NCJ Number
85349
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Voluntary surrender, a court-ordered method of unescorted admission to prison, saves government the cost of transportation from the offender's resident district to the prison and dignifies the offender's initial experience with the correctional system.
Abstract
The expense of transporting newly sentenced Federal offenders from their judicial districts of conviction to the Federal facilities designated for their initial commitments, together with the per diem/overtime expenses of staff escorts and the costs of detaining designees in Federal facilities en route to their destinations, has encouraged the use of voluntary surrender, whereby the offender assumes full responsibility for reporting to the designated facility on the date and time specified by the court. The offender assumes the financial costs of implementing this self-surrender. Further, voluntary surrender enables the offender to avoid the psychological impact of being in association with serious offenders needing tight security. A pilot project of voluntary surrender was begun in 1980 by the Richmond division of the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of Virginia. For transportation expenses involved in committing an offender sentenced in the Richmond division to the Federal Prison Camp in Allentown, Penn., the amount is $401.18 per offender, which was saved for offenders using voluntary surrender. Further, the use of voluntary surrender reduced the number of persons being transported and cut down on the detention time of offenders awaiting transportation, which produced an average savings of $100.45 per offender.