Federal good time credit calculator

Under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b) as amended by the First Step Act of 2018, a federal prisoner sentenced to more than one year gets up to 54 days of good time credit per year of the sentence imposed. That works out to approximately 14.8% off the sentence. A 60-month sentence yields about 9 months of good time. A 120-month sentence yields about 18 months. A 240-month sentence yields about 36 months. Good time is calculated on the sentence imposed, not on time served — a clarification made by the First Step Act after the Supreme Court's contrary reading in Barber v. Thomas.

Yes. Under 28 C.F.R. § 541.3, BOP can forfeit good time credit as a sanction for prohibited acts (Code 100-series offenses for serious misconduct, 200-series for high-severity, 300-series for moderate, 400-series for low-moderate). The most serious sanctions can include loss of 27, 41, or 54 days of good time per incident. Forfeited good time is generally not restorable, although BOP may suspend a portion of the forfeiture as discretion. Prisoners get notice and the opportunity to be heard at a Disciplinary Hearing Officer (DHO) hearing.

Good time under § 3624(b) is awarded for satisfactory institutional behavior — essentially the absence of disciplinary problems. It reduces the sentence end date. FSA earned-time credits under § 3632(d)(4) are awarded for active programming — participation in evidence-based recidivism reduction (EBRR) programs or productive activities (PAs). They do not reduce the sentence end date; they create credit that BOP applies toward prerelease custody (halfway house or home confinement) or toward supervised release. Both credits operate simultaneously for eligible prisoners.

The Second Chance Act (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(1)) authorizes BOP to place a prisoner in prerelease custody — a Residential Reentry Center (halfway house) or home confinement — for up to the last 12 months of the sentence. The First Step Act expanded home confinement specifically, authorizing BOP to place prisoners in home confinement for the lesser of 10% of the sentence or 6 months. Combined with FSA earned-time credits applied to prerelease custody under § 3624(g)(2), eligible prisoners can substantially exceed the basic 12-month halfway-house ceiling. The actual placement decision is BOP discretion, evaluated case by case.

No. 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b)(1) limits good time to prisoners "serving a term of imprisonment of more than 1 year." Sentences of 364 days or less get no statutory good time, although BOP may award administrative credits in limited circumstances. Most short federal sentences (Class A misdemeanors, simple drug possession, immigration cases at the lower end) fall below this threshold and serve approximately the full time.

Yes, through the BOP administrative remedy process under 28 C.F.R. § 542. The prisoner must exhaust BOP administrative remedies — typically a request to the warden (BP-9), an appeal to the Regional Director (BP-10), and an appeal to the Office of General Counsel (BP-11) — before federal court review. After exhaustion, a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the district of confinement is the proper vehicle to challenge BOP's sentence computation, including good time, FSA credit application, prerelease custody, and halfway-house decisions.

18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(D) lists 50+ specific offense codes that disqualify. The categories include most violent offenses (murder, kidnapping, armed bank robbery, federal carjacking with death/SBI, 924(c) firearm crimes), all sex offenses under 18 U.S.C. chapters 109A and 110, terrorism offenses, drug offenses under § 841(b)(1)(A)/(B) where death or serious bodily injury resulted, continuing-criminal-enterprise convictions, RICO conspiracy involving violence, and selected immigration aggravated felonies. The full current list is in BOP Program Statement 5410.01.

The Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (PATTERN) is BOP's risk-assessment instrument under 18 U.S.C. § 3632(a). It assigns each eligible prisoner a risk level of Minimum, Low, Medium, or High. Earned-time credit accrual under § 3632(d)(4)(A) is 10 days per 30 days at any eligible level; it increases to 15 days per 30 days for prisoners who have remained at Low or Minimum risk on two consecutive assessments. Reassessment happens every 6–18 months depending on BOP's protocol. Programming participation lowers PATTERN scores over time, qualifying prisoners for the higher accrual rate.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b), a defendant gets credit toward the federal sentence for any time spent in official detention prior to the date the sentence commences, as a result of (1) the offense for which the sentence was imposed or (2) any other charge for which the defendant was arrested after the commission of the offense — provided that the time has not been credited against another sentence. BOP, not the sentencing court, calculates pretrial credit. Disputes go through BOP administrative remedies, then to federal court via § 2241 habeas.

It depends on the length. Supervised-release revocation sentences of more than one year qualify for good time under § 3624(b) the same way original sentences do. But many revocation sentences are short (months, not years) and fall below the one-year threshold for good time. Federal prosecutors and probation officers sometimes argue for revocation sentences carefully calibrated near or below the one-year line, although the judge ultimately controls the revocation sentence length.

If a sentence is reduced — for example through a § 3582(c)(2) Sentencing-Commission-amendment-based reduction, a Rule 35(b) substantial-assistance motion, or a § 3582(c)(1)(A) compassionate-release motion — the BOP recomputes good time on the reduced sentence. The prisoner is essentially treated as having served against the new, lower sentence number. The recalculation can move the release date significantly earlier; the prisoner generally cannot bank good time accrued against the old sentence and then add it to a new sentence — credit is computed against whatever the operative sentence currently is.