Parole for Federal Offenders

• Unlike state prisoners, who can have their sentences reduced for a variety of reasons, including good behavior, a person convicted of a federal crime must serve his entire sentence. The CJTRA would have reintroduced parole for federal prisoners, largely along the lines of the system in place before 1987. It also included provisions for post-prison rehabilitation.
  
  

Good Time Allowances

• Prisoners would have been eligible to have their sentences reduced through "good time" allowances. Prisoners who caused no trouble and followed the rules while serving their sentences would have been considered for for early release.
  
  

Reduced Sentences for Elderly Prisoners

• Prisoners over 65 years of age who had spent 10 years or more in prison would have been eligible for a reduced sentence under CJTRA. To be eligible, such prisoners would have needed an unblemished prison record, meaning no conduct violations. Those convicted of violent crimes and drug crimes would not have been eligible.
  
  

Cost Savings

• Supporters of CJTRA said it would save money by reducing the national prison population, particularly by cutting the number of non-violent first-time offenders being held. FedCURE, the group that authored and lobbied for the bill, estimated that CJTRA would save taxpayers $4 billion to $7 billion a year.
  
  

After CJTRA

• After the bill failed to pass Congress, supporters split the legislation into two bills to be introduced separately. One focused on creating what FedCURE calls a "hybrid system of federal parole"; the other was focused on creating federal good time allowances.