Since the federal First Step Act (FSA) of 2018, legislation intended to improve criminal justice outcomes for federal offenders, requires an annual report on the progress of FSA’s implementation and impact, this is the second FSA Annual Report, published in April 2022.
The report’s first section highlights the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) progress and efforts in implementing the FSA since the first FSA Annual Report. It notes that DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have continued to make progress in fully implementing the FSA since the last Annual Report. This includes further update and implementation of the Risk and Needs Assessment System and an expansion of inmates’ abilities to participate in evidence-based rehabilitative programming. Section II discusses the implementation and validation of the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (PATTERN). Followed by Section III, which summarizes the BOP’s work in developing, expanding, evaluating, and auditing the evidence-based recidivism reduction programs and productive activities. Section IV presents data on recidivism rates for inmates released from federal prisons under the FSA since the last report. Section V discusses expansions of inmate work programs since the last FSA Annual Report. Section VI lists the policies and guidance issued by the BOP in implementing the FSA’s requirements. Section VII briefly assesses the progress made by DOJ in fulfilling FSA mandates, such as refining its needs assessment system. Section VIII reports on budgetary savings from the implementation of the FSA, noting, however, that it is too early to determine any savings achieved. Section IX reports on the testing conducted among BOP inmates in screening for the prevalence of dyslexia. The BOP has established an FSA Resource Page on its public website: https://www.bop.gov/inmates/fsa/index.jsp