18 USC 3582: Compassionate Release, Rule 35(b), and § 3582(c)(2)

Under 18 U.S.C. § 3582, a federal court can reduce a prison sentence after it has been imposed in only three situations: compassionate release for extraordinary and compelling reasons, a government motion recognizing substantial cooperation with law enforcement, and a retroactive amendment to the Sentencing Guidelines that lowers the applicable range. Federal sentencing otherwise treats a final sentence as final, so these are the doors and there are no others.¹

Each door has its own key. The eligibility rules, who can file, how far the sentence can drop, and the odds of success all vary by pathway. What stays constant is that the judge must weigh the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) before granting any reduction.²

Compassionate Release Under § 3582(c)(1)(A)

This is the pathway most people mean when they talk about a § 3582 motion. The court may reduce a sentence when extraordinary and compelling reasons justify it. Before the First Step Act of 2018, only the Bureau of Prisons could file the motion. Now the person serving the sentence can file directly, but only after first asking the warden and either being denied or waiting 30 days without a response.¹

If the court grants the motion, it may replace the remaining prison time with supervised release or probation, capped at the amount of time that would otherwise have been left on the original term.¹

What Counts as Extraordinary and Compelling

The Sentencing Commission’s policy statement at U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13 identifies the recognized categories. Courts are not strictly bound by the list but lean on it heavily. The categories, as clarified by the 2023 amendments, include:³

A terminal illness with an end-of-life trajectory. No specific life-expectancy estimate is required.
A physical, cognitive, or mental health condition that substantially limits self-care in prison and is not expected to improve.
Deteriorating health from aging that produces the same kind of self-care limitations.
Death or incapacitation of the caregiver for the defendant’s minor child, or for an adult child unable to care for themselves because of a disability.
Sexual assault or serious physical abuse suffered in custody at the hands of, or directed by, someone with custodial authority.
An unusually long sentence where the defendant has served at least 10 years and a change in law would create a gross disparity between the current sentence and what would likely be imposed today.

There is also a separate track under § 3582(c)(1)(A)(ii) that does not require any extraordinary and compelling reason. A defendant who is at least 70 years old and has served at least 30 years on a qualifying sentence may be eligible for release if the BOP Director determines they are not a danger to the community.¹ It is rarely used.

How Often Courts Grant These Motions

The bar is high. Across fiscal years 2022 through 2025, federal courts granted roughly 14 percent of about 14,300 compassionate release motions decided. In fiscal year 2025 alone, courts granted 391 of 2,719 motions.⁴ The motions that succeed usually pair solid medical or personal documentation with a record of rehabilitation and a concrete release plan that addresses public safety.

Rule 35(b) Reductions for Cooperation

Section 3582(c)(1)(B) allows a sentence modification when another statute or rule expressly permits it. In practice, the rule that matters here is Rule 35(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which covers reductions for substantial assistance to the government after sentencing.⁵

The critical procedural point: only the government can file this motion. A defendant cannot ask the court directly, no matter how significant the help provided. That control gives prosecutors substantial leverage over whether cooperation ever translates into a shorter sentence.

The One-Year Clock and Its Exceptions

If prosecutors file within one year of sentencing, the court can reduce the sentence based on the value of the post-sentencing assistance. After one year, filing is only permitted in three narrow situations:⁵

The defendant did not learn the relevant information until more than a year after sentencing.
The defendant provided information within a year, but it did not become useful to prosecutors until later.
The information’s usefulness could not reasonably have been anticipated within the first year, and the defendant shared it promptly once its value became clear.

Below a Mandatory Minimum

Rule 35(b) has an unusual feature. The court can reduce the sentence below a statutory mandatory minimum, making cooperation the only reliable way to get under a mandatory minimum after sentencing.⁵ Judges consider the usefulness of the information, the risks the defendant took in cooperating, and the overall effect on ongoing investigations.

Retroactive Guideline Amendments Under § 3582(c)(2)

When the U.S. Sentencing Commission lowers a guideline range and designates the change as retroactive, people already serving sentences under the old range can move for a reduction. The Sentencing Commission’s policy statement at § 1B1.10 lists exactly which amendments qualify. If an amendment is not on that list, it cannot support a § 3582(c)(2) motion, no matter how differently the case would be sentenced today.⁶⁷

The Floor

These reductions come with a hard limit that compassionate release does not have. The court generally cannot go below the bottom of the new, amended guideline range. The one exception is for defendants who originally received a below-guidelines sentence for substantial assistance; those defendants may receive a comparably proportional reduction below the new range. In no case can the reduced sentence be less than time already served.⁶

Amendments Currently Driving Motions

Two recent retroactive amendments have moved large numbers of cases. Amendment 782, known as “Drugs Minus Two,” took effect on November 1, 2014, and cut base offense levels for many drug offenses by two levels. Its retroactive designation resulted in thousands of sentence reductions.⁸

Amendment 821 took effect in 2023 and did two things. Part A reduced or eliminated the “status points” added to a criminal history score when someone commits a new offense while already under a criminal justice sentence. Part B created a two-level offense reduction for “zero-point offenders,” meaning defendants with no criminal history points whose offenses did not involve certain aggravating factors like violence or firearms. Both parts were designated retroactive.⁹⁶

The Sentencing Commission published proposed amendments for 2026 in December 2025, covering drug offense guidelines, fraud loss tables, and an inflationary adjustment to monetary thresholds. Public comment closed in February 2026. Whether any of these will be adopted, and whether any will be designated retroactive, is not yet decided.¹⁰

The § 3553(a) Factors Every Motion Has to Clear

No matter which pathway a defendant uses, the court weighs the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a): the nature and seriousness of the offense, the defendant’s personal history, the need for deterrence, the need to protect the public, and the goal of avoiding unjustified disparities among similar defendants.²

Public safety is where most motions fail. A compelling medical situation can still be denied if the original offense was violent or the court believes release would endanger the community. Prison conduct also gets close attention. Disciplinary infractions cut against a motion. Completion of educational programs, vocational training, drug treatment, or other rehabilitative work supports it. The BOP furnishes institutional reports that document all of this, and judges rely on them.

Courts also consider how the original sentence was arrived at. If a judge already varied downward at the original sentencing, that judge may want something genuinely new before going lower again. Showing changed circumstances beats re-arguing the original sentence.

How to File

The procedure depends on the pathway.

Compassionate Release

Start with a written request to the warden. If the warden denies the request or 30 days pass with no response, file a motion in the sentencing court.¹ The motion should identify the statutory basis, explain what makes the circumstances extraordinary and compelling, address the § 3553(a) factors, and attach supporting documentation such as medical records, a release plan, and evidence of rehabilitation. The government will usually respond and often opposes. Courts may hold a hearing or rule on the papers. There is no constitutional right to appointed counsel, though some courts appoint one at their discretion.

Cooperation Reductions

The defendant cannot file. Only the government can move for a Rule 35(b) reduction. The defendant’s role is limited to providing the assistance and hoping prosecutors act on it.⁵

Retroactive Amendment Motions

The defendant, the BOP, or the court on its own can initiate the motion. It should show that the original sentence was based on a guideline range since lowered by a retroactive amendment listed in § 1B1.10(d), and propose a specific reduced sentence within the new range.⁶

If the Motion Is Denied

A denial can be appealed to the federal circuit court of appeals, though the court of appeals reviews only for abuse of discretion, a deferential standard that favors the trial judge’s call. There is no constitutional right to appointed counsel for the appeal of a compassionate release denial.

A defendant whose circumstances change after a denial can also file a new motion. If a medical condition worsens significantly after an initial denial, that worsening supplies a fresh factual basis. Courts will generally entertain a renewed motion when the underlying facts have genuinely changed, but not when the defendant is repackaging the same arguments. With roughly 86 percent of compassionate release motions denied, persistence backed by strong documentation matters.⁴

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3582 – Imposition of a Sentence of Imprisonment
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3553 – Imposition of a Sentence
3
United States Sentencing Commission. Amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines
4
United States Sentencing Commission. Compassionate Release Data Report
5
Legal Information Institute. Rule 35 – Correcting or Reducing a Sentence
6
United States Sentencing Commission. USSG 1B1.10 – Reduction in Term of Imprisonment as a Result of Amended Guideline Range
7
United States Sentencing Commission. Primer on Retroactive Guideline Amendments
8
United States Sentencing Commission. 2014 Drug Amendment
9
United States Sentencing Commission. Amendment 821
10
United States Sentencing Commission. Proposed 2026 Amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines