Early release articles

These early release from federal prison articles cover the lawful ways time can come off a federal sentence, or the last part of it can be served outside a prison. There is no parole for a federal crime committed on or after November 1, 1987. The full map, with the statute for each path, is our guide to early release from federal prison. This page is the article list, newest first. Some posts describe a memo or a bill as it stood on the day they were written. Read the date and any update note before you treat a post as current law.

How to use the list

Start with the question you actually have, then open one article.

• The release-date math — when the sentence starts, jail credit, and good conduct time — is federal sentence computation.
• Earned time credits and the First Step Act's other sentence changes are in early release under the First Step Act.
• The last months in a halfway house or at home are federal halfway houses and federal home confinement.
• The 2019 memo on older prisoners is a closed program. The post on the elderly offender pilot says the statute authorized it only for fiscal years 2019 through 2023.
• Presidential commutation is clemency. The COVID-era post on health conditions and compassionate release is about that period, not a current list of qualifying illnesses.

The list does not repeat those articles. It is there so you can open the one that fits.

Good time, credits, and placement outside prison

Good conduct time is awarded by the Bureau of Prisons, not by the judge. A person serving more than one year, other than a life sentence, may receive up to 54 days for each year of the sentence the court imposed, for exemplary compliance with disciplinary rules. That rule is 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b). The "sentence imposed" wording came from the First Step Act. Credit that is not earned in a year is not granted later.

First Step Act time credits are separate. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4), a person earns 10 days of credit for every 30 days of successful participation in approved programs, and 5 more days if the person is rated minimum or low risk on two assessments in a row. Some convictions cannot earn credits at all. The list is § 3632(d)(4)(D). Credits apply toward prerelease custody or toward starting supervised release up to 12 months early, under § 3624(g). The ordinary time limits in § 3624(b) and (c) do not cap prerelease custody that comes from these credits.

The Bureau may also place someone in prerelease custody for up to the last 12 months of the term, under § 3624(c)(1). Home confinement under § 3624(c)(2) is limited to the shorter of 10 percent of the term or 6 months, and the Bureau is told to use the maximum time for people with lower risk and lower needs. That cap does not apply to home confinement earned with First Step Act credits. The residential drug treatment program, RDAP, is another Bureau decision: up to one year off for an eligible person convicted of a nonviolent offense who completes the program, under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e)(2)(B).

Reductions a judge can order

A court-ordered reduction is not the same as Bureau good time. 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c) says a court generally may not modify a term of imprisonment once it is imposed, and then lists the exceptions.

Compassionate release is § 3582(c)(1)(A). The sentencing judge may reduce the term for extraordinary and compelling reasons, after the person asks the warden and either finishes the Bureau's administrative process or waits 30 days from the warden's receipt of the request. USSG §1B1.13 is the policy statement for motions people file themselves. A change in law that Congress did not make retroactive is not, by itself, an extraordinary and compelling reason. That is the holding of Rutherford v. United States, 608 U.S. 454 (2026).

A retroactive guideline amendment is a different motion, § 3582(c)(2). It works only for amendments the Commission lists in USSG §1B1.10(d). The 2025 drug mitigating-role cap was not made retroactive. See the news post on that vote. A government motion for substantial assistance after sentencing is Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b), usually within one year. Clemency is a presidential power under Article II, not a motion in the sentencing court. Our page on reducing a final sentence keeps these routes separate.

What has to be true before any of these paths matter

The judgment and the presentence report still control the starting number. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32 requires the report to set out the guideline range. Since November 1, 2025, the judge calculates that range and then applies 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Departures are no longer a middle step. Amendment 836 removed them. A lower sentence at the hearing is a variance, or a government motion under §5K1.1, not a departure. See departures and variances and the sentencing hearing.

If the range is wrong and nobody objects, the error is harder to fix later. Written objections are due within 14 days after the report is received. An appeal of the sentence is due within 14 days after judgment under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b). A § 2255 motion has a one-year deadline and a short list of grounds. Early-release programs do not replace those deadlines.

Bring the judgment, the docket number, the Bureau's sentence computation, and, for a medical request, the medical records. Match them to one path on the early-release guide, then read the article on this list that goes deeper. These pages are general information about federal cases.