Federal Prison News · Grievances and Administrative Remedies

What Is a BP-9, and How Does He File One?

Writ Large · October 16, 2026

Written by Prisoner Legal Aid

He called and said a counselor told him to "file a BP-9." He does not know what that is. Neither do you. The number sounds like something only a lawyer would handle, and the fifteen minutes on the phone ran out before anybody explained it.

A BP-9 is a form. It is one step in a four-step complaint chain inside federal prison, every step has a short deadline, and the whole thing is free. This is the part of his case you can actually help with this week.

The four steps, in plain order

Every complaint about his own confinement runs the same path. The form numbers are just the paperwork at each level.

BP-8: talk to staff first. The regulation says "an inmate shall first present an issue of concern informally to staff, and staff shall attempt to informally resolve the issue." 28 C.F.R. § 542.13(a). Inside, that conversation gets written on a BP-8, usually with his counselor.

BP-9: the formal written request to the warden. This is the one somebody told him about. It is the first step that creates a real record with a case number.

BP-10: the appeal to the Regional Director.

BP-11: the appeal to the General Counsel. The regulation is blunt about what that means: "Appeal to the General Counsel is the final administrative appeal." 28 C.F.R. § 542.15(a). After that, the inside process is over.

He gets the forms from institution staff, "ordinarily, the correctional counselor." § 542.14(c)(1). If a counselor will not hand him one, that refusal is itself worth writing down, with the date and the name.

The clock, and why it is shorter than anyone tells him

This is where most of these die, and it is almost always a calendar problem rather than a legal one.

The BP-9 is due 20 calendar days after the thing he is complaining about: the deadline "is 20 calendar days following the date on which the basis for the Request occurred." § 542.14(a). Calendar days. Weekends and holidays are in there.

Then the BP-10 goes to the Regional Director "within 20 calendar days of the date the Warden signed the response," and the BP-11 to the General Counsel "within 30 calendar days of the date the Regional Director signed the response." § 542.15(a). Read that twice: the clock runs from the signature date on the paper, not the day it reached his hands. Mail inside a prison is slow. If he waits to count from the day he opened the envelope, he can be late on a form he answered the same afternoon he got it.

Already past 20 days? He files it anyway and explains why in writing. The regulation allows an extension "where the inmate demonstrates a valid reason for delay," and it lists examples: "an extended period in-transit during which the inmate was separated from documents needed to prepare the Request or Appeal; an extended period of time during which the inmate was physically incapable of preparing a Request or Appeal; an unusually long period taken for informal resolution attempts." § 542.14(b). A silent late filing gets rejected. A late filing with a written explanation gets considered.

One complaint per form

He must put "a single complaint or a reasonable number of closely related issues on the form." Pile unrelated problems onto one BP-9 and "the submission shall be rejected and returned without response." § 542.14(c)(2).

Three separate problems means three separate forms, three case numbers, three clocks. It feels like busywork. It is the difference between an answer and an envelope back with nothing in it. It is also one of the mistakes that get these thrown out months later, when it is too late to redo.

Have him date and sign it, and keep his own copy of everything, including exhibits. He will need copies at every level above this one. § 542.14(c)(3) and (4).

He does not have to hand a complaint about staff to those staff

This is the objection families raise first, and the regulation already answers it.

If he "reasonably believes the issue is sensitive and the inmate's safety or well-being would be placed in danger if the Request became known at the institution," he may send the Request straight to the Regional Director instead. He marks it clearly "Sensitive" and explains in writing why he did not file it at the institution. § 542.14(d)(1).

If the Regional Administrative Remedy Coordinator disagrees that it is sensitive, the Request is not accepted and he is told so in writing, and he can then file locally with the warden, who "shall allow a reasonable extension of time for such a resubmission." § 542.14(d)(1). So trying the sensitive route and being turned down does not cost him his deadline.

When nobody answers, and somebody usually doesn't

Staff have their own clocks: the Warden responds within 20 calendar days, the Regional Director within 30, the General Counsel within 40. Each can be extended once (20, 30 and 20 more days), and "staff shall inform the inmate of this extension in writing." 28 C.F.R. § 542.18.

Here is the sentence to write on the inside of his locker door: "If the inmate does not receive a response within the time allotted for reply, including extension, the inmate may consider the absence of a response to be a denial at that level." § 542.18.

Silence is not the end of the road. It is permission to go up. Families read no answer as the system refusing to deal with them and stop filing, and that is the single most expensive mistake in this whole process. If his time ran out with nothing, he moves to the next form and says so on it. What to do when his paperwork goes missing entirely is its own problem with its own fix.

One more clock worth knowing tonight: if the Request "is determined to be of an emergency nature which threatens the inmate's immediate health or welfare, the Warden shall respond not later than the third calendar day after filing." § 542.18. If he is in real trouble right now, that phrase belongs at the top of his form.

Why a form number decides whether a judge ever hears him

This is the part nobody explains, and it is the reason the paperwork matters more than it looks.

Federal law says: "No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted." 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a).

Finishing the chain is not optional paperwork on the way to a courtroom. It is the door. And in Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81 (2006), the Supreme Court held that doing it sloppily is the same as not doing it: "Proper exhaustion demands compliance with an agency's deadlines and other critical procedural rules."

The limit on that requirement is the word available. In Ross v. Blake, 578 U.S. 632 (2016), the Court held that "an inmate is required to exhaust those, but only those, grievance procedures that are 'capable of use' to obtain 'some relief for the action complained of.'" A process that is a dead end, or that officials block him from using, is not available. But that is an argument made later, from a written record. It is not a reason to skip a form now.

What happens once he has finished all three levels is a separate decision, and it depends on what he was complaining about.

What to do today

• Ask him for the exact date of the thing he is complaining about. Write it down, then count 20 calendar days forward and write that date down too. That is his BP-9 deadline, and everything else waits behind it.
• Have him ask his counselor for the BP-8 and the BP-9 today, not next visit.
• Tell him: one problem per form.
• Tell him to keep his copy of every form, every response, and every envelope with a date on it.

What to do this week

• If what happened to him involves an injury, the wording matters. Describing an injury so it actually lands is a skill, and vague language is what gets answered with "no action warranted."
• Put a calendar on your own wall with his four deadlines on it. He has no calendar, no reminders, and no way to check. You do.
• When a response comes, photograph or copy the signature date, because the next clock runs from that date.

Language he can copy onto the BP-9, in his own handwriting:

On ________ I attempted informal resolution with staff regarding ________, as required by 28 C.F.R. § 542.13(a). The issue was not resolved. I submit this single, closely related issue under 28 C.F.R. § 542.14. I request: (1) ________, and (2) a written response identifying the staff member who reviewed this Request. I am retaining copies of all attachments for appeal under 28 C.F.R. § 542.15(b)(3).

He signs it and files it. You can gather paperwork, type things up and mail him copies, but the Request still has to go in under his name, because the program is for an inmate "to seek formal review of an issue relating to any aspect of his/her own confinement," and he "may not submit a Request or Appeal on behalf of another inmate." § 542.10(a).

What to stop worrying about tonight

That he needs a lawyer to file this. He does not. It is his form, about his own confinement, and the whole chain costs nothing but postage and copies.

That a bad first try ruins it. A rejected form comes back with a reason, and most rejections are fixable: wrong form, too many issues, missing copies. A deadline he never filed anything against is the one that cannot be fixed.

That it is already too late. Maybe it is, and maybe § 542.14(b) covers his delay. He will not know unless something goes in with the reason written on it. The blank forms are described on our forms page.

Nobody can tell you how this ends. But the chain itself is knowable, the dates are countable, and that is work you can finish this week.

Where this came from

28 C.F.R. §§ 542.10, 542.13, 542.14, 542.15, 542.18; 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a); Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81 (2006); Ross v. Blake, 578 U.S. 632 (2016). Each was retrieved and quoted from the source itself.

The First 72 Hours

We put the whole checklist in one place: the written requests you can copy, the paperwork to ask for, what to write down, and the order to do it in. It is free and it comes by email, so you have it on your phone when you are standing in a parking lot outside a facility.

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If you would rather just talk to a person, call the Prisoner Legal Aid Family Help Line at 786-408-5073, or text 727-635-0600. If it is the middle of the night, send the email instead and it will be read in the morning.

Prisoner Legal Aid prepares documents, requests records, explains deadlines, and connects families with independent civil rights attorneys, under the oversight of a licensed attorney. Nobody can tell you how this ends. What can be done is to sit down with his dates, work out which of the four deadlines is closest, and put the right form in his hands before that one runs out.