---
kind: "section"
citation: "28 C.F.R. § 40.1"
title: "28"
number: "40.1"
heading: "Definitions."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/28/40.1"
---

# §40.1. Definitions.


For the purposes of this part—

- (a) Act means the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, Public Law 96-247, 94 Stat. 349 ([42 U.S.C. 1997](/usc/42/1997.md)).
- (b) Applicant means a state or political subdivision of a state that submits to the Attorney General a request for certification of a grievance procedure.
- (c) Attorney General means the Attorney General of the United States or the Attorney General's designees.
- (d) Grievance means a written complaint by an inmate on the inmate's own behalf regarding a policy applicable within an institution, a condition in an institution, an action involving an inmate of an institution, or an incident occurring within an institution. The term “grievance” does not include a complaint relating to a parole decision.
- (e) Inmate means an individual confined in an institution for adults, who has been convicted of a crime.
- (f) Institution means a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, or pretrial detention facility that houses adult inmates and is owned, operated, or managed by or provides services on behalf of a State or political subdivision of a State.
- (g) State means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any of the territories and possessions of the United States.
- (h) Substantial compliance means that there is no omission of any essential part from compliance, that any omission consists only of an unimportant defect or omission, and that there has been a firm effort to comply fully with the standards.

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1997e.

### Source

Source: Order No. 957-81, 46 FR 48186, Oct. 1, 1981, unless otherwise noted.