Technical issues and miscommunication continue to hinder progress in releasing prisoners under the First Step Act.
Washington D.C. (DAS) – The Federal Bureau of Prisons continues to struggle implementing key provisions of the First Step Act (FSA), a comprehensive criminal reform act for federal inmates passed in 2018.
On serious reform to America’s justice system is the FSA’s new “time-credit” program which allows for minimum and low security prisoners to earn credits toward earlier release. But the BOP has faced miscommunication and technical issues for calculating these credits, and have spent years failing to train staff and build internal process to implement the program.
This has led to prisoners serving longer terms in prison than the law permits. In one case in the District of Maryland, a prisoner filed a writ of habeas corpus against the BOP, requesting that his FSA credits be calculated and applied so that he can be released to a halfway house. The government responded, stating that the BOP had recommended a halfway house date for the prisoner. But, the law doesn’t allow the BOP to pick and chose if it implements the time-credits. Inmates across the country have been suing, and frustrations inside Congress and among all justice stakeholders is increasing.
Recently, the BOP encountered further issues with its automated FSA calculation system, and it is now expected to be fully operational at the end of December 2022, more than four years after the law was initially passed. Some prisoners have been released due to interim and manual calculations, but it is unclear how many prisoners may still be waiting for their FSA credits to be properly applied.
Learn more from Forbes reporting by Walter Pavlo >>>