EXCLUSIVE: Is The Federal Bureau Of Prisons Violating US Congress And The First Step Act?
Numerous former inmates of the Federal Bureau of Prisons come forward to expose not receiving earned time credits used to reduce recidivism
The United States Congress passed HR 5682, aka 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4), under President Trump in 2018, entitled the First Step Act (FSA). This allowed minimum and low level offenders to participate in evidence-based recidivism reduction programs to accrue earned time credits (ETC), that would be applied toward early pre-release custody from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP).
In 2018, the First Step Act authorized $250 million in funding over 5 years for rehabilitative programming (link courtesy FAMM -(Families Against Mandatory Minimums).
Highlights of the First Step Act
Provides earned time credits: Inmates can earn time credits for participating in programs that reduce recidivism. These credits can be applied toward early release.
Expands rehabilitation programs: The law funds programs like drug treatment, vocational training, and literacy skill development.
Expands good time credits: Inmates can earn more days per year for exemplary behavior.
Helps inmates reconnect with loved ones: The law helps ensure that inmates are incarcerated closer to where they will be released.
Allows for up to one year off sentence: Many federal prisoners can earn up to a year off their sentence.
Allows for unlimited credits toward home confinement: Inmates can earn unlimited credits toward home confinement by participating in certain programs.
My exclusive interview with Brian Mock, a recently pardoned J6er who spent time in a BOP in Minnesota and was not given his earned time credits (ETC) as part of the First Step Act. Mr. Mock was able to make head way in the courts and get plaintiffs on record stating, they knew prisoners were not receiving ETCs as prescribed by law.
Phone call with Mr. Thompkins, a CMT (case management team) at Morgantown Federal Prison Camp, incorrectly stating earned time credits are to be delegated by a probation officer not the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Multiple, prior inmates have come forward to share their stories providing testimony of experiences with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, claiming they have not received their earned time credits as mandated by the First Step Act and likely would not be on probation currently if the credits in question had been applied.
These brave folks wish to remain anonymous, to avoid retribution.
Former FBOP inmate number one
President Trump passed the First Step Act in 2018, just after my trial and before my transfer to Morgantown Federal Corrections Institute (FCI) to serve my Sentence. Every federal inmate eligible for these credits was very anxious to be involved in these work and education programs while earning up to fifteen days a month for their hard work while incarcerated. We couldn't start earning these credits until actually serving our sentence in a Bureau of Prisons facility. No earned time credits could be granted for time served in pretrial detention, as I did in county jails and detention centers for over two years.
Once I arrived at Morgantown FCI, I immediately got a job, as the first non-veteran to ever be hired in the Veterans to Veterans Service Canine Program run by Hearts of Gold at West Virginia University. It was the most honorable and rewarding program within the BOP, where we trained dogs to help disabled veterans within the community with their specific needs. I was very proud to be a part of this program and excelled to the point of being the first to earn a Department of Labor certificate for twelve thousand hours of training as a canine service animal trainer. I trained any new inmate entering the program during my 3+ years with them. We were always promised our earned time credits under the First Step Act, working 24/7 in this job, while others at the prison earned the same credits by just working a couple hours a day or, a few days a week in the kitchen, custodial duties, the library, etc.
Those of us in the dog program (10-12 inmates in the whole prison population), actually worked twenty-four hours a day, as these service animals needed our constant attention with watering feeding, specific training, exercise, medical attention, addressing behavioral traits, socializing with other dogs and humans, testing, classes and myself training new participants in the program, while also teaching several classes. My point is, that if any programs within the BOP deserved special attention to granting these statutory, mandatory earned time credits within the First Step Act, it was this honorable veteran program that benefited many while I was involved. I placed several dogs within the program with disabled Veterans who were destined to be kicked out of the program as "non-trainable!" There is no such thing as a bad dog, only bad trainers.
We had several veterans visit us at the prison and thank us for our dedicated work and one called us "Angels" for training dogs that "saved their lives!!!" I trained a beautiful black Labrador, named "Freedom" that went on to be placed with Wounded Warrior Project. I earned over six hundred and fifty days of earned time credits from June 2019 to December 2022 when I was finally released. I have only received three hundred and sixty-five days credited towards that total by the BOP and PROMISED the remaining ETC by my Case Management Team, which consisted of Mrs. Gardner, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Thompkins at Morgantown FCI. We were told that if we didn't get all the credits applied to our sentence before release, they would be applied towards our supervised release time, as I write this I am still owed over three hundred days and have less than that to complete my probationary status.
It should be noted that I also earned additional credits (that must disappear into the atmosphere) for teaching First Step Act Programs that staff were supposed to conduct, for joining the suicide watch cadre, for teaching the art class and an advanced core exercise class, for my bible study course and involvement with the Native American sweat ceremonies, running the soccer program and many more duties that took up ALL my time during every day, while incarcerated, including the time we were on "Lock-down" for the COVID crisis!!! It is a travesty of justice that the BOP and the Department of Justice (DOJ) haven't honored these ETC to those of us who truly earned them and did so under President Trump's First Step Act that motivated us to do so, to begin with!
What happened to all the money given to the BOP to design a simple computer algorithm to document these credits earned by those of us who were eligible and deserving of these mandatory fifteen days a month for our hard work? What happened to those monies given to each prison facility for staff to teach these programs that we inmates taught? It's criminal on its grounds that this very administration needs to track these dollars and terminate those officials who did not follow this legislative act that could have saved a lot of lives of inmates and their families during the COVID crisis and for the elderly, like myself, that suffer to this day from those symptoms that most likely will be the death of us before our time is completed with this corrupt, upside down, politicized, weaponized DOJ.
Shame on those who can't honor the law themselves, while being paid to "babysit" us at minimum security facilities, where we honorably served our time and did something worthy of merit during our sentences. DOGE needs to make those bad actors accountable and, grant us our earned time credits immediately or...compensate us for the additional time we served, unjustifiably.
It's only Right.
Former FBOP inmate number two
Multiple district courts have ruled that First Step Act (FSA) credits begin when a prisoner is in custody after sentencing. This is different from the Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) policy, which states that credits begin when a prisoner arrives at their designated prison. This means that BOP's interpretation is different from what exactly the FSA intended - for them is to prolong the time for the inmates to stay for job security reasons. It is not the day you arrive at your assigned BOP institution but rather the day begins at the day you are sentence.
The BOP's policy has been challenged in federal court, and some prisoners have won their cases. For example, in the case of Sohrab Sharma, a judge granted FSA credits for the time he was in custody at sentencing until he arrived at his designated institution. The BOP has acknowledged that it has had problems calculating credits, interpreting the FSA, and communicating with prison staff.
This is problem - BOPs interpretation vs. what the law is intended for.
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Mr. Mock is hosting a press conference on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington D.C. to bring attention to large scale corruption occurring in big government, surrounding this issue.
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