(a)(1) General conditions of release and notice by certificate of release. All persons on supervision must follow the conditions of release described in paragraphs (a)(3) through (6) of this section. These conditions are necessary to satisfy the purposes of release conditions stated in 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d) and 3553(a)(2)(B) through (D). Your certificate of release informs you of these conditions and other special conditions that we have imposed for your supervision.

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Terms Used In 28 CFR 2.204

  • Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
  • Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
  • Testify: Answer questions in court.
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.

(2) Refusing to sign the certificate of release does not excuse compliance. If you refuse to sign the certificate of release, you must still follow the conditions listed in the certificate.

(3) Report your arrival. After you are released from custody, you must go directly to the district named in the certificate. You must appear in person at the supervision office and report your home address to the supervision officer. If you cannot appear in person at that office within 72 hours of your release because of an emergency, you must report to the nearest CSOSA or U.S. probation office and obey the instructions given by the duty officer. If you were initially released to the custody of another authority, you must follow the procedures described in this paragraph after you are released from the custody of the other authority.

(4) Provide information to and cooperate with the supervision officer—(i) Written reports. Between the first and third day of each month, you must make a written report to the supervision officer on a form provided to you. You must also report to the supervision officer as that officer directs. You must answer the supervision officer completely and truthfully when the officer asks you for information.

(ii) Promptly inform the supervision officer of an arrest or questioning, or a change in your job or address. Within two days of your arrest or questioning by a law-enforcement officer, you must inform your supervision officer of the contact with the law-enforcement officer. You must also inform your supervision officer of a change in your employment or address within two days of the change.

(iii) Allow visits of the supervision officer. You must allow the supervision officer to visit your home and workplace.

(iv) Allow seizure of prohibited items. You must allow the supervision officer to seize any item that the officer reasonably believes is an item you are prohibited from possessing (for example, an illegal drug or a weapon), and that is in plain view in your possession, including in your home, workplace or vehicle.

(v) Take drug or alcohol tests. You must take a drug or alcohol test whenever your supervision officer orders you to take the test.

(5) Prohibited conduct—(i) Do not violate any law. You must not violate any law and must not associate with any person who is violating any law.

(ii) Do not possess a firearm or dangerous weapon. You must not possess a firearm or other dangerous weapon or ammunition.

(iii) Do not illegally possess or use a controlled substance or drink alcohol to excess. You must not illegally possess or use a controlled substance and you must not drink alcoholic beverages to excess. You must stay away from a place where a controlled substance is illegally sold, used or given away.

(iv) Do not leave the district of supervision without permission. You must not leave the district of supervision without the written permission of your supervision officer.

(v) Do not associate with a person with a criminal record. You must not associate with a person who has a criminal record without the permission of your supervision officer.

(vi) Do not act as an informant. You must not agree to act as an informant for any law-enforcement officer without the prior approval of the Commission.

(6) Additional conditions—(i) Work. You must make a good faith effort to work regularly, unless excused by your supervision officer. You must support your children and any legal dependent. You must participate in an employment-readiness program if your supervision officer directs you to do so.

(ii) Pay court-ordered obligations. You must make a good faith effort to pay any fine, restitution order, court costs or assessment or court-ordered child support or alimony payment. You must provide financial information relevant to the payment of such a financial obligation when your supervision officer asks for such information. You must cooperate with your supervision officer in setting up an installment plan to pay the obligation.

(iii) Participate in a program for preventing domestic violence. If the term of supervision results from your conviction for a domestic violence crime, and such conviction is your first conviction for such a crime, you must attend, as directed by your supervision officer, an approved offender-rehabilitation program for the prevention of domestic violence if such a program is readily available within 50 miles of your home.

(iv) Register if you are covered by a special offender registration law. You must comply with any applicable special offender registration law, for example, a law that requires you to register as a sex-offender or a gun-offender.

(v) Provide a DNA sample. You must provide a DNA sample, as directed by your supervision officer, if collection of such sample is authorized by the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000.

(vi) Comply with a graduated sanction. If you are supervised by CSOSA, you must comply with the sanction(s) imposed by the supervision officer and as established by an approved schedule of graduated sanctions. We may decide to begin revocation proceedings for you even if the supervision officer has earlier imposed a graduated sanction for your alleged violation of a release condition.

(vii) Inform another person of your criminal record or personal history as directed by the supervision officer. You must inform a person of your criminal record or personal history if your supervision officer determines that your relationship or contact with this person may pose a risk of harm to this person. The supervision officer may direct you to give this notice and then confirm with the person that you obeyed the officer’s direction. The supervision officer may also give the notice directly to the person.

(b)(1) Special conditions of release. We may impose a condition of release other than a condition described in paragraphs (a)(3) through (6) of this section if we determine that imposing the condition is reasonably related to the nature and circumstances of your offense or your history and characteristics, and at least one of the following purposes of criminal sentencing: The need to deter you from criminal conduct; protection of the public from further crimes; or the need to provide you with training or correctional treatment or medical care. In choosing a condition we will also consider whether the condition involves no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary for the purposes of deterrence of criminal conduct, protection of the public from crime and offender rehabilitation.

(2) Examples. The following are examples of special conditions that we may impose—

(i) That you reside in and/or participate in a program of a community corrections center for all or part of the period of supervision;

(ii) That you participate in a drug- or alcohol-treatment program, and not use alcohol and other intoxicants at any time;

(iii) That you remain at home during hours you are not working or going to school, and have your compliance with this condition checked by telephone or an electronic signaling device; and

(iv) That you permit a supervision officer to conduct a search of your person, or of any building, vehicle or other area under your control, at such time as that supervision officer decides, and to seize any prohibited items the officer, or a person assisting the officer, may find.

(3) Participation in a drug-treatment program. If we require your participation in a drug-treatment program, you must submit to a drug test within 15 days of your release and to at least two other drug tests, as determined by your supervision officer. If we decide not to impose the special condition on drug-treatment, because available information indicates you are a low risk for substance abuse, this decision constitutes good cause for suspending the drug testing requirements of 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d).

(c)(1) Changing conditions of release. After your release, we may change or add to the conditions of release if we decide that such action is consistent with the criteria described in paragraph (b)(1) of this section.

(2) Objecting to the proposed change. (i) We will notify you of the proposed change, the reason for the proposed change and give you 10 days from your receipt of the notice to comment on the proposed change. You can waive the 10-day comment period and agree to the proposed change. You are not entitled to the notice and 10-day comment period if:

(A) You ask for the change;

(B) We make the change as part of a revocation hearing or an expedited revocation decision; or

(C) We find that the change must be made immediately to prevent harm to you or another person.

(ii) We will make a decision on the proposed change within 21 days (excluding holidays) after the 10-day comment period ends, and notify you in writing of the decision. You may appeal our action as provided in §§ 2.26 and 2.220.

(d) Imposing special conditions for a sex offender. (1) If your criminal record includes a conviction for a sex offense, we may impose a special condition that you undergo an evaluation for sex offender treatment, and participate in a sex offender treatment program as directed by your supervision officer. We will impose the sex offender evaluation and treatment conditions using the procedures described in paragraph (c) of this section.

(2)(i) If your criminal record does not include a conviction for a sex offense, we may decide that the nature and circumstances of your offense or your history and characteristics show that you should be evaluated for sex offender treatment. In this case, we may impose a special condition requiring an evaluation for sex offender treatment using the procedures described in paragraph (c) of this section.

(ii) At the conclusion of the evaluation, if sex offender treatment appears warranted and you object to such treatment, we will conduct a hearing to consider whether you should be required to participate in sex offender treatment. You will be given notice of the date and time of the hearing and the subject of the hearing, disclosure of the information supporting the proposed action, the opportunity to testify concerning the proposed action and to present evidence and the testimony of witnesses, the opportunity to be represented by retained or appointed counsel and written findings regarding the decision. You will have the opportunity to confront and cross-examine persons who have given information that is relied on for the proposed action, if you ask that these witnesses appear at the hearing, unless we find good cause for excusing the appearance of the witness.

(iii) A hearing is not required if we impose the sex offender treatment condition at your request, as part of a revocation hearing or an expedited revocation decision, or if a hearing on the need for sex offender treatment (including a revocation hearing) was conducted within 24 months of the request for the special condition.

(iv) In most cases we expect that a hearing conducted under this paragraph will be held in person with you, especially if you are supervised in the District of Columbia. But we may conduct the hearing by videoconference.

(3) Whether your criminal record includes a conviction for a sex offense or not, if we propose to impose other restrictions on your activities, we will use either the notice and comment procedures of paragraph (c) of this section or the hearing procedures of this paragraph, depending on a case-by-case evaluation of the your interest and the public interest.

(e) Application of release conditions to an absconder. If you abscond from supervision, you will stop the running of your supervised release term as of the date of your absconding and you will prevent the expiration of your supervised release term. But you will still be bound by the conditions of release while you are an absconder, even after the original expiration date of your supervised release term. We may revoke the term of supervised release for a violation of a release condition that you commit before the revised expiration date of the supervised release term (the original expiration date plus the time you were an absconder).

(f) Revocation for certain violations of release conditions. If we find after a revocation hearing that you have possessed a controlled substance, refused to comply with drug testing, possessed a firearm or tested positive for illegal controlled substances more than three times in one year, we must revoke your supervised release and impose a prison term as provided at § 2.218. When considering mandatory revocation for repeatedly failing a drug test, we must consider whether the availability of appropriate substance abuse programs, or your current or past participation in such programs, justifies an exception from the requirement of mandatory revocation.

(g) Supervision officer guidance. We expect you to understand the conditions of release according to the plain meaning of the conditions. You should ask for guidance from your supervision officer if there are conditions you do not understand and before you take actions that may risk violation of your release conditions. The supervision officer may instruct you to refrain from particular conduct, or to take specific actions or to correct an existing violation of a release condition. If the supervision officer directs you to report on your compliance with an officer’s instruction and you fail to do so, we may consider that your failure is itself a release violation.

(h) Definitions. As used for any person under our jurisdiction, the term—

(1) Supervision officer means a community supervision officer of the District of Columbia Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency or a United States probation officer;

(2) Domestic violence crime has the meaning given that term by 18 U.S.C. § 3561, except that the term “court of the United States” as used in that definition shall be deemed to include the Superior Court of the District of Columbia;

(3) Approved offender-rehabilitation program means a program that has been approved by CSOSA (or the United States Probation Office) in consultation with a State Coalition Against Domestic Violence or other appropriate experts;

(4) Releasee means a person who has been released to parole supervision, released to supervision through good-time deduction or released to supervised release;

(5) Certificate of release means the certificate of supervised release delivered to the releasee under § 2.203;

(6) Firearm has the meaning given by 18 U.S.C. § 921;

(7) Sex offense means any “registration offense” as that term is defined at D.C. Code 22-4001(8) and any “sex offense” as that term is defined at 42 U.S.C. § 16911(5); and

(8) Conviction, used with respect to a sex offense, includes an adjudication of delinquency for a juvenile, but only if the offender was 14 years of age or older at the time of the sex offense and the offense adjudicated was comparable to or more severe than aggravated sexual abuse (as described in 18 U.S.C. § 2241), or was an attempt or conspiracy to commit such an offense.

[79 FR 51258, Aug. 28, 2014]