First Step Act of 2018: federal prison and sentencing reform

Improve criminal justice outcomes and reduce the size of the federal prison population while maintaining public safety: assess every prisoner’s recidivism risk and needs, assign programmes accordingly and reward successful participation with time credits, and soften some sentencing rules for drug offences.[6][1]

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (overview of the act) and the text of the act

• Eligible minimum- and low-risk prisoners to be offered a prison work programme of at least 20 hours a week

  75%

  5 years after enactment · goal stated by the act (18 U.S.C. § 3634), for the Attorney General’s feasibility assessment[1]

  A goal to assess, not a binding quota: the act asks for the feasibility of reaching it.

• Risk and needs assessment system: within 210 days the Attorney General must publish a tool classifying each prisoner as minimum, low, medium or high risk of recidivism, assigning programmes to their needs and reassessing them periodically — PATTERN, released on 19 July 2019.[1][7]
• Earned time credits: 10 days per 30 days of successful participation in recidivism-reduction programmes or productive activities, plus 5 days for prisoners at minimum or low risk whose risk has not risen over two assessments; credits are applied toward prerelease custody (halfway house, home confinement) or supervised release. Prisoners convicted of a list of offences cannot earn them.[1][8][10]
• Good conduct time: up to 54 days for each year of the sentence imposed by the court, instead of a credit calculated at the end of each year actually served.[1]
• Mandatory minimums for repeat drug offenders: after one prior « serious drug felony » or « serious violent felony », 15 years instead of 20; after two or more, 25 years instead of mandatory life imprisonment. These apply to offences not yet sentenced on the date of enactment.[1]
• Broader « safety valve » letting judges sentence below the drug mandatory minimum: open to defendants with up to 4 criminal history points (1-point offences excluded), no prior 3-point offence and no prior 2-point violent offence. The enhanced penalty for a « second or subsequent » firearm conviction under § 924(c) now requires a prior conviction that had already become final.[1]
• Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 made retroactive: people sentenced for crack-cocaine offences committed before 3 August 2010 can ask the court — as can the BOP, the prosecution or the court itself — for a reduced sentence as if that act had applied; the court is not obliged to reduce it.[1][12]
• Restraints banned on prisoners in BOP or U.S. Marshals custody from the confirmation of pregnancy to the end of postpartum recovery, save for listed exceptions.[1]
• Other provisions: placement, as far as practicable, within 500 driving miles of home; maximum use of home confinement for low-risk prisoners; prisoners may themselves ask a court for compassionate release once 30 days have passed since their request to the warden (or once administrative appeals are exhausted); reauthorisation of the Second Chance Act; $75 million a year authorised for fiscal years 2019-2023 to implement the recidivism-reduction title.[1]