The amendments passed by the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive, reducing the difference in federal crack cocaine and powder cocaine punishments. According to the Marshall Project, this will affect almost 2,600 federal offenders. But what is the First Step Act and how could it affect your drug case? Keep reading to learn the facts and then contact Chambers Law Firm at 714-760-4088 to request a free legal consultation.
The First Step Act impacts mandatory minimum punishments
The bill takes a number of ways to alleviate the federal law’s mandatory minimum punishments. It broadens the “safety valve” available to judges to avoid imposing statutory minimum sentences. It relaxes the “three strikes” rule, making it so that persons who have three or more convictions, even for drug charges, are automatically sentenced to 25 years instead of life. It prohibits the practice of piling firearms charges against drug criminals in order to lengthen their jail terms by decades. In the future, all of these reforms will result in lower prison terms.
Inmates are now eligible for good time credits
Inmates who avoid a disciplinary record can now earn up to 47 days of credit every year of incarceration. The bill raises the maximum to 54 weeks, allowing well-behaved offenders to reduce their jail terms by one week for every year they have been detained. The move is retroactive, which means that certain convicts — maybe as many as 4,000, according to advocates — will be eligible for an early release in the near future.
Incarcerated individuals can be eligible for earned time credits
Inmates can earn “earned time credits” by engaging in more vocational and rehabilitative activities. They will be able to be released early to halfway houses or home confinement thanks to these credits. Not only may this help with prison congestion, but it’s also hoped that the education programs would minimize the probability of an offender committing another crime after being released, lowering both crime and incarceration in the long run.
Not all convicts are eligible
The reforms would not benefit every convict. The system will utilize an algorithm to determine who may cash in earned time credits at first, with convicts deemed greater risk being barred from doing so but not from earning them, which they could then cash in if their risk level is reduced.
However, algorithms have the potential to exacerbate racial and economic imbalances already present in the criminal justice system. For example, an algorithm that disqualifies someone from earning credits because of a prior criminal record may disregard the fact that black and poor individuals are more likely to be jailed for crimes, even if they are not more likely to commit those crimes. Consequently, despite the legislation’s constraints on the algorithm, it has become a contentious part of the law, even among criminal justice reformers.
Undocumented immigrants and persons convicted of high-level crimes, for example, are not eligible to receive credits under the statute. It also proposes additional measures aimed at improving prison conditions, such as prohibiting women from being shackled during delivery and mandating offenders to be put closer to their family.
If you believe this might apply to you or a loved one, contact Chambers Law Firm at 714-760-4088 for a free legal consultation.
