There are two very important “Scores” when it comes to Federal Inmates.

The first important score is the “custody score”. An inmate’s custody score is made up of 11 different factors including things like age, charge, history of violence, education level and living skills. The factors in a custody score are calculated and then a security level is assessed by the Designation Sentence and Computation Center in Grand Prairie Texas (DSCC). That is the score that is used for placement.

The other important score came about in 2019 when the PATTERN tool was created. PATTERN stands for Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs. The PATTERN score is what is used to decide an inmates “risk of recidivism” level.

In regards to the First Step Act, the PATTERN Score (not the custody score) is used to determine how many “earned time credits” an inmate is earning for participating in Evidence Based Recidivism Reducing (EBRR) Programs and other Productive Activities (PA).

Inmates with a minimum and low PATTERN score, earn 15 days for every 30 days of participation after two consecutive periods (teams) have been completed. Those with low and minimum PATTERN scores can have those “ETCs” applied toward the end of their sentence (up to 1 year) provided they have a term of supervised release following their in prison sentence. All of the other accumulated ETCs are supposed to go towards RRC (halfway house and home confinement).

Under the unambiguous First Step Act, those with medium and high PATTERN scores are earning ETCs at a rate of 10 days per 30 days of programming. However, they can not redeem those days or have the applied until they’ve been low or minimum for two consecutive periods.

In theory, while mediums and highs are earning the ETC’s they should be accumulating for when they are eligible for redemption and added to the ETCs they earn as minimums and lows.