The Supreme Court added a case to its next term on Monday that addresses how the First Step Act applies to inmates seeking quicker transfers from prison to lower-security confinement, such as a halfway house, marking the latest instance of the justices reviewing the scope of the 2018 criminal justice reform law.
The high court said it will hear the case Maxwell v. Thomas in its upcoming term. That case focuses on how applicants seeking to challenge the time credits they’ve earned through good behavior via provisions in the law may do so in federal court. The First Step Act, signed into law in 2018, allows inmates to earn time credits for recidivism-reduction programming or productive activities, which can be used to secure early release from secure custody into halfway houses or home confinement.
The petition to the Supreme Court was initially filed by William Maxwell, an inmate serving a 20-year sentence for racketeering, pro se, meaning he filed his petition without an attorney, marking a rare instance of the high court taking up a case filed by an inmate himself. Maxwell later had a lawyer file a reply brief on his behalf, however, and will likely have a lawyer argue before the justices when the case is heard.
