Letter to DOJ re FSA Implementation
We write to respectfully request that you review, revise, and expand policies and rules put inplace by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the previous administration as it pertains toimplementation of the First Step Act (FSA).
With much fanfare, the FSA was signed into law on December 20, 2018.1 Backers correctlyhailed this historic legislation as a milestone that marked a “meaningful break from decades offailed policies that led to mass incarceration.”2 This position was adopted by the DOJ along witha press release on its website announcing, “Beginning today, inmates will have even greaterincentive to participate in evidence-based programs that prepare them for productive lives afterincarceration. This is what Congress intended with this bipartisan bill. The First Step Act is animportant reform to our criminal justice system, and the Department of Justice is committed toimplementing the Act fully and fairly.”
The main goal of the FSA is straightforward: reduce recidivism by providing incarceratedindividuals the tools they need to successfully reenter society. One of the major incentivesintroduced are the “earned time credits,” whereby one can earn early transfer to PrereleaseCustody through successful participation in Evidence Based Recidivism Reduction Programming(EBRRP) and Productive Activities. And while time credits can be applied to an early transfer tosupervised release, the FSA caps early access to supervised release at 12 months.
