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October 23, 2025

Bureau Of Prisons Limits First Step Act Credits For Non-Citizens

When Congress passed the First Step Act in 2018, it marked a bipartisan effort to reform the federal criminal justice system by promoting rehabilitation and reducing recidivism. A key feature of the law was the creation of a new system of “earned time credits.” Under this system, eligible federal inmates can earn ten to fifteen days of credit for every thirty days of successful participation in approved educational or vocational programs. Once an inmate accrues enough credits, those credits must be applied toward either prerelease custody, such as a halfway house or home confinement, or early transfer to supervised release.

October 21, 2025

Bureau Of Prisons Makes Changes To First Step Act Calc

When Congress passed the First Step Act in December 2018, it marked a rare moment of bipartisan agreement. Lawmakers from both parties recognized that the federal prison system was overcrowded, expensive, and failing to help people succeed once they returned home. The Act offered a simple but powerful idea: if incarcerated individuals take meaningful steps to change, their time should reflect that effort.

September 10, 2025

Troubling Findings At FDC SeaTac: A 2025 OIG Inspection Report

The Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, Washington, stands just a few minutes from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a blocky concrete tower encircled by chain-link fencing and razor wire. Opened in 1988, it is unusual in that it houses both men and women, many of them pretrial detainees or prisoners in transit, giving it a restless, transient character. Officially, the prison can hold just over a thousand inmates, though its population often hovers well below that.

September 5, 2025

Bureau Of Prisons Progress Report On First Step Act Implementation

The message from Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director William K. Marshall the III and Deputy Director Josh Smith is that the Agency is committed to fully implementing the First Step Act, signed into law by Donald Trump in his first term. Laws such as the First Step Act have the ability to reduce federal prison terms by up to a year and place inmates in a community setting, with strict rules, for a longer period of time. The plan was that this would save money, lead to better outcomes for inmates leaving to become productive members of society and provide opportunities to rejoin the workforce. To date, that initiative has fallen short because of troubles implementing the First Step Act and secondly because of the BOP’s interpretation of how it will go about maximizing time in the community.

Sex Offenders With Autism Face Obstacles In Federal Prison

Incarceration is challenging for most individuals, but it poses unique and often severe hardships for those with mental health conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). For inmates with sex offense convictions, the prison environment is particularly hostile, marked by frequent bullying, social isolation, and even physical violence. When an individual has both ASD and a sex offense conviction, the combination can be profoundly damaging—amounting to a near-constant psychological assault on someone who may struggle to fully comprehend their offense or the intense hostility they face behind bars.