Five years ago this month, Donald Trump signed a major sentencing and prison reform bill into law. Known as the First Step Act, the law was wildly popular with Congress and the public, giving Trump a huge bipartisan legislative victory.
Today, the former president rarely talks about it. Recent reports reveal that Trump’s closest advisors are divided over whether he should run on the law — or run away from it.
What happened?
As someone who wrote anti-crime legislation as a congressional staffer, later served time in federal prison, and has spent the past 15 years working on criminal justice reform, I care deeply about this development. And while I have no special insight into former President Trump’s thinking, I know this: The substance of the First Step Act isn’t the problem.
The First Step Act has fulfilled its promise to improve public safety while reducing unnecessary incarceration. The law required the federal Bureau of Prisons to increase the quantity and quality of rehabilitative programming offered to people in prison. Low-risk prisoners who complete approved programming don’t get a sentence reduction, but they can earn the opportunity to serve more time at the end of their term in a halfway house or on electronic monitoring.