October 22, 2024
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has admitted the former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon is being held after his legal release date, in violation of the FSA (First Step Act) of 2018. Bannon was scheduled to be released early, using good time credits earned under the FSA, but he is still in the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) in Danbury, Connecticut.
President Trump’s First Step Act, signed by President Trump, was meant to ease mandatory minimum sentences and allow low-level, nonviolent criminals to be sent to shorter sentences. Under the FSA, prisoners can receive early release credits for good behavior and participation in recidivism-reducing initiatives.
On 29 August, Bannon’s legal team moved to release him immediately after delays caused by bureaucracy kept him behind bars beyond his scheduled release date. According to a letter obtained by The Tennessee Star, acting Warden Darek Puzio also indicates that Bannon had 10 days of good time credits available that should have allowed him to be transferred to home confinement on October 19, 2024.
But as Puzio wrote in his letter, the BOP determined there was “insufficient time” for Bannon’s transfer, and so he will remain in prison until his full term release date of October 29, 2024.
Legal Delays and Bureaucratic Roadblocks
Bannon’s example has raised alarm about bureaucratic waste in prison, especially in applying FSA credits. His attorneys have accused the Biden-Harris administration of holding him back politically in a premeditated attempt to shut down one of Donald Trump’s strongest supporters ahead of the 2024 election.
A Bannon lawyer, Brad Edwards, lamented the delays, “There is no justification for this delay. Mr. Bannon has complied with all necessary requirements to earn his early release, and this bureaucratic stalling is unacceptable.”
The BOP letter also affirms that, although Bannon had been awarded his FSA release, because the facility failed to transfer him on time, he’ll continue to spend the rest of his sentence in prison instead of being released to home confinement.
Steve Bannon’s Political Remarks
In a string of statements from prison, Bannon has accused the Biden-Harris administration of exploiting the prison system to pursue political opponents. He said Vice President Kamala Harris, who he dubbed the “Queen of Mass Incarcerations”, has oversaw a prison system that targets US citizens unfairly while allowing illegal immigrants to avoid justice.
“Kamala Harris has done nothing to implement President Trump’s heroic First Step Act,” Bannon railed against Kamala Harris on National Pulse for omitting prison reform. He contended that Harris’s policy has entailed hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants not getting charged and American citizens eligible for early release still languishing in prison.
Broader Implications for Prison Reform
With Bannon still being in custody, the validity of the First Step Act and the viability of prison reform in the Biden-Harris administration is in doubt. The FSA was meant to reduce prison overcrowding and help low-level offenders re-enter society at a faster pace, but critics complain that bureaucratic inefficiencies undermined its success.
The BOP’s decision to admit that it had not applied Bannon’s credits through the FSA has opened a much larger discussion on reforming the prison system, including preventing prisoners from remaining behind bars past their date of legal release.
Bannon is set to be released on 29 October 2024, after serving four months of prison for resisting a congressional subpoena concerning the investigation into what happened on January 6th, 2021.
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