Does First Step Act Eligibility Depend on the Conviction, the PSR, or Relevant Conduct?

What the rule generally means

Three things people mix together

Conditions or exceptions that change the answer

• Some excluded offenses are defined by reference to particular statutory provisions, so the exact statute of conviction controls rather than a general description of the case.
• A person serving more than one sentence may be serving a term of imprisonment for more than one offense.
• A conviction under a non-U.S. Code offense raises separate questions under § 523.44(a)(3) about applying credits.
• Immigration status, detainers and other holds affect the separate application question under § 523.44(a)(2) and 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(E).
• Errors in the underlying records can affect how a determination was made, which is an administrative-review and counsel question rather than a CaseSteps question.

Records to request or review

• The judgment and commitment order showing the statutes of conviction.
• The current FSA Time Credit Assessment showing eligibility status.
• The sentence computation.
• The needs assessment and the list of assigned programs.
• Do not upload any of these records to CaseSteps. Nothing here accepts files.

Questions for the unit team

• What does my record currently show for First Step Act eligibility status?
• Which document reflects that determination?
• Which offense in my judgment is that determination based on?
• If the record appears to list something incorrectly, how is a correction requested?
• Is my status different for earning than for application?

Exactly where each statement above comes from — source checked: September 6, 2026

• The exclusion is written as a list of specific offenses a person is 'serving a sentence for a conviction under' — it is a list of statutory provisions, not a description of conduct: 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(D), official U.S. Code text on GovInfo (U.S. Government Publishing Office), read in full on September 6, 2026. The list is enumerated at clauses (i) through (lxviii), that is 68 categories of offense provisions. CaseSteps does not reproduce the list and does not check anyone against it; whether a particular conviction falls inside it requires review of the current official law and of the person's own records with counsel.
• The regulation repeats that structure: a person is ineligible to earn if serving a sentence for a conviction under one of the provisions listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(D): 28 C.F.R. § 523.41(d)(2), current eCFR text read September 6, 2026.
• Eligibility to earn and eligibility to have credits applied are separate questions, and the application bars are written separately: 28 C.F.R. § 523.44, current eCFR text read September 6, 2026.
• This is why relevant conduct described in a presentence report is not the same thing as the offense of conviction for this exclusion. The statute and the regulation both key the exclusion to the provision the sentence is being served under. That does not mean presentence-report information never matters: it is used across Bureau of Prisons decisions, including the individualized risk and needs assessment and program recommendations that determine what participation counts.