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November 12, 2024

Courts Continue To Hand Bureau Of Prisons Losses On First Step Act

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is still having issues interpreting the First Step Act (FSA), which was enacted in December 2018 under Donald Trump. As Trump returns to the White House next January, he’ll see a BOP that is still struggling in implementing FSA, which was meant to save money on incarceration. However, the BOP has continued to interpret the FSA in a way that favors longer incarceration in institutions rather than sending men and women into lesser restrictive community options, such as halfway houses and home confinement. A judge in the Middle District of Alabama made a ruling that could affect the sentences of thousands of federal prisoners, if the BOP would make a broader change to its policies rather than addressing issues one at a time in court.

November 7, 2024

The Bureau Of Prisons Under A Trump Administration

President Donald Trump handily won the election and will be sworn in as the 47th president in January 2025. As a result, we all know change is coming throughout the government but the differences in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will likely be dramatic.

October 8, 2024

Bureau Of Prisons To Restrict Mass Emails To Prisoners

In March 2020, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General issued a report on the concerns of mass emails through its Trulinks (also called Corrlinks) email system to the general population. The Trulinks email system is used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) inmates to communicate with families and friends. The emails do not allow for photos or attachments, but are simply text messages that provide information and updates. Over the years, the system has been used to communicate information to a broader group of prisoners related to BOP policy, legal actions and general information on incarceration.

October 7, 2024

Bureau Of Prisons Announces Updates To First Step Act Calculations

The BOP announced yesterday that it was going to provide updates to prisoner sentence computations to provide more clarity of release dates. When a sentence is imposed, prisoners are given 54 days of Good Conduct Time for every year of the sentence. For example, someone with a 2 year sentence would earn 108 days off of their sentence and someone with 3 years would earn 162 days off the sentence. However, the First Step Act credits, up to 15 days for every 30 days of programming, are earned monthly for participation in programming and productive activities. This has caused issues for the BOP as they cannot award First Step Act credits until they are earned. The resulting problem was that both prisoners and their case managers could see a date in the future when the prisoner would likely be released but there was no mechanism to plan for such a release.

September 14, 2024

Bureau Of Prisons’ Issues With First Step Act Lead To Food Strike

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is in the process of updating the way it calculates First Step Act (FSA) credits. In July 2024, BOP Director Colette Peters told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance hearing on Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons that the BOP was using a forward-looking calculator for FSA. However, that calculator had not been fully implemented. Now that it has, prisoners are more confused and have started refusing to go to chow hall for meals until their concerns are addressed.