WHY THE SENATE SHOULD REJECT THE FIRST STEP ACT, H.R. 5682

The bill will make communities less safe, releasing federal prisoners from prison far earlier than federal law (or Congress or judges) intended, as well as requiring the immediate release of 4,000 prisoners, regardless of their prison security classification.

Problems with H.R. 5682 – FIRST STEP Act

Specific concerns

1. Legislation relies on failed state programs: The legislation is based upon state prison programs with track records less successful than current recidivism programs available to federal prisoners. None of the state programs heralded by legislation proponents have reduced recidivism more than current federal prison programs, which have achieved a recidivism rate of 38%, based upon the rate of re-arrest within five years of release.

2. Significant reduction in sentences for dangerous offenders: The new system of time-off-sentence credits created by the legislation will significantly reduce sentences beyond those established by Congress and imposed by the courts.  Many criminals, including dangerous drug traffickers, will be able to cut off one-fourth to one-half (or more) of their sentences and receive release after facing only minimal consequences for their actions.

The legislation substantially reduces the sentences of federal felons in a backdoor fashion.  It reduces the sentences of convicted drug traffickers, including those selling and distributing heroin and fentanyl, as well as other violent criminals.  A federal inmate with a 10-year sentence (for example, a repeat drug trafficker convicted of distributing 15,000 doses of fentanyl) could return to the streets in only five years under the bill.  Similarly, an inmate who receives a five-year sentence could cut the time imposed even more, down to just 26 months in BOP custody.

These reductions in incarceration time not only dismantle any truth in our nation’s sentencing laws.  They cripple law enforcement’s ability to secure cooperation from criminals prior to sentencing.  Criminals facing sentencing will know that the sentence they end up serving will be substantially less than the sentence they were intended to receive under the law and as imposed by a federal judge.

3. Immediate release of 4,000 offenders of all risk levels: The legislation will trigger an immediate jailbreak: the release of an estimated 4,000 federal offenders, most of whom have been convicted of serious federal felonies, including the trafficking of deadly narcotics, like heroin and fentanyl, and regardless of Bureau of Prison security classification. This would represent a release of historic proportion and could have serious consequences upon public safety.

4. Micromanaging prisoner placement at risk of public safety: In addition, the legislation will require BOP to relocate a major portion of the federal prison population, with minimal exception, within 500 driving miles of a prisoner’s primary residence. Restricting BOP’s ability to place inmates will make prisons more dangerous and less conducive to rehabilitation. It also will be counter-productive to the housing and special needs of female prisoners, who constitute only 7% of the federal prison population. BOP already places inmates close to home when possible, while also observing a number of factors, including need to split up co-defendants and gang members, protect inmates from criminals they testified against, and in some cases, keep criminals away from their victims.

5. Significant costs without additional funds: The legislation will add significant costs to Bureau of Prison (and taxpayer) spending, not reduce it. Transitional housing of inmates in halfway houses is expensive and more costly greater than current BOP housing, and substantially more than the $50 million authorized by the legislation.  The bill will blow up the BOP budget.  A Congressional Budget Office score of the legislation’s costs has not been released.

Current Bureau of Prisons education and reentry programs that train and prepare federal inmates for meaningful and productive lives upon their release should be improved and expanded.

Responsible public policy-making in changes to federal prisons should rely upon pilot studies measuring costs and recidivism effectiveness prior to nationwide implementation.

NNOAC First Step Act Senate Letter – May 2018