The First Step Act (FSA) was the most significant attempt at reforming the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in recent history. Passed with bipartisan support, its intent was clear: to incentivize rehabilitation and reduce recidivism. However, the BOP’s resistance to these changes has been evident from the start. Rather than embracing the reform, the agency has viewed it as an administrative burden, reinforcing its long-standing practice of treating the prison population as a monolith rather than recognizing individual efforts at rehabilitation.

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The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has finally followed the lead of county jails and state prisons by introducing tablets for inmates. To secure approval, BOP promised educational applications, including full access to Khan Academy and other basic learning tools. Many county jails even provide streaming media services, with variations of Netflix and Spotify, and access to thousands of eBooks through subscription models. But BOP’s implementation has been nothing short of a disappointment.

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