Mandatory minimum sentencing is a criminal justice approach in which offenders are given predetermined sentences. Simply put, a mandatory minimum sentence is created by Congress (for federal offenses) or by a state legislature, which the court must pass down to a person convicted of a crime. The sentence is required, no matter the offender’s unique circumstances or offense.¹

In most cases, mandatory minimum sentences apply to gun and drug crimes. They are based on only the type and weight of the drug involved or the possession or presence of a gun, not the circumstances of the individual offense.

While created in the 1980s with the intent of streamlining the criminal justice system, mandatory minimum sentencing has come under significant criticism, as such sentencing laws do not allow judges to consider the unique aspects of the case before them when delivering a sentence. Also, critics have said mandatory minimum sentencing has been responsible for the exponential increase in the prison population since the 1980s and is also partially responsible for racial disparities in criminal sentencing.

In 2018, the First Step Act legislation was created to begin dismantling some aspects of harsh, overly burdensome mandatory minimum sentencing. Still in effect today, the Act has created positive changes in how criminal justice is carried out.

What Is the First Step Act?

The First Step Act is bipartisan legislation that, when it was first drafted, sought to reform the federal criminal justice system. Since its passage and implementation, the legislation has been successful in doing that.

The primary tenants of the legislation include the following:²

• Reducing recidivism. The Act creates detailed programs that assess prisoners’ risk for recidivism and then organizes prisoners into programs and productive activities to address their needs and reduce recidivism risks. The program guides the type, amount, and intensity of recidivism reduction programming assigned to each prisoner. Finally, the program also creates new pathways and tools for assisting inmates in applying for and receiving a social security card, driver’s license or other official photo identification, and birth certificate, all of which are documentation that is extremely important in preventing recidivism and giving inmates the tools they need to tackle life as responsible adults once their prison terms end.

• Incentivizing Success. The First Step Act changes how inmates can earn days off their sentence when they exhibit good behavior. Federal inmates can earn up to 54 days of good time credit for every year of their imposed sentence. Good time credit reduces a prisoner’s actual time in custody, a reward for good behavior.

• Improving Confinement. The First Step Act includes a provision requiring inmates to be confined in prisons as close to their homes as possible, thus improving inmates’ access to their family members and loved ones. The Act also reauthorized and modified a pilot program that allows the Bureau of Prisons to place elderly and terminally ill prisoners in home confinement for the remainder of their sentences.

• Reforming Correctional Proceedings. The Act also includes several provisions that make life better for inmates and are considered more humane, like preventing federal prisons from using restraints on pregnant inmates. The Act also mandates that federal prisons provide tampons and sanitary napkins that meet industry standards to prisoners for free and in a quantity that meets the healthcare needs of each prisoner. Finally, the Act also prohibits the use of solitary confinement for juvenile delinquents.

• Changing Criminal Sentencing. Perhaps most importantly, the First Step Act reduces mandatory minimum sentences for people with previous offenses. For example, the Act reduces the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence (for offenders with one prior qualifying conviction) to a 15-year mandatory minimum. The Act also reduces a life-in-prison mandatory minimum (for offenders with two or more prior qualifying convictions) to a 25-year minimum. The Act brings the Fair Sentencing Act up to date, which means currently incarcerated offenders in federal prisons who received longer sentences for the possession of crack cocaine than they would have received if sentenced for possession of the same amount of powder cocaine can now submit a petition in federal court to have their sentences reduced, thus eliminating the unfair disparity between how powder cocaine and crack cocaine offenses are punished.

The Importance of Fairness in Sentencing, Incarceration, and Rehabilitation

The First Step Act has many provisions and programs, but the primary directive of the Act is three-fold:³

1. Cut unnecessarily long prison sentences that resulted from mandatory minimum sentencing.
2. Improve conditions in federal prisons.
3. Provide inmates with rehabilitative tools that work.

The sentencing reform provisions of the First Step Act are valuable because they help people already incarcerated reduce their burdensome sentences and while allowing judges to impose sentences lower than the statutory minimum in some cases.

Family visit. Image Courtesy of doc.mo.gov

The prison reform aspects of the Act are also very important because they curb inhumane practices and encourage the placement of prisoners in prisons that are closer to their families.

Finally, the Act also mandates the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons to reorient prisons around rehabilitation rather than punishment, and the Act provides guidelines and programming recommendations to accomplish this.

However, there is still a great deal of work to be done to improve the criminal justice system. The first two core mandates of the First Step Act were implemented immediately, and the federal criminal justice system began improving right away. However, the third mandate, providing offenders with real tools and rehabilitative modalities that can help them shift away from a life of crime, this mandate will need more work to become fully realized.

Currently, federal prisons offer some opportunities for prisoners to participate in services that address their individual needs and help them prepare for life after release, like some drug treatment and educational services. But by and large, these services are woefully inadequate, as evidenced by the high recidivism rate that has stayed mostly the same since the First Step Act was signed into law.

The First Step Act calls for the Bureau of Prisons to make “evidence-based recidivism reduction programs and productive activities” available for all prisoners, including vocational training, educational classes, and behavioral therapy. However, prisons have been slow to implement such programs.

Offenders Must Have Access to Real Treatment and Rehabilitative Services in Prison

As the name implies, the First Step Act was truly a step in the right direction. However, there is still much to do to ensure inmates have the educational programming they need and the rehabilitative services they need to get to the bottom of why they began committing crimes in the first place. Inmates need tools to learn how to create a better life for themselves and become empowered with the skills necessary for tackling life outside of prison without resorting to crime.

Sources:

1. FAMM. “Mandatory Minimums in a Nutshell.” Families Against Mandatory Minimums, 2012. famm.org
2. BOP. “An Overview of the First Step Act.” Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2018. bop.gov
3. BCJ. “What Is the First Step Act — And What’s Happening With It?” Brennan Center for Justice, 2020. brennancenter.org