How much time a disciplinary incident really costs
Discipline hits release dates through two separate pockets: Good Conduct Time disallowance under the 28 C.F.R. part 541 sanction tables, and First Step Act credit loss under BOP's FSA discipline rules. The ordinary GCT ranges: greatest-severity (100-level) incidents cost 27–41 days, high (200-level) 14–27 days, moderate (300-level) up to 13 days — per incident, from the year's available credit. Disallowed GCT is ordinarily gone for good; lost FSA credits can be restored after a period of clear conduct — a distinction worth knowing before deciding what to appeal.
Reviewed against 28 C.F.R. § 541.3 (Table 1) and BOP Program Statement 5410.01. Last updated .
Who can actually take good time away?
Only a Discipline Hearing Officer (DHO) — the Unit Discipline Committee that handles minor incidents cannot disallow GCT. The path: incident report ('shot') → UDC review within days → referral to the DHO for anything serious → DHO hearing with the right to a staff representative, witnesses, and a written decision. The DHO's sanction sheet states the exact GCT disallowed and any FSA credit loss, and it is appealable through the administrative remedy chain (a DHO appeal goes straight to the Regional Director as a BP-10).
| Severity | Example offenses | Ordinary GCT disallowance |
|---|---|---|
| Greatest (100-level) | Violence, escape, drugs/alcohol introduction, cell phone possession | 27–41 days (50–75% of the year's available credit) |
| High (200-level) | Fighting, intoxicant use, refusing a drug test, phone abuse | 14–27 days (25–50%) |
| Moderate (300-level) | Being out of bounds, insolence, unexcused absence | 1–13 days (up to 25%) — typically on repeat offenses |
| Low (400-level) | Minor rule violations | GCT disallowance only for repeated violations |
What happens to FSA credits after a shot?
- The DHO can order loss of earned FSA credits as a sanction, on a scale set by BOP policy (Program Statement 5410.01) tied to severity level.
- Time in disciplinary segregation is a non-earning period — the 10/15-day clock pauses.
- A serious incident can also raise the PATTERN score, which blocks credit application until the level recovers — often the largest date impact of the three (how the gates work).
- Restoration: unlike GCT, lost FSA credits can be earned back after a sustained period of clear conduct — ask the Unit Team for the restoration criteria at the level involved, and get the request on the record.
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The free OutDate calculator applies these rules to a real sentence — Good Conduct Time, First Step Act credits, halfway house and RDAP dates — with every assumption listed next to the answer. No account needed; nothing is stored.
Open the federal release date calculatorFrequently asked questions
Can disallowed Good Conduct Time be earned back?
Ordinarily no — under current regulations disallowed GCT is not restored, which is why contesting a weak incident report at the DHO stage (and appealing a flawed one) matters more than it seems in the moment.
Does a shot in year 3 cost good time from the whole sentence?
The disallowance comes from the year's available 54 days (the percentages in Table 1 are of the annual credit). Multiple or extreme incidents can reach further, but a single ordinary sanction is bounded by the ranges above.
How do we find out exactly what was taken?
The DHO report lists each sanction precisely, and the next Sentence Monitoring Computation Data printout shows the GCT change — the computation-sheet guide covers how to read it. Compare the two; transcription errors happen and are correctable.
Primary sources
Everything on this page is drawn from the statutes, regulations, and BOP program statements below — read them directly:
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Estimates, not promises
This page describes federal law and Bureau of Prisons policy in general terms for education. It is not legal advice, it doesn't account for the facts of any individual case, and no attorney–client relationship is created by reading it. The BOP makes all final release-date determinations. Have an attorney review anything before you file it. Built by OutDate, the federal release date calculator.