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The Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act (known as the First Step Act) was a bipartisan criminal justice bill passed by the 115th Congress and signed by President Trump in December 2018. The First Step Act, among other changes, reforms federal prisons and sentencing laws in order to reduce recidivism, decrease the federal inmate population, and maintain public safety.

Procedural History
An initial version of bill H.R. 5682 was sponsored and introduced by Rep. Douglas Collins [R-GA-9] on May 7, 2018. This version primarily focused on recidivism reduction through the development of a risk and needs assessment system for all federal prisoners. The bill directed the U.S. Attorney General to develop this system along with evidence-based recidivism reduction programs for federal prisoners. Under the bill, prison administrators would use the national risk and needs assessment system to classify a prisoner's risk of recidivism, to make decisions about which recidivism reduction programs might be appropriate for each individual, and to determine when a prisoner is prepared to transfer into prerelease custody. The draft legislation also included a number of other criminal justice reform provisions, including ones that permit Bureau of Prison (BOP) employees to store firearms in designated off-site firearms storage facility or vehicle lockbox and carry concealed weapons outside of the prison (Section 202); prohibit the use of restraints on prisoners during pregnancy, labor and postpartum recovery, except where a health care provider determines otherwise or where the prisoner is an unreasonable flight risk or public safety threat (Section 301); place prisoners as close as possible to (and no more than 500 miles away from) their primary residence where practicable (Section 401); expand compassionate release for terminally ill patients and reauthorize the Second Chance Act of 2007 (Section 403); mandate the Bureau of Prisons to provide identification to returning citizens (Section 404); authorize new markets for Federal Prison Industries (Section 406); mandate de-escalation training for correctional officers and employees (Section 407); direct reporting on opioid treatment and abuse in prisons (Section 408); improve availability of feminine hygiene products in prison (Section 412); among other things. After introduction, the bill was immediately referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary, and was subsequently voted out of committee—accompanied by a report—on a 25-5 vote on May 22, 2018. The House Committee's report highlighted Bureau of Prison data about recidivism, and warned of the fiscal and social costs of repeated arrest, conviction and incarceration. It also expressed concern with shrinking educational and vocational opportunities for inmates, given the proven potential of those activities to reduce crimogenic tendencies. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a 360–59) vote same day, and referred to the Senate.

However, the Senate did not ultimately vote on this bill, nor did it consider S. 2795—a piece of legislation identical to H.R. 5682 that was introduced in the Senate on May 7, 2018 by Senator John Cornyn [R-TX] and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In fact, the Senate did not vote on criminal justice reform until December 2018 due to disagreement about the scope of the First Step Act. Without the inclusion of meaningful sentence reform in the bill in addition to the correctional reforms, many Senate Democrats were unwilling to support it. After months of intense brokering in the Senate, Senator Chuck Grassley [R-IA] introduced a version of bill (S. 3649) on November 15, 2018 that incorporated the correctional reforms from S. 2795/H.R. 5682, added additional measures, and—importantly—included sentencing reform provisions. It garnered more than 40 cosponsors. On December 12, Senator Grassley, along with cosponsor Senator Richard Durbin [D-IA], introduced a nearly identical version of S. 3649 as S. 3747, which added an an additional title reauthorizing and amending the Second Chance Act of 2007. A In a usual procedural move, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell substituted the content S. 3747 into a substantively unrelated bill—S. 756, the "Save Our Seas Act"—in order to solicit final amendments and bring the matter to a vote. (Due to this procedural move—known as "amendment in the nature of a substitute"—congressional records in various places reflect two wholly unrelated versions of S. 756 from the 115th Congress). On December 18, 2018, the revised First Step Act passed the U.S. Senate as S. 756 on a bipartisan 87–12 vote. The House approved the bill with the Senate revisions on December 20, 2018 (358–36). The act was signed by President Donald Trump on December 21, 2018, and became Public Law 115-391. The law was codified at various parts of Titles 18, 21, and 34 of the United States Code based on the subject of legislation.

Main Legislative Provisions
The First Step Act is divided into six titles.

Title I directs the U.S. Attorney General to develop and publicly announce a risk and needs assessment system for all Bureau of Federal Prison inmates within 210 days of enactment, and to recommend evidence-based recidivism reduction activities. This risk and needs assessment system, once developed, is to be used under the First Step Act to classify prisoner risk of recidivism, match prisoners with suitable recidivism reduction activities based on their classification, inform housing decisions so that prisoners in similar risk categories are grouped together, and create incentives for participation in and completion of recidivism reduction activities. These incentives include increased access to phone privileges, transfer to penal institutions closer to a prisoner's primary residence, and time credits to reduce sentence length. However, time credit rewards are are not available to all prisoners; 18 U.S.C. 3632(d)(4)(D)—where Title I of the First Step Act was codified—details nearly 70 types of convictions that render an inmate ineligible to accrue time credits for successfully completing recidivism-reduction activities. Additionally, prisoners subject to "a final order of removal"—which renders an individual deportable—are also ineligible from receiving good time credit incentives. Those who participate in risk and needs assessment activities may be eligible for prerelease custody or supervised release as described in 18 USC 3624(g). This title also increases the number of good-time credits per year—small sentenced reductions earned by prisoners for good behavior—from 47 to 54, which many believe was consistent with the original intent behind 18 U.S.C. Section 3624(b)(1). Importantly, it makes those credits available retroactively, making some prisoners immediately eligible for release based on accrual of seven additional good-time credits per year.

Title I of the First Step Act, as codified at 18 USC 3621(h), also directs the Director of Bureau of Prisons to perform an initial risk and needs assessment of all federal prisoners within 180 days of the Attorney General's release of the risk and needs assessment system, and to begin expanding recidivism-reduction activities.

Title II, as codified at 18 USC 4050, stipulates that the Director of the Bureau of Prisons must ensure that federal prison directors provide employees a secure place to store firearms outside of the prison, or allow prisoners to store firearms in an authorized and approved vehicle lockbox. It also allows federal BOP employees to carry concealed firearms outside of the prison.

Title III, codified at 18 USC 4322, prohibits the use of restraints on prisoners during pregnancy, labor and postpartum recovery—subject to limited exceptions. If a correctional officer determines that the prisoner is a flight risk or poses serious harm to herself or the community, or if a healthcare professional concludes that use of restraints is consistent with medical safety, restraints must be used. However, they must be the lease restrictive means possible to preventing escape.

Title IV makes a variety of sentencing reforms. Section 401 amends the Controlled Substance Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.) to constrain the application of sentencing enhancements for defendants with prior drug felony convictions by redefining “serious drug felony” and “serious violent felony,” to reduce the mandatory minimum sentence for a second violation from 20 years to 15 years, and to reduce the mandatory minimum sentence for a third violation from life to 25 years. It makes similar revisions to the Controlled Substance Import and Export Act at 21 U.S.C. 960(b).

Section 402 expands the number of defendants who may be eligible for "safety valve" relief—which refers to the ability of judges to discretionarily impose sentences below the mandatory minimums. Prior to the First Step Act, only defendants with one "criminal history point" could receive sentences below the mandatory minimums, but now defendants with up to four points (depending on the type of offense) may be eligible.

Section 403 eliminates the "stacking" provision of 18 USC 924(c). Prior to this legislation, 18 USC 924(c)—which stipulated that an enhanced mandatory minimum sentence could be added when a gun was used in the commission of a “second or subsequent” conviction—was interpreted to permit the imposition of enhanced mandatory minimum sentences where a gun was used in a concurrently charged offense. The First Step Act clarified that gun enhancements can only be added where the defendant was previously (e.g. non-concurrently) convicted of a gun violation, so as to restrict sentencing enhancements to "true" repeat offenders.

Section 404 applies the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010—which, among other things reduced the discrepancy between sentences for crack cocaine and power cocaine convictions—retroactively. Under the First Step Act, prisoners who committed offenses "covered" by the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 are permitted to petition a court directly to reconsider their sentence (after certain administrative steps are satisfied). This retroactive change makes prisoners immediately eligible to petition for back-end sentencing review by judges. Prior to this law, the Bureau of Prisons acted as the "gatekeeper" of prisoner petitions.

Title V reauthorizes the Second Chance Act of 2007 for an additional four years. This reauthorization directs the Attorney General to make grants to state and local projects which support the successful reentry of juvenile and adult prisoner populations into their communities after incarceration—including those projects which improve academic and vocational education for offenders during incarceration.

Title VI includes more than ten miscellaneous provisions, including those that place prisoners as close as possible to (and no more than 500 miles away from) their primary residence where practicable (Section 601); encourage home confinement for low risk prisoners (Section 602); broaden the prisoner population eligible for compassionate release to include terminally ill offenders (Section 603); mandate the Bureau of Prisons to provide identification to returning citizens (Section 604); authorize new markets for Federal Prison Industries (Section 605); mandate de-escalation training for correctional officers and employees (Section 606); direct reporting on opioid treatment and abuse in prisons (Section 607); direct data collection on various metrics for inclusion in the National Prisoner Statistics Program (Section 610); improve availability of feminine hygiene products in prison (Section 611); prohibits the use of solitary confinement for federally-incarcerated juveniles, excepting certain circumstances (Section 613).

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