Fair Sentencing Act can submit a petition in federal court to have their
sentences reduced. The act also expands the safety valve provision,
which allows courts to sentence low-level, nonviolent drug offenders
with minor criminal histories to less than the required mandatory
minimum for an offense. Finally, the act eliminated the stacking
provision, which allowed prosecutors to charge offenders with a
second and subsequent use of a firearm in furtherance of a drug
trafficking or violent offense in the same criminal incident, which, if
the offender is convicted, carries a 25-year mandatory minimum. Now,
the mandatory minimum will only apply when the offender has a prior
conviction for use of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking or
violent crime from a previous criminal prosecution.
The First Step Act contains the Second Chance Reauthorization Act of
2018. This act reauthorizes appropriations for and expands the scope
of some grant programs that were initially authorized under the Second
Chance Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-199). The reauthorized programs include
the Adult and Juvenile State and Local Offender Demonstration Program,
Grants for Family-Based Substance Abuse Treatment, Careers Training
Demonstration Grants, the Offender Reentry Substance Abuse and
Criminal Justice Collaboration Program, and the Community-Based
Mentoring and Transitional Service Grants to Nonprofit Organizations
Program. The act also reauthorized and modified a pilot program that
allows BOP to place certain elderly and terminally ill prisoners on home
confinement to serve the remainder of their sentences.
Finally, the First Step Act includes a series of other criminal justicerelated
provisions. These provisions include a prohibition on the use
of restraints on pregnant inmates in the custody of BOP and the U.S.
Marshals Service; a change to the way good time credit is calculated so
prisoners can earn 54 days of good time credits for each year of imposed
sentence rather than for each year of time served; a requirement for BOP
to provide a way for employees to safely store firearms on BOP grounds;
a requirement for BOP to try to place prisoners within 500 driving miles
of their primary residences; authority for the Federal Prison Industries
to sell products to public entities for use in correctional facilities,
disaster relief, or emergency response, to the District of Columbia
government, and to nonprofit organizations; a prohibition against the use
of solitary confinement for juvenile delinquents in federal custody; and a
requirement that BOP aid prisoners with obtaining identification before
they are released.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Ninety percent of those who have had their sentences reduced are
Black Americans.
• The First Step Act shortens mandatory minimum sentence for
nonviolent drug crimes.
• The law allows offenders sentenced under racially motivated
mandatory minimums to petition for revaluation.
• President Trump launched the “Ready to Work” Initiative, which
helps released prisoners gain meaningful employment.
• President Trump has proposed the Second Step Act to partner
with corporate America to create opportunities for former
prisoners to rejoin society.
CORRECTIONAL REFORMS
The correctional reform component of the First Step Act involves the
development and implementation of a risk and needs assessment
system (system) at BOP.
Development of the Risk and Needs Assessment System, the act
requires DOJ to develop the system to be used by BOP to assess the
risk of recidivism of federal prisoners and assign prisoners to evidencebased
recidivism reduction programs and productive activities to reduce
this risk. The DOJ is required to develop and release the system within
210 days of enactment of the First Step Act. The system is to be used
to determining the risk of recidivism of each prisoner during the intake
process and classify each prisoner as having a minimum, low, medium,
or high risk; assess and determine, to the extent practicable, the risk of
violent or serious prison misconduct of each prisoner and determine
the type and amount of recidivism reduction programming that is
appropriate for each prisoner and assign each prisoner to programming
based on the prisoner’s specific criminogenic needs.
In addition the system is to periodically reassess the recidivism
risk of each prisoner; reassign prisoners to appropriate recidivism
reduction programs or productive activities based on their reassessed
risk of recidivism to ensure that all prisoners have an opportunity to
reduce their risk classification, that the programs address prisoners’
criminogenic needs, and that all prisoners are able to successfully
participate in such programs; determine when to provide incentives and
rewards for successful participation in recidivism reduction programs or
productive activities; determine when a prisoner is ready to transfer into
prerelease custody or supervised release; and determine the appropriate
use of audio technology for program course materials to accommodate
prisoners with dyslexia.
The DOJ is authorized to use existing risk and needs assessment
instruments, validated annually, to meet the requirements of the act. When
developing the system, the Attorney General is required to consult with:
• Director of BOP;
• Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts;
• Director of the Office of Probation and Pretrial Services;
• Director of the National Institute of Justice;
• Director of the National Institute of Corrections; and
• Independent Review Committee, which is established
by the First Step Act.
When developing the system, the Attorney General,
with the assistance of the Independent Review
Committee, is required to conduct a review
of the existing risk and needs assessment
systems; develop recommendations
regarding recidivism reduction
programs and productive
The TRUMP RALLY Publication 175