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What is the First Step Act?
What is the First Step Act?
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00:04
the first step act was passed in 2018
00:08
and it had several components that can
00:10
be helpful to federal
00:13
uh individuals serving federal sentences
00:16
first of all it changed the way
00:19
earned
00:20
credits
00:22
are earned by
00:24
incarcerated individuals they are able
00:26
to get time off of their sentence and it
00:29
recalibrated how much and how
00:32
they’re able to earn that time off by
00:34
completing programs that combat
00:37
recidivism and recently even just this
00:40
year although the first step was passed
00:41
in 2018 it’s been it’s taken until now
00:45
for
00:46
the department of justice and the bureau
00:48
of prisons to implement the rules in
00:50
order to achieve those goals and
00:53
actually
00:54
shorten people’s sentences
00:56
another component of the first step act
00:58
is
00:59
the way home confinement and
01:00
compassionate release work with elderly
01:04
and and terminally ill
01:06
inmates they are given they are now
01:08
given the opportunity to request home
01:11
confinement that the bureau of prisons
01:13
can actually award where the individual
01:16
will then serve the remainder of their
01:17
sentence in home confinement but more
01:20
importantly
01:21
the individuals are given the
01:23
opportunity
01:25
to ask for compassionate release which
01:27
is actually a change in their sentence a
01:30
reduction previously the bureau of
01:32
prisons could only request compassionate
01:34
release to the court and now
01:37
after the bureau of prisons is given an
01:40
opportunity to do so even if they
01:42
decline an individual themselves
01:45
on their own or through council
01:47
can
01:49
petition the court file a motion for
01:51
compassionate release again for health
01:53
reasons it’s been utilized a lot during
01:55
the pandemic
01:57
although it it was written and passed
01:59
before the pandemic it is a tool for a
02:03
change in circumstances to take back to
02:06
the court and ask for a reduction in the
02:08
sentence and some significant reductions
02:11
have been
02:12
awarded
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Atlanta, GA criminal defense attorney Elizabeth A. Brandenburg talks about the First Step Act.
