Time For A Bureau Of Prisons Task Force To Implement The First Step Act

President Donald Trump signed the First Step Act (FSA) into law in December 2018, nearly five (5) years ago. While there are a number of benefits for many people in prison under the FSA, one of the most important is that prisoners can earn credits toward reducing their sentences or increasing the amount of that sentence that can be spent on home confinement. However, this last implementation step has been plagued with problems with interpretation of the law by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and a host of computer problems. Both have left prisoners and their families confused over one simple question, “When does my prison sentence end?”

It was not until January 2022 when the Federal Register published its Final Rule on FSA, a transformational directive on how FSA was to be implemented. It provided a means for prisoners to earn credits (days) off of their sentence by participating in programs and productive activities, both meant to return a better person to society. Prisoners, mostly minimum and low security, who are eligible for these credits have done their best to try to participate in programs but many complain of a lack of classes, mostly due to the challenges the BOP is having in hiring people. However, beyond that, the BOP has been liberal in accepting that the BOP does not have the staff to fulfill the demand for classes and credits are being given anyway, mostly for participating in productive activities, like jobs. This misses the primary mission of programming meant to have a lasting, positive influence on prisoners after they leave the institution.