRM) office responsible for that person, but it will not display the physical address of the facility.¹ Each Texas facility falls under one of the BOP’s RRM field offices, which handle contract administration and approve individual placements.²

Who Decides Placement and How Long You Get

RRC placement is a BOP decision, not something a sentencing judge orders. Federal law directs the BOP to place inmates in community conditions for up to 12 months before release, “to the extent practicable.”³ In practice, most people receive three to six months because of limited bed space and competing demand.

The BOP evaluates each person using five factors listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b):⁴ the resources of the facility, the nature and circumstances of the offense, the history and characteristics of the offender, any statement the sentencing court made about the type of facility, and any pertinent Sentencing Commission policy. The BOP’s internal guidance memo says these factors must be assessed individually for every inmate, not applied as a blanket formula.⁵ A clean disciplinary record and a low recidivism score on the BOP’s PATTERN assessment tool carry weight, though neither is automatic.

First Step Act Earned Time Credits

The First Step Act of 2018 created a separate path to earlier placement. Eligible inmates earn 10 days of time credit for every 30 days of successful participation in approved recidivism reduction programs or productive activities. Those classified as minimum or low risk who hold that classification across two consecutive assessments earn an additional 5 days per 30-day period.⁶

These credits apply toward transfer into prerelease custody, meaning either an RRC or home confinement.⁷ Not everyone qualifies. People convicted of offenses involving terrorism, espionage, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, or high-level drug crimes are generally ineligible to earn these credits, as are repeat felons convicted of firearms possession.

A 2025 BOP directive stated there is no restriction on how many earned time credits can be applied toward home confinement, and it instructed unit teams to prioritize home confinement over RRC placement for people who do not need the structured support of a halfway house.⁸

When the Referral Happens

The referral process starts roughly 17 to 19 months before someone’s projected release date. The inmate’s unit team, which includes at minimum a case manager, counselor, and unit manager, conducts a program review and develops a reentry plan that includes an RRC recommendation.¹ The recommendation goes to the RRM field office, which reviews the full file and weighs where the person plans to live, whether bed space is available, and how many other inmates are projected to release to the same region. Once the RRM office approves the placement, the contracted facility reviews the file and decides whether to accept the transfer.

Bed space is often the bottleneck in high-demand Texas cities like Houston and Dallas, and placements that look certain on paper can shift if projected numbers change.

What Life Inside Looks Like

Life in a federal RRC is far less restrictive than prison but more structured than most people expect. The emphasis is on accountability: residents account for every hour and earn increased freedom over time.

The Job Requirement

Residents are expected to be working full-time, 40 hours a week, within 15 calendar days of arriving at the facility.¹ That is an aggressive timeline, and it is the single biggest source of stress for new arrivals. Most facilities allow residents to leave during designated hours to job-search, and some have relationships with local employers who regularly hire RRC residents. Missing the 15-day window without a solid reason can bring disciplinary consequences.

Subsistence Fees

Once employed, residents pay a subsistence fee to offset the cost of the stay. The charge is 25 percent of gross income, capped at the per diem rate the government pays the contractor for that specific facility.¹ Per diem rates vary by contract, so the effective dollar cap differs from one facility to the next. The fee applies to wages from employment, not to other income such as disability benefits.

Sign-Out, Curfew, and Testing

Residents must sign out with staff before leaving for any reason, noting destination and expected return time. Curfews apply, and residents undergo both scheduled and random drug and alcohol testing. A failed drug test is treated as a high-severity prohibited act and can trigger an immediate return to prison. Privileges expand with compliance: early in the stay, movement is tightly controlled; over time, residents can earn social passes, extended hours, and eventually eligibility for home confinement.

Moving to Home Confinement

Home confinement is the last step before full release, and many RRC residents transition to it after demonstrating good behavior. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2), the BOP can place someone in home confinement for the shorter of 10 percent of the total sentence or 6 months.³ Someone serving a 5-year sentence could qualify for up to 6 months of home confinement; someone serving 3 years could qualify for about 3.6 months.

First Step Act earned time credits can expand these windows. The BOP’s 2025 directive removed any cap on how many earned credits can be applied toward home confinement, so people who accumulated substantial credits through programming may reach home confinement sooner than the traditional formula suggests.⁸

Home confinement typically involves GPS ankle monitoring, continued employment, and regular check-ins with a community corrections officer. The resident lives at an approved address, usually with family, and must stay there during non-work hours. Violating home confinement conditions can result in return to an RRC or to prison.

Rules and Consequences

Federal RRCs follow the same disciplinary framework as BOP institutions. Prohibited acts are classified into four severity levels: greatest, high, moderate, and low.⁹ Greatest-severity violations include possessing drugs or alcohol, refusing a drug test, possessing a weapon, and assault. High-severity violations include fighting, threats, and destroying government property worth more than $100. Moderate and low-severity acts cover things like being in an unauthorized area or failing to follow a program assignment. Sanctions run from loss of privileges and extra duty for minor infractions to transfer back to a secure federal prison for serious ones.

Walking Away Is a Federal Crime

Walking away from an RRC is escape under 18 U.S.C. § 751, which carries up to 5 additional years of imprisonment for someone serving a felony sentence.¹⁰ The law treats leaving an RRC without authorization the same as breaking out of a penitentiary. Sentencing data shows people convicted of escape received an average of 12 months of additional imprisonment. Those who turned themselves in within 96 hours and committed no new crimes averaged about 6 months. Those arrested for a new crime while on escape status averaged 16 months. Walking away also adds criminal history points that affect any future federal sentencing.

Challenging a Placement Decision

If you believe the BOP got your placement wrong on location, length, or a denial of RRC placement altogether, the formal route is the Administrative Remedy Program.¹¹ The process has four stages:

Informal resolution with staff. This step is required before filing anything written.
Institution level (BP-9): a written request to the warden or community corrections manager within 20 calendar days of the issue. The warden has 20 days to respond.¹²
Regional appeal (BP-10): to the Regional Director within 20 days of the warden’s response. The Regional Director has 30 days.
Final appeal (BP-11): to the BOP General Counsel within 30 days of the regional response. The General Counsel has 40 days.

If you do not receive a response within the allotted time at any level, including extensions, you can treat the silence as a denial and move to the next stage. Exhausting all four stages is generally required before a federal court will consider a legal challenge to a BOP placement decision. The process is slow and the success rate is low, but skipping it forfeits any later judicial review.

1
Federal Bureau of Prisons. Residential Reentry Management Centers
2
Federal Bureau of Prisons. RRM Dallas
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3624 – Release of a Prisoner
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3621 – Imprisonment of a Convicted Person
5
Federal Bureau of Prisons. Guidance for Home Confinement and Residential Reentry Center Placements
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3632 – Development of Risk and Needs Assessment System
7
Federal Bureau of Prisons. An Overview of the First Step Act
8
Federal Bureau of Prisons. Federal Bureau of Prisons Issues Directive to Expand Home Confinement, Advance First Step Act
9
eCFR. 28 CFR 541.3 – Prohibited Acts and Available Sanctions
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 751 – Prisoners in Custody of Institution or Officer
11
Federal Bureau of Prisons. Administrative Remedy Program
12
eCFR. 28 CFR Part 542 – Administrative Remedy