First Step Act: Overview and Implementation

The First Step Act of 2018 is a United States federal law on sentencing and prison reform for people in federal custody. The law reduces some federal mandatory minimum penalties, expands good conduct time, creates earned time credits for participation in programs, and adds new rules for confinement and reentry.

The First Step Act serves as a key step toward returning home, because expanded good time and earned time credits reduce time in secure custody by up to one year, and can result in more time in residential re-entry (supervised release) in some situations.

The act applies only to people convicted of federal offenses and held in the federal prison system, provided they have not been convicted of disqualifying offenses, which generally include violent crimes, terrorism-related offenses, sex offenses, human trafficking, and certain high-level drug offenses.

History of the First Step Act

Work on the First Step Act followed years of debate in Congress about federal prison growth, mandatory minimum sentencing, and the cost of running the Bureau of Prisons. Lawmakers from both major parties raised concerns about long drug sentences, high correctional spending, and the impact of incarceration on families and communities. Earlier efforts, such as the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, did not pass but helped build support for a combined prison and sentencing reform bill.

The bill that became the First Step Act began as S. 756 in the 115th Congress. After negotiations on sentencing provisions, the Senate passed a revised version in December 2018, followed by passage in the House. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on December 21, 2018, as Public Law 115-391.

The law includes three main areas. One part directs the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons to create and use a formal risk and needs assessment system for all federal prisoners, with linked programs to reduce recidivism risk. Another part changes several federal sentencing rules, including drug mandatory minimums, the "safety valve" for some low-level drug cases, and penalties for repeat firearm offenses under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). A third part reauthorizes and expands the Second Chance Act, which funds state and local reentry programs.

Congress set clear timelines for implementation. The Attorney General had 210 days to develop the risk and needs assessment system. The Bureau of Prisons then had two years to assess all prisoners under that system, expand approved programming, and begin to award and apply earned time credits for program participation. The Department of Justice released the core tool, known as the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (PATTERN), in July 2019 and later updates have revised risk factors and validation data.

Impact on incarcerated people

For people in federal custody, the First Step Act affects both the length of custody and the conditions of confinement. Key areas include good conduct time, earned time credits, sentencing relief, compassionate release, and new rules for placement and conditions.

On good conduct time, the law amends 18 U.S.C. § 3624 so that eligible federal prisoners receive up to 54 days of good conduct time for each year of the sentence imposed, instead of each year served. BOP applied the new calculation in 2019 and adjusted projected release dates, which reduced sentences for tens of thousands of people by weeks or months.

Separate from good conduct time, the act creates earned time credits. Eligible prisoners who complete "evidence-based recidivism reduction programs" or "productive activities" earn credits that move release dates into earlier prerelease custody such as halfway houses or home confinement, and in some situations into earlier transfer to supervised release. Federal regulations award 10 days of credit for every 30 days of successful participation in qualifying programs, with 5 additional days for people whose risk remains low or who show risk reduction over time. The Bureau of Prisons has reported that thousands of prisoners have received earlier transfer to community settings after earned time credits were applied.

Eligibility limits narrow access to these credits. People convicted of certain offenses, including many violent crimes, some terrorism-related crimes, and some sex offenses, do not qualify for earned time credits, although other incentives such as additional telephone or visiting time still apply. Analyses by groups such as The Sentencing Project and the Brennan Center estimate that more than half of the federal prison population falls into categories excluded from time credits because of offense-based restrictions and other limits.

Sentencing reforms in the act also reach thousands of federal defendants and prisoners. The law narrows enhanced drug penalties under 21 U.S.C. § 851, broadens the "safety valve" that lets judges sentence some low-level drug defendants below mandatory minimums, and ends prior "stacking" of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) firearm counts for many cases. The act also makes the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive, so people with older crack cocaine convictions receive a chance for resentencing under the newer, higher thresholds for crack quantities.

In the first year after enactment, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported 2,387 sentence reductions under the retroactive crack provision alone, with average reductions of 71 months, from 258 months to 187 months. Later summaries report that by the mid-2020s more than 4,000 people had received sentence reductions under this part of the law, separate from new cases sentenced under the updated rules.

The act also changes compassionate release. Before 2018, the Bureau of Prisons controlled most motions for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). The First Step Act allows prisoners to file motions directly in federal court after they finish internal requests. During the first year after enactment, courts granted 145 compassionate release motions, compared with 24 in 2018, and most successful motions came from people who filed on their own rather than from BOP requests. A later Sentencing Commission report on the COVID-19 period shows thousands of additional grants and confirms that judges, not BOP alone, now make most final decisions on compassionate release.

The First Step Act also adds rules on placement and conditions of confinement. Provisions direct the Bureau of Prisons to try to place people within 500 driving miles of a primary residence when practicable, restrict restraints for pregnant prisoners, require free access to basic menstrual products, require new staff training on de-escalation and mental health, and limit solitary confinement for juveniles in federal custody. These measures shape daily life in federal facilities even for people whose sentence length does not change.

For you or your family, the most direct benefits come from a shorter stay in secure custody and an earlier move to reentry housing. For a person with a long federal sentence and consistent program participation, expanded good conduct time combined with earned time credits reduces prison time by months or more than a year and shifts that period into halfway house placement, home confinement, or supervised release, where work, family contact, and community support are easier to maintain.

Implementation and controversy

Implementation of the First Step Act has moved more slowly than many supporters expected and has drawn criticism from courts, advocates, and members of Congress. Oversight reports describe missed deadlines, data problems, and delays in applying benefits that Congress wrote into law.

For the risk and needs assessment system, the Department of Justice released the PATTERN tool in 2019 within the statutory deadline, then revised the tool in later updates. Independent researchers and advocacy groups have raised concerns about racial disparities in PATTERN scores and heavy weight on static criminal history factors, as well as limits from narrow eligibility rules and limited program capacity.

For earned time credits, the law took effect in December 2018, but the Bureau of Prisons did not receive a final regulation on time credit calculation and application until January 2022. During that period, the Bureau used interim procedures and manual calculations. Many prisoners reported uncertainty about time credit balances and about dates for transfer to halfway houses or home confinement. The Government Accountability Office reported in 2023 that the Bureau lacked complete and accurate data on assessments and program participation and that the agency had not set up full monitoring of whether staff completed assessments within required time frames, which affects eligibility to earn credits.

Delays and data problems have led to litigation and external pressure. Advocacy organizations such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums submitted comments criticizing the proposed time credit rule and later joined or supported lawsuits that allege miscalculation of credits and failure to move eligible people to community settings on time. News reports describe prisoners held past dates that defense lawyers and advocates calculate as correct under the statute and rule, often because staff do not apply credits to the date of enactment or because halfway house beds and home confinement slots are limited.

Members of Congress from both parties have used oversight hearings and public letters to press the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons on these issues. The Senate Judiciary Committee and House Judiciary subcommittees have held several hearings that focus on First Step Act implementation, time credits, and prison conditions. In November 2022, Senators Richard Durbin and Charles Grassley sent a joint letter urging full implementation of earned time credits and stressing that eligible prisoners should receive earlier transfers and releases that Congress intended.

The Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons state in annual reports that implementation work continues. Agencies report expanded program lists, PATTERN revisions, guidance to staff on time credit calculation, and efforts to improve data systems. The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General identified First Step Act implementation, including accurate time credit application and consistent access to programs, as a significant management challenge in 2024.

For people in federal prison and for families, the result is mixed. The First Step Act has shortened many sentences, expanded access to prerelease custody, and opened new routes to compassionate release. At the same time, offense exclusions, slow rulemaking, technology limits, and tight halfway house capacity have held back full access to benefits. If you want to understand how the law applies to you or a family member, you need to review offense type, PATTERN risk scores, participation in approved programs, and current Bureau of Prisons guidance, then compare those details with the statute, regulations, and reports cited here.