Federal prison population creeping up again after initial application of FIRST STEP earned-time credits

As noted in this prior post, the Department of Justice last month announced its rules for implementing "the Time Credits program required by the First Step Act."  DOJ provided for retroactive application of these credits, which produced a notable decline in the overall federal prison population.  Specifically, as indicated in this post, over the last two full weeks of January, the federal inmate population dropped nearly 3% down to 153,293 "Total Federal Inmates" on January 27 from a count of 157,596 on January 13.  

But on February 3, 2022, the federal Bureau of Prisons updated here its report of "Total Federal Inmates," and that number now reads at 153,316.  In other words, after the initial implementation of FIRST STEP earned-time credits dropped the federal prison population, this population total now is starting to creeping up again slightly.  And because the federal prison population was steadily creeping up throughout most of 2021 — an increase of nearly 6000 from a low of 151,646 inmates as of January 21, 2021 — I will be continuing to keep a close watch on where the federal prison population might be headed the rest of this year.  

Prior recent related posts:

• Thousands of federal prisoners finally to get FIRST STEP Act credits as DOJ implements earned time rules
• Helpful FAMM "Explainer" talks through DOJ rule for implementing earned time credits under FIRST STEP Act
• Due surely to implementation of FIRST STEP earned-time credits, federal prison population drops by nearly 4,000 in one week 
• In week two of implementation of FIRST STEP earned-time credits, federal prison population drops another 550