What the First Step Act Did in Its First Year

In its first year, the First Step Act made a measurable difference. Judges reduced 2,387 crack cocaine sentences, more drug defendants got below the mandatory minimum through the safety valve, and § 924(c) "stacking" nearly disappeared. Those numbers come from an August 2020 U.S. Sentencing Commission report on the First Step Act's first year, which compares the first year after the law took effect ("Year One") with fiscal year 2018, the last full year before it. Here are the key findings in plain English.

Update (October 2026): These numbers cover only the first year. Since then, the Supreme Court has decided several First Step Act cases. Pulsifer v. United States (2024) narrowed who qualifies for the safety valve (opinion). Hewitt v. United States (2025) held that the § 924(c) fix applies when an old sentence is thrown out and the person is resentenced after December 21, 2018 (opinion). Terry (2021) and Concepcion (2022) shaped crack cocaine resentencing. See our First Step Act summary for the law today.

Lower penalties for repeat drug offenses

Prosecutors can file a notice under 21 U.S.C. § 851 to seek a higher mandatory minimum (the lowest sentence a judge may give) based on a person's prior convictions. The First Step Act narrowed which priors count and lowered the penalties. In Year One, the higher penalties applied to fewer people, and when they did apply, they were less severe than in 2018.

• Fewer people got the higher penalty: 849 in Year One, down 15.2% from 1,001 in fiscal year 2018.
• The new 15-year minimum (cut from 20 years) applied to 219 people. The old 20-year minimum had applied to 321 people in 2018.
• The new 25-year minimum (cut from mandatory life) applied to 21 people. Mandatory life, which still applies when death or serious injury results, applied to 11 people, down from 42 in 2018.

The Act also let a "serious violent felony" count as a prior for the first time. That rarely mattered:

• Of the 849 people with a § 851 enhancement, only 36 had a prior serious violent felony relied on by the government.
• Of those 36, 25 also had a serious drug felony. Only 11 got the higher penalty based on violent priors alone.
• The most common violent priors were weapons offenses, robbery, and aggravated assault.

A wider safety valve

The safety valve in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) lets a judge sentence below a drug mandatory minimum for people who meet its criminal history and other requirements. The First Step Act opened it to more people with prior records.

• In Year One, 41.8% (5,493 of 13,138) of drug trafficking defendants facing a mandatory minimum got safety-valve relief. In 2018, it was 35.7% (3,820 of 10,716).
• Counting guideline reductions and other benefits, 36.1% (7,127 of 19,739) of all drug trafficking defendants benefited, up from 32.1% (5,885 of 18,349).
• Most people who got relief (80.8%; 5,758) would have qualified under the old rules. About 19.2% (1,369) were newly eligible.
• Most of the newly eligible (87.9%; 1,204) qualified because of the new criminal history rules.
• Newly eligible people got sentences about 17 months longer on average: 53 months, compared with 36 months for those already eligible.
• Newly eligible people were more likely to be White (30.9% vs. 16.2%) or Black (16.0% vs. 9.8%), and less likely to be Hispanic (49.9% vs. 70.5%).

Less § 924(c) "stacking"

Under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), using or carrying a gun during a drug or violent crime adds prison time. A "second or subsequent" conviction meant 25 more years, even if all the counts were in one case. That was called "stacking." The Act limited the 25-year penalty to people whose earlier § 924(c) conviction was already final.

• In 2018, 92.1% (117) of cases with more than one § 924(c) count had a 25-year penalty stacked on another gun minimum. Two cases (1.6%) had more than one 25-year penalty.
• In Year One, only 5 of 215 cases with more than one § 924(c) count got a 25-year penalty.
• Instead, the top gun penalty was usually 7 years (50.7%; 109 cases), 10 years (30.7%; 66 cases), or 5 years (14.0%; 30 cases).

Retroactive crack cocaine relief

Section 404 of the Act made the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which cut crack cocaine penalties, apply to crack offenses committed before August 3, 2010, the date the 2010 law took effect (First Step Act § 404(a)).

• 2,387 people got a sentence reduction.
• On average, sentences dropped 71 months, from 258 months to 187 months.
• Most (66.2%) were in Criminal History Category VI, the highest category. More than half (57.4%) had been sentenced as career offenders.

Read the full report from the Sentencing Commission.

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