US · guidance
BOP Program Statement 5270.12 § 4
§ 541.22 Status when placed in the SHU.
When placed in the SHU, you are either in administrative detention status or disciplinary
segregation status.
(a) Administrative detention status. Administrative detention status is an administrative status
which removes you from the general population when necessary to ensure the safety, security,
and orderly operation of correctional facilities, or protect the public. Administrative detention
status is non-punitive, and can occur for a variety of reasons.
The Warden or designee may temporarily impose more restrictive conditions on an inmate
which may be in an area normally set aside for disciplinary segregation and therefore requires
the withdrawal of privileges ordinarily afforded in administrative detention status, until a
hearing before the Disciplinary Hearing Officer (DHO) can be held who:
■ Is causing a serious disruption, threatening life, serious bodily harm, or property
damage in administrative detention.
■ Cannot be controlled within the physical confines of administrative detention.
■ Upon the advice of qualified health personnel, does not require confinement in the
institution hospital if the institution has one for mental or physical treatment, or who
would ordinarily be housed in the institution hospital for mental or physical treatment, but
who cannot safely be housed there because the hospital does not have a room or cell with
P5270.12 3/5/2024 Federal Regulations are shown in this type. Implementing instructions: this type. 5
adequate security provisions.
Inmates confined under these more restrictive conditions must have their status reviewed and
fully documented on a BP-A0321, Special Housing Unit − Temporary Restrictive Housing
Order, every five days.
A fully documented BP-A0321, Special Housing Unit − Temporary Restrictive Housing Order is
maintained in the Inmate Central File.
(b) Disciplinary segregation status. Disciplinary segregation status is a punitive status
imposed only by a Discipline Hearing Officer (DHO) as a sanction for committing a
prohibited act(s).
History
PS 5270.12 dated 2024-03-05
Provenance
- Source
- bop.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-20
- Edition
- bop-ps-2026-09-20
- Content hash
f5ead66bd3f8fbb411a2869847314ab0d113ef4ec656324234a1b9491eb713bb
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.