In 2018, President Trump signed into law the bipartisan First Step Act, which was designed to reform extreme criminal sentencing laws, reduce the population in federal prisons, and encourage people in prison to take advantage of educational, training, and rehabilitative programs by earning credits towards time off their sentences.
The statute unambiguously provides that the Bureau of Prisons shall move people out of prison—into halfway houses, home confinement, or supervised release—when they meet certain requirements and when their earned credits are equal to their remaining sentences.
But instead of following the law, BOP adopted a regulation providing that it may move people out of prison when their earned credits are equal to their remaining sentences. As a result, thousands of people who are legally entitled be back in their communities and with their families remain in prison.=
On December 20, 2024, we filed this class action lawsuit, together with the National ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, asking the federal court to order the Bureau of Prisons to obey the law. On January 14, 2025, we filed a motion for a preliminary injunction and provisional class certification, asking the court to order the Bureau of Prisons to transfer class members out of prison when their earned time credits were equal to the time remaining on their sentences.