The First Step Act in July 2019: 3,100 Releases, Crack Sentence Cuts and the PATTERN Tool

On July 19, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice announced three major steps in putting the First Step Act of 2018 into effect: more than 3,100 releases, new funding for prison programs, and PATTERN, the tool that measures each person's risk and needs.

Update (October 2026): This post covers a July 2019 announcement. Since then, the Justice Department has revised PATTERN, and the BOP has put First Step Act earned time credits into effect. Ask your case manager for your current PATTERN score and credit total.

The First Step Act, the first meaningful criminal justice reform in many years, was already making a positive difference in the lives of federal prisoners, their families and their communities. At the time, we saw these steps as a promising sign for criminal justice reform and an end to the mass incarceration policies of the past.

1. Releases, sentence cuts and new programs

More than 3,100 people were set to be released from federal prison. That came from the First Step Act's fix to "good conduct time," the credit you earn for following prison rules. The law now gives up to 54 days for each year of the sentence the judge imposed (18 U.S.C. § 3624(b)).

There had also been 1,691 sentence reductions because the First Step Act made the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive. That law reduced the gap in punishment between crack and powder cocaine.

The BOP and U.S. Probation Offices across the country had also been busy putting other parts of the law into effect. The Justice Department reported:

• Compassionate release. Since the First Step Act became law in December 2018, the BOP had approved 51 compassionate release requests, compared to 34 in all of 2018. Compassionate release is a court order that shortens a sentence for extraordinary and compelling reasons.
• Home confinement. The First Step Act lets the BOP make the most of home confinement for low-risk people. About 2,000 people were on home confinement. About 200 of them were placed there because of age or terminal illness.
• Drug treatment. About 16,000 people were in drug treatment programs, including the highly regarded Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP). Acting on a First Step Act mandate to fight the opioid crisis, the BOP had also started screening some people for medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction.
• "Ready to Work." The First Step Act is built on the idea that a good job is the best way to reduce repeat crime and help people rejoin their communities. This program connects employers with people about to leave prison.

That list only scratches the surface. Other new programs included dog training, youth mentoring, a dyslexia screening tool, and better care and supplies for pregnant women and women in general.

2. Funding

First Step Act Update

The Justice Department committed to making the full $75 million called for in the First Step Act available in fiscal year 2019. That money is vital to programs like medication-assisted treatment and "Ready to Work." The Department also said it would work with Congress for more money in fiscal year 2020.

The list of activities needing funding, from job training and more volunteer support to English as a Second Language textbooks and computer-based courses, was a big improvement over the days before the First Step Act.

3. PATTERN: the new risk and needs tool

One goal of the First Step Act was to understand each federal prisoner as an individual, not just a number. So the law requires the BOP to assess each person's risk of committing new crimes and their needs, such as education, job training, or addiction treatment. The results help decide who can earn time credits, who gets early transfer to a halfway house or home confinement, and which programs each person needs.

The Justice Department's risk and needs assessment tool is called the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs, or PATTERN. According to the Department, it "will be used to assess all federal inmates for risk and identify criminogenic needs that can be addressed by evidence-based programs, such as drug treatment, job training, and education." "Criminogenic needs" are problems linked to crime, like addiction or lack of job skills. In our view at the time, PATTERN was one of the strongest steps the Department had taken to carry out the law.

PATTERN predicts the chance that a person will commit a new crime, including a violent one. It looks at:

• Static factors that cannot change, like age and the offense, and
• Dynamic factors that can change, like whether you take part in education and drug treatment.

PATTERN was built specifically for the federal prison population. Its creators said it "achieves a higher level of predictability and surpasses what is commonly found for risk and needs assessment tools for correctional populations in the U.S."

What it meant

These steps showed the Justice Department's and BOP's commitment to putting the First Step Act into effect and to helping people return home and lead productive lives. How well they work depends on how the BOP carries them out. Because PATTERN scores affect who can use time credits, it is worth asking the case manager for the current score at each program review and keeping a record of completed programs.

Facing a federal sentence? Book a consultation to talk it through with Brandon Sample.