18 U.S.C. § 4042 — Duties of Bureau of Prisons

(a) General duties. Under the Attorney General’s direction, the Bureau of Prisons must: (1) manage and regulate all federal penal and correctional institutions; (2) provide suitable quarters and keep, care for, and feed people charged with or convicted of United States offenses, and people held as witnesses or otherwise; (3) protect, instruct, and discipline those people; (4) give state, tribal, and local governments technical help to improve their correctional systems; (5) give release notices as subsections (b) and (c) require; (6) create prerelease procedures that help prisoners apply for federal and state benefits, including Social Security and veterans’ benefits; obtain identification, including a Social Security card, driver’s license or other official photo ID, and birth certificate; and obtain that identification and those benefits before release from a federal prison sentence, or, if there was no federal prison sentence, before release from a community-confinement sentence, subject to legal limits; and (7) create reentry procedures that give federal prisoners information about health and nutrition, employment, literacy and education, personal finance and consumer skills, community resources, personal growth and development, and release requirements and procedures. (b) Release notices. (1) At least 5 days before a qualifying prisoner is released on supervised release, or before a person already on supervised release changes residence to another jurisdiction, written notice must go to the chief law-enforcement officer of every state, tribal, and local jurisdiction where the prisoner will live. The Bureau’s Director gives notice before release. The responsible probation officer, or the method specified by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts’ Director, gives notice of a later residence change. These notice rules do not apply to a prisoner protected under chapter 224. (2) The notice must state the prisoner’s name; criminal history, including the offense of conviction; and restrictions on conduct or other release conditions imposed by law, the sentencing court, the Bureau, or another federal agency^*. (3) A qualifying prisoner is one convicted of a drug-trafficking crime, as “drug trafficking crime” is defined in section 924(c)(2), or a crime of violence, as “crime of violence” is defined in section 924(c)(3). (c) Sex-offender release notices. (1) For a person described in paragraph (3), or another category specified by the Attorney General, who is released from prison or sentenced to probation, notice must go to the chief law-enforcement officer of every state, tribal, and local jurisdiction where the person will live and to the state, tribal, or local agency responsible for receiving or keeping sex-offender registration information there. These rules do not apply to a person protected under chapter 224. (2) The notice must include the information listed in subsection (b)(2), the person’s residence, and the fact that the person must register as the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act requires. If the Bureau knows the expected residence of someone released from its custody, its Director must give notice at least 5 days before release. For a person sentenced to probation, the responsible probation officer, or the method specified by the Administrative Office’s Director, must give notice promptly. The same officers or method must give notice of a later residence change during probation, supervised release, or parole. (3) The Bureau’s Director must tell a released person who must register under that Act what the Act requires of that person. The responsible probation officer must give the same information to a person sentenced to probation. (4) Repealed. (5) The United States and its agencies, officers, and employees are immune from liability for good-faith conduct carrying out this subsection and subsection (b). (d) Application. This section does not apply to military or naval penal or correctional institutions or people confined in them.