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Reducing White-Collar Sentences Through the Second Chance Act

By Joseph F. Savage, Jr. and Abigail K. Hemani

The Second Chance Act of 2007, Pub. L. No. 110-199, 122 Stat. 657 (2008), provides opportunities for white-collar offenders to reduce the amount of time spent in prison. While the Act's primary purpose is to fund prison-based rehabilitation initiatives, it also:

  • provides an opportunity for early release for some elderly, nonviolent offenders;
  • increases the percentage of one's sentence that can be served in a halfway house; and
  • provides another basis for persuading judges that age, cost of imprisonment and prospects for rehabilitation are important mitigating sentencing factors.

White-collar offenders, who tend to be older and less likely to reoffend, may benefit most from these changes. The Second Chance Act offers a new tool for undoing the harsh sentences for economic crimes imposed under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. By affording the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) additional discretion over the early release of nonviolent offenders to home confinement and all inmates to community confinement, the Act creates a method for ameliorating draconian Guidelines sentences that have already been imposed. And by emphasizing the sentencing goals of rehabilitation and harm reduction, rather than retribution and deterrence, the Act can also be used at sentencings to show that Congress rejects the Guidelines' uniformly severe sentences for economic crimes.

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