Articles · Page 2 of 2
Federal Legislation Archive, Page 2
Articles filed under Legislation, newest first.
This is page 2 of the federal sentencing legislation articles. The archive is newest first, so this page holds the older notes, written in 2017 and 2018 while bills were still pending. They describe proposals. They are not the statute that was signed.
Several of these notes are about bills that led to the First Step Act, such as the House bill as it stood in May 2018 and the 2017 Prison Reform and Redemption Act, whose ideas were taken into Title I of the Act. Others list criminal-justice bills that were pending in Congress at the time. Where a bill did not pass on its own, the post has an update line saying so. Read that line before you quote the body.
The law that was enacted is the First Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. 115-391, signed December 21, 2018. The section-by-section account is the First Step Act summary. The day the Senate passed it, 87-12, is a separate note: the Senate vote. Good conduct time, time credits, the safety valve, and the § 924(c) stacking change all live in that statute, not in the 2017 bill text.
A bill is not a guideline amendment. Judges still calculate a range under the Sentencing Guidelines and then apply 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Since November 1, 2025, departures are no longer a middle step. See departures and variances. Newer legislation notes, including the Act's first year and the good-time delay, are on page 1.
These pages are general information about federal cases.
- The First Step Act as First Proposed: What the May 2018 House Bill Said
Most of the May 2018 House bill became law, but the final First Step Act changed time credits, placement rules, and who is shut out of credits.
- The Prison Reform and Redemption Act: The Bill Behind the First Step Act
The Prison Reform and Redemption Act never passed on its own, but its time credit system became the core of the First Step Act in 2018.
- Four Federal Criminal Justice Reform Bills in Congress (March 2017)
None of these four 2017 reform bills became law as written, though Congress later acted on prison phone rates and passed the First Step Act.