New BOP Director Issues New Guidance on First Step Act

The Federal Docket

November 22, 2022

Last week, the BOP’s new director, Colette Peters, issued new guidance regarding the BOP’s implementation of the First Step Act. In particular, Director Peters’ guidance should affect how the BOP calculates and administers earned time credits, which inmates can accumulate and use to reduce their sentences by enrolling in rehabilitative programing offered by the BOP.

Most recently, the BOP’s auto-calculator, which was used to calculate an inmate’s accumulation of earned time credits, has come under fire, as had a BOP-created rule that cut off earned time credits when an inmate was 18 months or less from release.

Under Director Peters’ new guidance, inmates will be able to see how many earned time credits in total they will be able to earn while serving their sentence. As a result, they will have an estimated release date based on their potential earned time credits. Inmates will also be able to continue accumulating credits while in protective custody, administrative detention, or quarantine. Additionally, the 18-month cut-off for earning credits has been eliminated.

Click here to read Walter Pavlo’s article in Forbes.

Tom Church - Tom is a trial and appellate lawyer focusing on criminal defense and civil trials. Tom is the author of "The Federal Docket" and is a contributor to Mercer Law Review's Annual Survey in the areas of federal sentencing guidelines and criminal law. Tom graduated with honors from the University of Georgia Law School where he served as a research assistant to the faculty in the areas of constitutional law and civil rights litigation. Read Tom's reviews on AVVO. Follow Tom on Linkedin.

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