The Biden-Harris administration failed to uphold the First Step Act of 2018 when implementing the four-month prison sentence handed to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who remains scheduled for release from the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) in Danbury, Connecticut on October 29.
Bannon raised the issue in his Friday statement, when he condemned Vice President Kamala Harris as the “Mass Incarceration Queen” for the failure of her administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) to uphold the Trump-era criminal justice reform in his case.
“The Harris Bureau of Prisons is illegally holding me past my legal release date–trying to eliminate one of President Trump’s strongest advocates–these criminals reek of desperation,” said Bannon in his Friday statement to The National Pulse.
Signed into law by former President Donald Trump, the bipartisan First Step Act (FSA) requires inmates to be evaluated using the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (PATTERN), which helps Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials determine the length and venue of a sentence.
After the evaluation is complete, prisoners may earn good time credits to reduce their sentence through behavior and participation in prison programs.
According to the BOP, prisoners can receive up to 54 days of good time credits per year spent in prison, but it is unclear if this would apply to Bannon due to his relatively short, four-month sentence.
Under the FSA, prisoners can additionally accrue up to 15 days of good time credit per 30-day period spent in a prison recidivism program, potentially dramatically reducing their sentence. These credits can be used to either directly reduce a sentence or to allow a prisoner to spend time in reentry programs including halfway houses or home confinement.
The FSA additionally expanded a program to place some elderly inmates under home confinement for the duration of their sentences. Bannon is 70, and the BOP considers inmates over the age 65 to be elderly.
Bannon was sentenced to four months in federal prison after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with a subpoena by the House select committee that investigated the civil unrest on January 6 in 2022. He ultimately reported to FCI Danbury on July 1 after his appeals were rejected.
While the short duration of his sentence may have limited Bannon’s ability to participate in prison programs designed to reduce recidivism, a source familiar with the situation told The Tennessee Star after Bannon made his remarks on Friday that the former Trump adviser’s sentence was extended by the failure of the Biden-Harris administration to implement the FSA.
Despite the FSA seemingly allowing Bannon to reduce his sentence by between 18 and 75 days depending on his behavior and participation in prison programs, this source told The Star that Bannon remains scheduled for release on Friday, October 29, when he will have completed all but three days of his four-month sentence.
The Star contacted BOP to determine whether the PATTERN test was administered to Bannon, and if the potential sentence reductions under the FSA were applied to his sentence, but did not receive an immediate response.
Though the guidance was likely implemented too late for Bannon’s case, the Biden-Harris DOJ implemented guidance for prisons to implement the sentence reductions under the FSA earlier this month, when Forbes reported the BOP implementation of sentence reductions, “has been plagued with computer problems to calculate the credits, inconsistent interpretation of the First Step Act and poor communication to the line staff at prisons who are tasked with implementing the programs.”
According to that outlet, the failure has resulted in prisoners being held longer than necessary or beyond their release date, though the BOP has improved its implementation of the criminal justice reform over the last year.
In his Friday statement to The National Pulse, Bannon highlighted the failures by the Biden-Harris administration to implement the criminal justice reform as part of the reason why she is reportedly struggling to court the votes of black and Hispanic voters.
Bannon reportedly wrote Harris is now, “detested by black and hispanic men who are refusing to turn out and vote for her. She has done nothing to implement President Trump’s heroic First Step Act, in fact welcoming hundreds of thousands of hardened illegal migrant criminals while allowing US citizens eligible for early release to rot in prison. No mass deportations, but continual mass incarcerations.”
The criminal justice reform was endorsed by the Trump administration and passed with significant bipartisan support, including from from Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) in the Senate, as well as former Representative Doug Collins (R-GA) and Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-8), whose role in courting Democrats to support the legislation was considered instrumental in establishing the trajectory that led him to become the Minority Leader of the House Democrats.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Seve Bannon” by Nordiske Mediedager CC2.0.
