The BOP has three programs to get time off your sentence.
The first & most long-standing of them is called Good Time Credits. In essence, for every year you serve, you get 54 days off your sentence, which works out to about a 15% reduction.
The second, called First Step Act (FSA), was created & implemented under Trump’s first administration. It only applies to non-violent offenders (and specifically does not apply to some offenders like sex offenders) and it basically gives you 10 days per month off your first six months and then 15 days per month off starting in month 7 if you are signed up for certain programming (on average, it gives you 35% of your time off, up to a total of 1-year off). These are all kinds of classes (I am signed up for everyone that I can be signed up for) that help to improve your life. There is a list of them about four pages long. I am listing just a few of them below:
* Anger Management
* Basic Cognitive Skills
* Faith Based Conflict Management
* Brain Health As You Age
* Drug Education
* Money Smarts
* ESL
The third, called Second Chance Act (SCA) is designed to get you out of prison and into a halfway house (HWH) so that you can spend your last year of your sentence in a HWH to slowly reintroduce you to society, give you a place to live while you get a job, etc. In theory, you get one year of your last year in a HWH – in reality, they only give you about one month in HWH per year of sentence and you stay in prison for the remainder. Since I have a four-year sentence, I will get 4 months in a HWH even though I am probably eligible for HWH in June of 2026. If you have a home, good family life and support network and are a white collar criminal, you can quite often get sent home for home confinement (HC) in the first week or so to keep the HWH open for others to come in from prison. While on HC, you will wear something like an Apple Watch that is synched to your phone and makes sure you are where you are supposed to be. This replaces the old ankle monitor.
All of these programs are externally monitored by “the system.” I propose something like an internal (run by inmates as opposed by CO’s) time sentencing score that encourages positive behavior on the inside that will closely correlate to becoming a positive & welcomed citizen on the outside (I know this will never happen – it is just a theoretical exercise I thought up while lying in bed one night). Here it goes:
1) Do you brush your teeth, take a shower and dress well everyday – then you get a point. If you walk around with your hands in the front of your pants and your ass hanging out, no points for you.
2) Do you have a job in prison (really – any job will do)? Do you show up on time everyday? Good – one point for you.
3) Are you courteous to others or are you running around all day creating a giant ruckus? If the former, another point.
4) Do you share access to the books/magazines/newspapers you receive? Do you help out new inmates who arrive with nothing? Do you help out others who cannot or did not get what they need a commissary? Great – one point for you.
5) You go to the GED class, but do you apply yourself or do you sit in the corner playing cards or watching TV? If you fall into the first category, you get a point.
6) Do you read books, exercise or talk/email with your family or do you sit on your butt all day watching TV for 8-12 hours per day (there are guys who fit into this category)? If the former, you get a point.
7) Do you take a shower so you don’t stink (I came up with this one as I typed the email next to a very odorous individual)? Get a point.
8) Don’t do drugs & you get a point. (came up with this one as I was handwriting this letter in the reading room while two guys were literally smoking deuce not 2 foot from me. I would have walked away, but I was interested in how you light something when you don’t have matches or a lighter).
9) Add up enough points and you get 1-month off your sentence. All you had to do was act like a normal human being, like most people outside the walls do, and you get some time off so you can more quickly join the outside.
While I know that this type of program will never happen, the point is to positively reinforce & reward small daily habits that sum up making an inmate into someone who can more easily re-enter society as a productive & contributing individual who is (or at least appears to be) more employable. Someone who cannot or will not asssume the attitudes and act accordingly is probably most likely to rescidivate – going back to what they were doing before and ultimately ending up back in prison.
This is one of the reasons I vowed to stop cursing, watch no TV (I may download a movie or two per month to watch when I cannot fall asleep), nor play cards/board games – dedicating my time to reading non-fiction or inspirational books, exercising and working at my prison job – all to help me improve my life.
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1) I finally got my English-Spanish dictionary in preparation to start my Spanish class in a week or two.
2) I am now up to 120 push-ups and sit-ups per day and am back to reading 2-3 books per week. I just finished the biography of Steve Jobs and will work on that book report as soon as it is daylight (and my cellmates wake up) and I can work in my room. I hope to finish another book today and then do that book report tomorrow.
3) No outside rec today due to the heavy thunderstorms we are currently getting, so I will just work out in my room.
