Changes to the First Step Act could lead to savings at the Federal Bureau of Prisons and, in turn, tax payers.
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The First Step Act, signed into law in December 2018, represented one of the most significant changes to federal sentencing and prison policy in decades. The bipartisan legislation was designed, in part, around a straightforward idea that people in federal prison who participate in programs intended to reduce recidivism should have an opportunity to earn their way toward earlier placement in the community. It was also meant to reduce costs of incarceration.
Nearly eight years later, implementation of that idea remains a work in progress but the progress under Director William Marshall III has been significant.
On September 30, 2026, an important new Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) rule will take effect that changes when eligible federal prisoners can begin earning First Step Act Time Credits. The change may sound technical, but for thousands of prisoners and their families it could translate into additional weeks of credit and an earlier return to the community.
The First Step Act created a system under which eligible prisoners can earn time credits by successfully participating in evidence-based recidivism reduction programs and productive activities. Those credits can ultimately be applied toward prerelease custody, including a Residential Reentry Center, commonly called a halfway house, or home confinement. For qualifying prisoners, up to 365 days of credits can also be applied toward an earlier transfer to supervised release, essentially shortening the sentence.
The Importance Of 15 Days For Every 30 Days
Under the First Step Act, an eligible prisoner generally earns 10 days of Time Credits for every 30 days of successful participation in qualifying programming or productive activities.
A prisoner determined by the BOP to be minimum or low risk who has maintained or decreased that risk over two consecutive assessments can earn an additional five days, bringing the total to 15 days for every 30 days of qualifying participation. That 15-day rate is not new, but it is critical to understanding why the new rule matters.
There are important limitations. Not every federal prisoner is eligible. Congress excluded numerous offenses from earning First Step Act Time Credits. Earning credits also requires successful participation in qualifying evidence-based recidivism reduction programming or productive activities. And earning credits is different from applying them toward release or prerelease custody.
Credits Before Arrival At The Designated Prison
Under the existing BOP regulation, a prisoner generally could not begin earning First Step Act Time Credits until arriving or voluntarily surrendering at the designated BOP institution where the sentence would be served. That presented an obvious problem for defendants who were remanded at sentencing.
A defendant who is taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service does not necessarily go directly to a BOP prison. The person may spend weeks or months in a local jail, detention center or other facility while the BOP completes designation and the Marshals Service arranges transportation.
The BOP studied prisoners whose sentences began from 2023 through 2025 and found that the average period from sentencing to arrival at the designated institution was over 60 days. During that period, prisoners could be housed in local, county and regional jails or federal detention centers while awaiting transportation.
Beginning September 30, the regulation will simply state that an eligible prisoner begins earning First Step Act Time Credits “after the inmate’s term of imprisonment commences,” which is at the time of sentencing.
The BOP explained that a federal sentence generally commences when the defendant is received into custody for service of that federal sentence pending transportation to the designated institution, or when a defendant who was permitted to remain free voluntarily surrenders to the institution.
The change followed a series of court decisions finding that the BOP’s previous regulation conflicted with the First Step Act. The BOP specifically cited decisions including Miles v. Bowers and Sharma v. Peters in explaining why it was removing the restriction.
The rule does not simply award credits because someone is sitting in a jail waiting for transportation. The prisoner must still satisfy the requirements for earning credits, including successfully completing qualifying programming or productive activities assigned under the First Step Act. The BOP specifically noted that the change can allow prisoners awaiting transportation to participate in FSA approved programming and earn credits for successful completion.
What makes the change remarkable is the BOP’s own calculation of its effect. Based on the current risk levels of the federal prison population, the agency estimates that the average 66 days between sentencing and designation could generate an average of nearly 24 additional days of First Step Act Time Credits. Not only does this reduce the prison time allowing inmates to be released sooner to the community, but it cuts costs of incarceration by reducing the population.
We should all note that most all of these inmates who qualify for this program represent little risk to the community as they are primarily low and minimum security as well as individuals who have low chances of violence/recidivism.
Another Change For Treaty Transfer Prisoners
The September 30 rule includes another change that will affect a much smaller group of prisoners but is nevertheless significant.
The United States has treaties with several countries that allow certain U.S. citizens or nationals convicted and sentenced abroad to transfer back to the United States to serve their sentences in BOP custody. Until now, the language of the BOP’s First Step Act regulation created a potential obstacle because it generally prohibited application of FSA Time Credits to someone serving a term of imprisonment resulting from a conviction under laws other than the U.S. Code.
The new rule clarifies that this restriction does not prevent application of First Step Act Time Credits when a prisoner is serving a sentence imposed in a foreign country and the U.S. Parole Commission has determined an equivalent U.S. Code sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 4106A.
In practical terms, an eligible American transferred home to serve a foreign sentence will not necessarily be excluded from the First Step Act simply because the original conviction occurred outside the United States.
It is a relatively narrow change, but an important one. The First Step Act is supposed to reward eligible prisoners for participating in programs designed to prepare them for successful reentry. An American transferred back from a foreign prison who otherwise qualifies should have access to those same incentives.
What A Month Means To A Family
Criminal justice policy is often discussed in years, percentages, prison populations and billions of dollars. Families experience incarceration differently. They experience it in days.
A month can mean being home for a child’s birthday. It can mean helping an aging parent. It can mean returning to a spouse sooner, starting a job earlier or being present for the beginning of a school year.
Anyone who has worked with incarcerated people knows how closely families follow release dates. They count backward from projected dates. They monitor First Step Act credits. They ask about halfway house placement and home confinement. A movement of even a few weeks on a release calculation can become enormously important.
I reached out to Tzedek, an advocacy group that was instrumental in the implementation of the First Step Act and also was a major force behind this new rule. Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, President of Tzedek Association said “We are deeply grateful to Director Marshall for his leadership in making this sensible change, and to Rick Stover for the care and expert attention he devoted to this issue. Tzedek has worked on this for more than three years because we believed eligible individuals were not receiving the full credit Congress intended, and we are deeply grateful to the BOP to see those efforts come to fruition. Thirty days may not sound significant, but to a person in prison and their family, it can mean everything. A father due home January 20 could instead return around December 20 — in time for the holidays, or to be present for a loved one’s surgery. This is more than a technical change; it will have a real and deeply human impact.”
Government Savings
There is another beneficiary: the taxpayer.
The BOP did something unusual and useful in announcing this change. It calculated the expected financial impact.
The agency estimates that expanding the period during which prisoners can earn Time Credits will save approximately $54.1 million annually.
That is significant because the First Step Act was never intended to be simply about releasing people from prison. It was designed to use incentives to reduce recidivism, improve reentry and make better use of correctional resources. To date, the BOP has not realized the full savings under the First Step Act and lawmakers have been frustrated by the lack of progress on legislation that was meant to reduce the costs of incarceration.
A Small Regulatory Change With A Large Human Impact
The First Step Act has had a complicated implementation history. Prisoners, families, attorneys and even BOP employees have struggled at times with changing calculations, eligibility questions and the interaction between First Step Act credits, Good Conduct Time, the Second Chance Act, halfway houses, home confinement and supervised release.
The September 30 change does not solve all those problems. However, it does address denying an eligible prisoner the opportunity to earn credits simply because the government had not yet transported that person to a designated BOP institution.
The BOP now recognizes that the federal sentence can already be running during that period. The opportunity to earn First Step Act credits should run with it.
A family waiting for someone to come home sees nearly a month.
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