The Sentencing Project releases “The First Step Act: Ending Mass Incarceration in Federal Prisons”

I sense that the upcoming GOP Prez candidate debate, which seems likely to include some discussion of some crime and punishment issues, has prompted a number of groups to complete reports on the First Step Act.  Yesterday brought CCJ’s short report on “First Step Act: An Early Analysis of Recidivism.”  Today, The Sentencing Project is out with this longer report titled “The First Step Act: Ending Mass Incarceration in Federal Prisons.”  This report provides some more background and coverage on various aspects of the First Step Act, and here is how it gets started:

In 2018, Congress passed and then-President Donald Trump signed into law the bipartisan First Step Act, a sweeping criminal justice reform bill designed to promote rehabilitation, lower recidivism, and reduce excessive sentences in the federal prison system.  Lawmakers and advocates across both political parties supported the bill as a necessary step to address some of the punitive excesses of the 1980s and 1990s.

The First Step Act includes a range of sentencing reforms which made the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive, enhanced judicial discretion, created earned time credits, increased good time credits, reduced certain mandatory minimum sentences, and expanded the safety valve that allows persons with minor prior convictions to serve less time than previously mandated.

The First Step Act also seeks to expand opportunities for people in federal prisons to participate in rehabilitative programming to support their success after release. The law aims to produce lower odds of recidivism by incentivizing incarcerated individuals to engage in rigorous, evidence-based rehabilitation and education programming.  In exchange and based on a favorable assessment of risk to the community, they may earn an earlier opportunity for release to community corrections.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) reports promising results thus far. The recidivism rate among people who have benefitted from the law is considerably lower than those who were released from prison without benefit of the law. Among the nearly 30,000 individuals whose release has been expedited by the First Step Act, nearly nine in every 10 have not been rearrested or reincarcerated.  This 12% recidivism rate lies in stark contrast to the more typical 45% recidivism rate among people released from federal prison.