Skip to main content

Norton Files Amendment to Eliminate Subsistence Fees in Federal BOP Halfway Houses, Which House D.C. Code Felons

August 24, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) filed an amendment to the fiscal year 2018 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill to prohibit the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) from carrying out the law that requires individuals in halfway houses and on home confinement to pay a subsistence fee to offset the cost of being housed or supervised. Currently, BOP charges residents at BOP halfway houses a subsistence fee of 25 percent of their gross income, but in August 2016 stopped charging any fee for home confinement. Norton has taken special interest in eliminating BOP-imposed subsistence fees because District of Columbia Code felons are the only local felons housed by BOP and are subject to the fee when in halfway houses. Norton introduced a stand-alone bill to eliminate the subsistence fees and wrote BOP Acting Director Thomas R. Kane calling on BOP to eliminate or significantly reduce subsistence fees.

"Imposing costly subsistence fees on those living at federal halfway houses puts a heavy financial burden on returning citizens who are trying to save money and prepare to make the already difficult transition back to society," Norton said. "Eliminating these counterproductive subsistence fees would help returning citizens meet their financial obligations and secure employment and housing."