White Collar Roundup - January 2019

First Step Act Becomes Law

While focused more on street crime, the First Step Act brings a bevy of changes to sentencing and incarceration in the federal system. Of note for purposes of the White Collar Roundup are the changes to the number of days off a sentence an inmate will receive for good behavior. The act increases it from the 47 days per year that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) allows to 54 days per year. In addition, most offenders—including almost all offenders convicted of financial crimes—will be able to obtain early release from custody. Further, the BOP has now directed that it "shall, to the extent practicable, place prisoners with lower risk levels and lower needs on home confinement for the maximum amount of time permitted under" 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2). That section currently allows the BOP "to place a prisoner in home confinement for the shorter of 10 percent of the term of imprisonment of that prisoner or 6 months." With the addition of the new