funding is to be directed to BOP for implementation.
SENTENCING REFORMS
The First Step Act makes several changes to federal sentencing
law. The act reduced the mandatory minimum sentences for
certain drug offenses, expanded the scope of the safety valve,
eliminated the stacking provision, and made the provisions of the
Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-220) retroactive.
CHANGES TO MANDATORY MINIMUMS
FOR CERTAIN DRUG OFFENDERS
The act adjusts the mandatory minimum sentences for certain
drug traffickers with prior drug convictions. The act reduces the
20-year mandatory minimum (applicable where the offender has
one prior qualifying conviction) to a 15-year mandatory minimum
and reduces the life sentence mandatory minimum (applicable
where the offender has two or more prior qualifying convictions)
to a 25-year mandatory minimum. The act also changes the
prior conviction criteria under which these mandatory minimum
penalties apply. For these mandatory minimums to apply, the
offender’s prior convictions must meet the new criteria of a
serious drug felony or a serious violent felony rather than any
felony drug offense.
EXPANDING THE SAFETY VALVE
The act makes drug offenders with minor criminal records eligible for
the safety valve provision, which previously applied only to offenders
with virtually spotless criminal records. The safety valve allows
judges to sentence low-level, nonviolent drug offenders to a term of
imprisonment that is less than the applicable mandatory minimum.
ELIMINATING THE STACKING PROVISION
The act eliminates stacking by providing that the 25-year mandatory
minimum for a “second or subsequent” conviction for use of a firearm
in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime or a violent crime applies
only where the offender has a prior conviction for use of a firearm
that is already final. Under prior law, two violations that were charged
concurrently triggered the enhanced mandatory minimum.
RETROACTIVITY OF THE FAIR SENTENCING ACT
The First Step Act authorizes courts to apply retroactively the Fair
Sentencing Act of 2010, which increased the threshold quantities of
crack cocaine sufficient to trigger mandatory minimum sentences, by
resentencing qualified prisoners as if the Fair Sentencing Act had been
in effect at the time of their offenses. The retroactive application of the
Fair Sentencing Act is not automatic. A prisoner must petition the court
to have his/her sentence reduced.
Article in part provided by the Congressional Research Service, summary R45558.
The TRUMP RALLY Publication 179