Inside RDAP: Pull-Ups, Team, and the Fight for a Year Off

Did RDAP change how we think, or just teach us how to behave? Hasan and Brad were in the same RDAP class at FPC Montgomery, and Ross came through a class or two behind them. All three completed the residential program and the halfway-house treatment after it. In this episode they show you what the RDAP words actually meant: Jumpstart, pull-ups, lanyard colors, rollback and Team. They play a new game, Accept, Deny, or Team, run a pull-up for the camera, and tell the real stories behind Hasan's and Ross's time in yellow, including Hasan's first Team. In 5Q By The Numbers, the guys guess what share of eligible RDAP completers actually got the maximum sentence reduction. Brad guessed 85%. Ross guessed 90%. The real number was far lower. Then it's the communication tools they still use today ("beneficial," catching demand thinking, positive self-talk), what halfway-house follow-up treatment looked like for them, and at what age each of them would have taken RDAP if they could do it over. Accept, deny, or team? Play along and vote in the comments. This episode reflects our personal experiences and opinions. It is not legal advice. Contains strong language. RDAP is described as we remember it at one facility; it is not a statement of BOP policy at every site. 5Q BY THE NUMBERS 19% (2,846 of 15,302) of eligible RDAP completers in fiscal years 2009-2011 received the maximum sentence reduction; the average reduction was 8.0 months. Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-12-320 (February 2012). https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-12-320 The current BOP maximum RDAP reduction depends on sentence length and is not guaranteed: 30 months or less, up to 6 months; 31-36 months, up to 9; 37 months or more, up to 12. Source: Federal Bureau of Prisons, Program Statement 5331.02, Change Notice 3 (May 7, 2026); 18 U.S.C. 3621(e). https://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/5... First Step Act time credits are separate from the RDAP sentence reduction. Sources: 18 U.S.C. 3632(d)(4) (FSA time credits); 18 U.S.C. 3621(e) (RDAP reduction). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/te... https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/te... The Fifth Quarter is an unfiltered conversation between formerly incarcerated men about what prison takes, what it teaches, and what comes after. The game isn't over. There's always another quarter. Hosts: Hasan Brown, Brad McCorkle, Ross CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open: did RDAP change how we think? 0:51 Welcome: same RDAP class at FPC Montgomery 2:44 The game: Accept, Deny or Team 8:30 The one-year "carrot" 9:55 Why RDAP, and getting in 12:13 First Jumpstart 13:47 How Jumpstart worked 17:39 Pull-ups, demonstrated 27:27 Denying a pull-up 32:24 Was Jumpstart a manipulation? 33:52 Raids, silence and time as leverage 39:54 What "Team" is 43:32 Hasan's first Team 51:30 What's at stake: the rollback 54:50 Did RDAP change people? 56:23 Ross in yellow 1:02:08 Communication tools that stuck 1:08:30 5Q By The Numbers: who got the max reduction? 1:11:26 Halfway-house treatment 1:14:58 More useful on the outside? 1:16:38 At what age would you take RDAP? 1:24:19 Sign-off: always another quarter #TheFifthQuarter #RDAP #SecondChances