The First Step Act has given inmates and their families a fantastic chance to get a fresh start by providing them with more opportunities to shorten their prison terms, gain more good time credit, and has had programs reinstated to offer additional ways for these federal inmates to complete his prison sentence and leave prison early.

Compassionate Release Program Reforms

The Compassionate Release program has existed for nearly 30 years, the program is meant to allow prisoners whose circumstances, like terminal illness leaves them with between 6 to 18 months to live. There are actually six current avenues to get into the Compassionate Release Program. The First Step Act provides a seventh avenue. These individuals can often no longer be considered a threat to society and want to spend the last of their lives with their families. But the BOP has made it difficult for inmates to apply, and often the prisoners die in prison before their applications are reviewed.

With the First Step Act prisoners who are facing “extraordinary and compelling” circumstances are now going to have an easier time gaining information and eligibility for this program, allowing them to have their time and saving taxpayers from having to cover their medical fees. The information will be more available to the BOP staff and prisoners of when Compassionate Release is available and how they can ask/apply for the program, as well as family members, consultants and other individuals can assist prisoners in filing the request. Note, BOP staff is not very helpful in the Compassionate Release Program and an outside Consultant is almost always required for successful results.

The most significant step for this program is that prisoners will be allowed to appeal the denials of the requests to the federal courts after all other BOP remedies have been attempted. If your request was submitted at least 30 days ago, you can take your appeals to court.

Second Chance Act Reauthorizations

Elderly prisoners are often the most costly for prisons to take care of. This creates a drain on the prison system where those funds could be going toward programs reinstated to help other prisoners gain the chance at reform. In the Second Chance Act, they had implemented a plan to allow elderly and elderly terminally ill prisoners the opportunity to be released from prison early. With the First Step Act it has reinstated this pilot program to allow them the chance to live with their families should they meet the requirements of early release as well as be at least 60 years old and have served at least 2/3 of their prison sentence.

This is an excellent opportunity for these elderly individuals not only to spend the rest of their lives with their families, but to lessen the burden on federal prisons and allow them to take the funds that would have been going toward medical bills into programs for other inmates.

Find Out if You Qualify For These Programs Reinstated

There are miles of red tape to get through to see if you qualify for these programs. Get help from a consultant that will know the system. Call Jail Time Consulting to determine if you or your loved ones qualify for these or other programs that the new First Step Act has brought to the table. Get the chance to spend more time with your loved ones. Call today: 954-740-2253. 

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