Federal Halfway Houses in Texas: Locations, Rules, and Home Confinement

Federal halfway houses in Texas, formally called Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs), are transitional facilities where people finishing federal prison sentences spend their final months before release. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) contracts with private operators to run roughly 15 of them across the state, and residents use the time to find work, reconnect with family, and secure housing before supervised release begins. Daily life is structured and closely monitored, but it is not prison.

Where the Texas Facilities Are

The BOP publishes a directory of contracted RRC providers but withholds exact street addresses for security reasons. The directory lists the operating company and the city. As of the most recent BOP listing, Texas has these contracted RRCs:

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

The border and metro concentration tracks where most federal cases in Texas are prosecuted and where job markets are strongest. If you’re trying to locate someone who has already 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 facility’s physical address.¹

Who Qualifies and How Long They Stay

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.”² In practice, most people receive three to six months, because bed space is limited and demand is high.

The BOP evaluates each person using five factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b):³

Facility resources, meaning whether the RRC has the capacity and programs for the inmate’s needs.
The nature and seriousness of the offense.
The person’s history and institutional behavior.
Any statement by the sentencing court about the type of facility.
Relevant U.S. Sentencing Commission policy.

BOP guidance requires that these factors be assessed individually for every inmate rather than applied as a blanket formula.⁴ A clean disciplinary record and a low recidivism score on the BOP’s PATTERN tool help, but neither is an automatic qualifier.

First Step Act Earned Time Credits

The First Step Act of 2018 opened a separate pathway. Eligible inmates earn 10 days of 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 over two consecutive assessments earn an additional 5 days per 30-day period.⁵ Those credits apply toward prerelease custody, which means either an RRC or home confinement.⁶

Not everyone qualifies. People convicted of terrorism, espionage, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, or high-level drug offenses are generally ineligible, as are repeat felons convicted of firearms possession.

A 2025 BOP directive expanded use of these credits for home confinement, stating there is no cap on how many earned credits can be applied toward home confinement placement, and instructed unit teams to prioritize home confinement over an RRC for people who don’t need the structured support.⁷

The Placement Timeline

The referral process starts roughly 17 to 19 months before projected release. The inmate’s unit team conducts a program review and builds a reentry plan that includes a recommended RRC length. The recommendation goes to the regional RRM office, which weighs where the person plans to live, available bed space in that area, and projected release numbers for the region. Once the RRM office approves, the contracted facility reviews the file and decides whether to accept the transfer.¹ In Houston and Dallas, bed space is often the bottleneck, and placements that look settled on paper can shift if projected numbers change.

What Daily Life Looks Like

The emphasis inside an RRC is accountability. Residents must account for every hour and earn increased freedom over time.

The 15-Day Work Rule

Residents are expected to be working full-time, 40 hours a week, within 15 calendar days of arrival.¹ It’s an aggressive timeline and the biggest source of stress for new arrivals. Most facilities allow designated hours for job searching, and some maintain relationships with local employers who regularly hire RRC residents. Missing the window without a solid reason can bring disciplinary consequences.

Subsistence Fees

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

Monitoring and Privileges

Residents sign out with staff before leaving for any reason, noting destination and expected return. Curfews are mandatory. Scheduled and random drug and alcohol testing is routine, and a failed drug test is a high-severity prohibited act that can trigger an immediate return to prison.

Privileges expand as compliance builds. Movement is tight early on. Over time, residents can earn social passes to visit family, extended hours away from the facility, and eventually eligibility for home confinement during the final stretch of their stay.

Moving to Home Confinement

Home confinement is the last step before full release. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2), the BOP can place someone in home confinement for the shorter of 10 percent of their total sentence or 6 months.² A 5-year sentence can qualify for up to 6 months; a 3-year sentence for about 3.6 months.

First Step Act credits can expand those windows. The BOP’s 2025 directive removed any cap on earned credits applied to home confinement, so inmates who have built up substantial credits through programming may reach home confinement sooner than the traditional formula suggests.⁷

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 conditions can mean a return to an RRC or to prison.

Discipline, and Why Walking Away Is a Serious Crime

Federal RRCs follow the same disciplinary framework as BOP institutions, with prohibited acts classified from greatest to low severity.⁸ Possessing drugs or alcohol, refusing a drug test, possessing a weapon, and assault sit at the top. Fighting, threats, and destroying government property worth more than $100 are high-severity. Being in an unauthorized area or disrespecting staff sits lower. Attempting a prohibited act is treated the same as committing it, and sanctions range from loss of privileges and extra duty to transfer back to a secure federal prison.

Leaving an RRC without authorization is a federal crime. Under 18 U.S.C. § 751, escape from federal custody while serving a felony sentence carries up to 5 additional years.⁹ An RRC feels nothing like a prison, but the law treats walking away identically to breaking out of a penitentiary.

Sentencing data shows people convicted of escape offenses received an average of 12 additional months. Those who turned themselves in within 96 hours and committed no new crimes while gone averaged about 6 months. Those arrested for a new crime while on escape status averaged 16 months. The math never works in anyone’s favor.

Challenging a Placement Decision

If you believe the BOP got your placement wrong, whether the location, the length, or an outright denial, the formal route is the Administrative Remedy Program. It applies to anyone in BOP custody, including RRC residents.¹⁰ It runs in four stages:

Informal resolution with staff. This 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.¹¹
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 don’t get a response within the allotted time, including any extensions, you can treat the silence as a denial and move to the next level. Exhausting all four stages is generally required before a federal court will consider a legal challenge. The process is slow and the success rate is low, but skipping it forfeits judicial review later.

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