The First Step Act gives people in federal prison four main ways to shorten their time inside: a corrected good conduct time calculation that applies automatically, earned time credits for completing approved programs, direct-to-court compassionate release petitions, and expanded home confinement for older inmates. Signed on December 21, 2018, the law also narrowed certain mandatory minimums and added protections for pregnant inmates and people with opioid use disorder.1Federal Bureau of Prisons. An Overview of the First Step Act Everything below applies only to federal sentences. If you’re in state prison or a local jail, none of it reaches you.
The Good Conduct Time Fix
Federal law lets people serving sentences longer than a year earn up to 54 days of good conduct time for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, as long as they follow institutional rules.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3624 – Release of a Prisoner Before December 2018, the Bureau of Prisons calculated those 54 days against each year actually served, which worked out to about 47 days per year.
The First Step Act recalculated good time against the full sentence imposed and applied the fix retroactively. Thousands of release dates moved up automatically. On a 10-year sentence, the difference between 47 and 54 days a year comes out to roughly 70 extra days of credit across the full term.
Earning and Using Time Credits
The earned time credit system is the law’s main new incentive. Eligible inmates earn 10 days of credit for every 30 days of successful participation in approved recidivism reduction programs or productive activities. Anyone classified as minimum or low risk who holds that classification across two consecutive assessments earns an additional 5 days per 30-day period, for 15 days total.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3632 – Development of Risk and Needs Assessment System At the higher rate, a steady year of programming yields roughly 180 days.
How PATTERN Affects Your Credits
The Bureau uses a risk assessment tool called PATTERN — the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs — to sort every inmate into minimum, low, medium, or high risk.4Federal Bureau of Prisons. PATTERN Risk Assessment The score is based on factors like age at offense, criminal history, history of violence, disciplinary record, and program participation, and it’s reassessed periodically so it can go down over time.5National Institute of Justice. 2021 Review and Revalidation of the First Step Act Risk Assessment Tool
The classification matters because medium- and high-risk inmates still earn baseline credits but cannot spend them on early transfer until they lower their level. Minimum- and low-risk inmates get the accelerated rate and can apply what they’ve earned. Alongside the risk score, PATTERN identifies needs in 13 areas — substance use, mental health, education, anger management, family, and others — and the Bureau uses those results to steer people into the right programs.6Federal Bureau of Prisons. First Step Act Approved Programs Guide
What Counts as Approved Programming
Qualifying activities fall into two buckets. Evidence-based recidivism reduction (EBRR) programs are structured courses aimed at specific risk factors: cognitive behavioral therapy, the Residential Drug Abuse Program, anger management, Department of Labor apprenticeships, vocational training, financial literacy, and parenting classes are all on the list.6Federal Bureau of Prisons. First Step Act Approved Programs Guide Productive activities include work assignments and community service. Both count, but the Bureau assigns programs based on your individualized needs assessment, so what you have access to depends partly on what PATTERN identified.
How Credits Get Spent
Earned credits can be used two ways. The first is transfer to pre-release custody — a residential reentry center (halfway house) or home confinement. There’s no statutory cap on how many credits can go toward pre-release custody, so a large bank of credits can move a meaningful stretch of the final sentence out of a traditional facility. The second use is starting supervised release early, but that pathway is capped at 12 months by statute.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3624 – Release of a Prisoner Because of that cap, credits stretch farther when applied to pre-release custody.
To keep credits, you have to stay clear of major disciplinary incidents and keep meeting your reentry plan. The Bureau calculates automatically, but errors happen. Check your record.
Who Can’t Earn Time Credits
The statute makes people convicted of certain offenses permanently ineligible for earned time credits no matter how many programs they complete. The disqualifying list includes terrorism, espionage, treason, murder, kidnapping, sexual exploitation of children, firearms offenses under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), carjacking resulting in death, drug offenses carrying life sentences, human trafficking, and most crimes of violence against federal officials.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3632 – Development of Risk and Needs Assessment System The Bureau publishes a full reference table.8Federal Bureau of Prisons. Good Time Disqualifying Offenses
Being blocked from earning time credits doesn’t block you from programming. Someone with a § 924(c) conviction can still enroll in drug treatment, vocational training, or education; they just can’t convert that work into time off. They still earn good conduct time at 54 days a year, and they can still seek compassionate release. The disqualification is narrow.
If Your Credits Are Miscalculated
When the Bureau miscounts your good conduct time or earned credits, you have to run the administrative remedy process before a federal court will hear the challenge. Start by requesting access to your Central File so you can see what’s actually been recorded. Then work through each step: informal resolution at the facility, a written request to the Warden, and appeals to the Regional Director and the General Counsel. Only after all four levels can you file in federal court. Skipping a level typically gets the case dismissed, so keep copies of everything at each stage.
Compassionate Release
The First Step Act let inmates petition the sentencing court directly for a sentence reduction. Before, only the Bureau of Prisons Director could file the motion, and it rarely did.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3582 – Imposition of a Sentence of Imprisonment
The Filing Steps
Send a written request to the Warden asking that the Bureau file the motion for you. If the Warden denies it, or doesn’t answer within 30 days, you can file directly in the court that imposed the sentence. The 30-day clock runs from when the Warden’s office receives the request, not from the postmark.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3582 – Imposition of a Sentence of Imprisonment This exhaustion step is where petitions most often fail. Filing before you have a denial or have waited out the 30 days usually gets the case dismissed.
What Qualifies as Extraordinary and Compelling
The judge must find “extraordinary and compelling reasons” to reduce the sentence. The U.S. Sentencing Commission recognizes several categories:10United States Sentencing Commission. Amendment 814 a terminal illness with an end-of-life trajectory (no specific prognosis required); a debilitating physical or cognitive condition that substantially limits self-care in prison with no expected recovery; a medical need for long-term or specialized care the facility isn’t providing; exposure to an infectious disease outbreak or public health emergency where personal risk factors make it especially dangerous and the risk can’t be managed; age 65 or older with serious age-related decline plus at least 10 years or 75 percent of the sentence served, whichever is less; and family circumstances involving the death or incapacitation of the caregiver of a minor child, or the incapacitation of a spouse or parent when the inmate is the only available caregiver.
One hard limit: rehabilitation alone is never enough.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 994 – Duties of the Commission A record of transformation through programming still needs an independent qualifying reason behind it. The judge also weighs the standard sentencing factors — the seriousness of the original offense, criminal history, and public safety.12GovInfo. 18 U.S. Code 3553 – Imposition of a Sentence
Home Confinement for Elderly Inmates
Separate from time credits and compassionate release, the law expanded a pilot program letting older inmates finish their sentences on home confinement. You qualify if you’re at least 60, have served at least two-thirds of your sentence, and have not been convicted of a crime of violence, a sex offense, or a terrorism-related offense.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 34 U.S. Code 60541 – Federal Prisoner Reentry Initiative
Sentencing Changes at the Front End
Two mandatory-minimum reforms don’t fit the day-to-day BOP process but can matter at sentencing or resentencing.
Firearm Charge Stacking
Prosecutors used to be able to charge multiple counts under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) in a single case and stack them: five years for the first count, then 25 years for each additional count treated as a “second or subsequent” offense — even for a first-time defendant. The First Step Act limited the 25-year enhancement to cases where a prior § 924(c) conviction has already become final.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 924 – Penalties Multiple counts in a single case now each carry the base five-year minimum. The change is not retroactive; people sentenced under the old stacking rule can’t seek resentencing on that basis alone.
Retroactive Crack Sentencing Relief
Section 404 made the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive. The 2010 law reduced the crack-versus-powder cocaine sentencing disparity but only for people sentenced after it passed. Section 404 lets people sentenced before 2010 petition the court for a reduced sentence under the newer thresholds. Judges aren’t required to grant the reduction and weigh the same factors used at an original sentencing.
Protections That Don’t Shorten a Sentence
Two provisions change conditions inside without affecting release dates.
Restraints on Pregnant Inmates
From the point a healthcare professional confirms pregnancy through postpartum recovery, the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service cannot restrain a pregnant inmate.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 4322 – Use of Restraints on Prisoners During the Period of Pregnancy, Labor, and Postpartum Recovery Prohibited The exceptions are narrow: an immediate, credible flight risk; an immediate, serious threat of harm that can’t be managed another way; or a healthcare professional’s determination that restraints are medically necessary. Even when an exception applies, staff must use the least restrictive restraints possible and cannot restrain ankles, legs, or waist, restrain hands behind the back, use four-point restraints, or chain the person to another inmate.
Medication-Assisted Treatment
The Bureau is required to expand access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid and substance use disorders. Clinical guidance calls for a team-based approach using buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone depending on the individual.16Federal Bureau of Prisons. Opioid Use Disorder – Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment Clinical Guidance Release planning includes initiating or continuing medications and providing naloxone to inmates with opioid use disorder at discharge.