In July 2019, the First Step Act went into effect allowing 3,100 inmates to be qualified for release from long federal prison sentences. It was enacted to try a more constructive approach to rehabilitation and justice reform. In the U.S. Sentencing Commission First Step Act of 2018 Resentencing Provisions Retroactivity Data Report, there have been 1,674 people in different geographical locations across the country that were granted motions for sentence reductions due to the First Step Act. Defendants are filing to receive sentence reductions under the First Step Act in the hopes of ending their sentence early and being released on electronic monitoring.
Table 4 in the document shows the number of demographic characteristics of offenders that are receiving sentence reductions and many of them consist of U.S. minority populations which have always seen an unfair sentencing or biases when convicted. As more people are file for resentencing under the First Step Act, reliable monitoring services will be necessary to keep inmates socially responsible and provide rehabilitative support after being in prison for so long.
In January 2020, The Department of Justice announced several significant developments in the implementation of the First Step Act (FSA) in a report published. “Today is another milestone in implementing the First Step Act,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “Beginning today, inmates will have even greater incentive to participate in evidence-based programs that prepare them for productive lives after incarceration. This is what Congress intended with this bipartisan bill. The First Step Act is an important reform to our criminal justice system, and the Department of Justice is committed to implementing the Act fully and fairly.” The First Step Act still continues to reduce sentences and allow individuals to be released that qualify, all while reforming the criminal justice system.
TRACKtech, LLC was created to reduce recidivism through rehabilitating inmates once they are released from prison. The TRACKphone platform is designed to provide clients with rehabilitative and life resources, as well as offers supervisors and clients the ability to consistently communicate and remotely check-in through biometric identification and videoconferencing. TRACKtech works to provide clients with resources they need to become a functioning member of society again, in the hopes of reducing recidivism and keeping them out of prison once they are released through the First Step Act.