The First Step Act, the sentencing reform act passed by Congress last December is benefiting thousands of incarcerated Black men, according to a new report.
According to the United States Sentencing Commission, more than 1,000 individuals incarcerated in federal prisons have been granted sentence reductions in the four months since the First Step Act was signed into law.
Over 91% of the individuals whose sentences have been shortened were African American and 98% were male, the USSC said.
Their sentences were reduced by an average of 73 months or 29.4% percent as a result of the resentencing provisions allowed under the Act, which shortened mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses and required resentencing to be applied retroactively to individuals convicted of crack cocaine offenses before 2010 – when the federal government reduced disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses.
“The 2010 re-set of the crack-powder cocaine disparity, under the Fair Sentencing Act passed that year, disparity was aimed at tackling the disproportionate racial impact on nonviolent drug offenders,” according to the Criminal Justice Network’s Crime Report.
The law also replaced a federal “three strikes” rule that imposed a life sentence for three or more convictions – with a 25-year sentence.
The average age of those granted resentencing motions was 45 – and the average age at the time of the original sentence was 32. Over a quarter of those resentencing motions were granted by federal courts in Florida, South Carolina and Virginia.