This book contains the criminal justice reform bill that the Senate passed on 18 December 2018. Titled "The First Step Act," it is the biggest change to the federal criminal justice system in decades. Thousands of federal prison inmates will benefit from the new law. Bear in mind that it only affects the federal criminal justice system, not the state and local systems. It slightly pulls back punitive mandatory minimum sentences and allows judges to give lower sentences in some circumstances, and relaxing a "three strikes" law to give 25 years instead of life in prison. It makes 2010 crack sentencing reforms retroactive. It also expands "good time credits" that well-behaved inmates can use to get out of prison a little earlier and creates "earned time credits" that encourage inmates to take part in rehabilitative programs for an earlier release. Why buy a book you can download for free? We print this book so you don't have to. First you gotta find a good clean (legible) copy and make sure it's the latest version (not always easy). Some documents found on the web are missing some pages or the image quality is so poor, they are difficult to read. We look over each document carefully and replace poor quality images by going back to the original source document. We proof each document to make sure it's all there - including all changes. If you find a good copy, you could print it using a network printer you share with 100 other people (typically its either out of paper or toner). If it's just a 10-page document, no problem, but if it's 250-pages, you will need to punch 3 holes in all those pages and put it in a 3-ring binder. Takes at least an hour. It's much more cost-effective to just order the latest version from Amazon.com This book includes original commentary which is copyright material. Note that government documents are in the public domain. We print these large documents as a service so you don't have to. The books are compact, tightly-bound, full-size (8 1⁄2 by 11 inches), with large text and glossy covers. 4th Watch Publishing Co. is a HUBZONE SDVOSB. https://usgovpub.com