Location Monitoring for Low-Risk Inmates: A Cost-Effective and Evidence-Based Reentry Strategy

The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Location Monitoring program stands out as an excellent example of applying the risk principle in the federal criminal justice system. By moving minimum-security inmates from BOP prison camps back into their communities to complete the final portion of their sentence--while on location monitoring and supervised by U.S. probation officers--the BOP and the federal courts are reducing expenditures, reducing low-risk inmates' exposure to higher-risk offenders, and opening up more space in Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs) for higher risk inmates and noncompliant offenders who require much greater programming.