We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

ALONG FOR THE RIDE

Writing in Forbes last week, prison consultant Walter Pavlo argued that courts’ expanded use of ordering self-surrender after federal sentencing rather than remanding prisoners into custody for delivery to prison would benefit both prisoners and the government.

The federal government operates the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, which moves inmates from jail to prison and between prisons, among other duties, with annual operating costs of up to $80 million. “When a low-risk defendant who could have voluntarily surrendered is instead remanded at sentencing,” Pavlo wrote, “the government assumes responsibility for housing, healthcare, guarding and transporting that person through this system until he reaches his designated BOP institution.

Until the prisoner is actually moved, his or her detention cost is borne by the U.S. Marshals Service, which spent about $2.2 billion on housing prisoners in 2025, with an average daily detention cost of $121 per prisoner

Beyond that, Pavlo contends, a designated BOP institution is built around serving a sentence. There can be work assignments, education, vocational training, recreation, treatment and, depending upon eligibility and location, programs such as the Residential Drug Abuse Program and release preparation. A detention center or county jail usually lacks meaningful programming because prisoners come and go randomly.

Pavlo, as usual, makes good sense. Nevertheless, too many judges who remand do so even when the prisoner has been on presentence release without problem. Without any incentive to make a remand decision with efficiency and economy in mind, courts’ remand orders often seem to be capricious rather than reasoned.

Forbes, Federal Judges Waste Taxpayer Money By Remanding At Sentencing (August 18, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root