Opt-in status is the whole ballgame
You earn nothing until you are opted in. No credits, no phone minutes, none of it. And the days you spend opted out do not come back when you fix the problem.
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What opt-in status is
Opt-in status is a flag on your record that says you are participating. It is the switch on everything the First Step Act gives you. Credits, phone minutes, the housing incentive, all of it runs through that one flag.
It starts when you finish the needs assessment surveys in
Do that early. There is no reward for waiting and there is a real cost, which is the rest of this page.
Seven things that put you in opt-out
Refusing the assessments in TRULINCS
Including the dyslexia screening and the trauma screening. To get back in, complete them.
Refusing an assessment or screening a staff member runs in person
Same fix. Complete them.
Declining a recommended program that matches an identified need
This one leaves a program decline code on your record. To get back in, the code has to be removed or changed, which means a conversation with your
unit team .Refusing a required program
The two that come up constantly are the Financial Responsibility Program and Drug Education. Start the program and you are back in.
A life sentence or a death sentence
There is no way back from this one. It is a status, not a decision.
Disciplinary segregation in the SHU
Not administrative detention. Disciplinary segregation, meaning the
DHO sanctioned you to it. Opt-in comes back automatically the day you come off that status.Leaving your designated institution for a full calendar day or more
A
furlough , a writ, an escorted trip, an outside hospital stay. Opt-in comes back automatically when you get back.
The days do not come back
Here is the part that quietly costs people real time.
Days spent in opt-out are gone. They are not reinstated when you fix the problem. Two months of refusing to sign up for Drug Education is two months of credits you never get back, even after you sign up. The meter does not rewind, it just starts again.
That is the argument for handling a decline code the week it appears instead of the month it appears. Every week it sits there is a week off the back end of your sentence.
Two of these are not your decision
Look at the last two on that list again, because they are different in kind from the first four.
A stretch in the
Families should know this one, because it explains a release date that moved the wrong way for no reason anybody explained. A month at an outside hospital is a month of credits that did not accrue. The status comes back on its own when the person comes back. The paused days stay paused.
How you get back in
Mechanical, and nobody has to forgive you for anything.
From the inside
Nobody sat me down and explained any of this. The assessments show up as a thing to do on the kiosk, and if you are new and overwhelmed and the kiosk line is twelve deep, it is very easy to put off for a month. That month is not free. Ask your unit team, in writing, what your current status is and whether anything is sitting on your record. Keep the copy.
Eighteen months, men's low
Ask what your status is
Do not assume you are opted in because you are taking classes. Those are two different flags.
Send your unit team a message asking for your current FSA status and whether any program decline code is on your record. Ask in writing, keep a copy of what you sent, and ask again if nothing comes back. That is the same advice as everything else involving staff, and it applies harder here because the cost of being wrong accrues daily.
Earning and applying
This is the single most misunderstood thing about the First Step Act, and getting it wrong costs people months. You can earn credits at any risk level. You can only spend them at low or minimum.
Hand the rest of this site to your family
You will not be able to look things up once you're inside. They can, and this is where: everything written for the one waiting: a twelve-part guide to mail, visiting, money, and your release date, plus their own FAQ and checklist. Alongside it, a guide to every facility with email alerts when visiting stops, the support group directory, calculators for your release math, and free answers when they have questions.
Send them the link before you report, not after they can't reach you.
These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. Answers are free, and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer.
I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.
Somebody is sitting in opt-out status right now and does not know it.