In December of 2018, the bi-partisan bill, First Step Act, was passed and called for reducing prison sentences and improving conditions within federal prisons. After months of debate regarding the details of the bill, the Bureau of Prisons has now been mandated to implement this act.
Some states such as California and New Jersey have already taken steps to reduce the prison population, largely as a result of the spread of Covid-19. While the headlines may have us believe that we are finally entering an age of prison reform, the prison population has once again started to climb. We invited Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, to talk about early release programs initiated during the pandemic and whether or not we can expect to see expansions of these seemingly successful programs.