Steve Bannon will be released from prison this week, right on schedule.

DANBURY, CONNECTICUT – JULY 1: Steve Bannon, former White House strategist for Donald Trump, … (+) addresses the media at the Federal Correctional Institution Danbury, where he is expected to begin his four-month sentence on July 1, 2024 in Danbury, Connecticut. Bannon will be jailed for contempt of Congress and for disobeying subpoenas issued by the now-defunct House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Bannon tried to avoid going to prison by challenging his conviction in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., but the Supreme Court overruled him. (Photo by David Di Delgado/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Steve Bannon, an adviser to President Donald Trump and his campaign, was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate with a Jan. 6 subpoena from a House committee. It is planned that he will released October 29having served the full 120-day sentence. Since the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has a number of ways to reduce prison time, many have questioned why Bannon served his entire sentence at FCI Danbury in Connecticut.

Bannon was sentenced to maximum security prison. The BOP has four levels of prison security; minimal, low, medium and high. Although Bannon was not charged with a violent crime and had no criminal history, his case was pending in New York State. Bannon was indicted in 2022 for defrauding donors who gave money to the nonprofit group We Build the Wall to build a wall on the U.S. southern border. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including money laundering, fraud and conspiracy. That pending charge, whose trial began in December, required the BOP to place Bannon in at least a maximum-security prison, which it did.

The BOP also has the authority to impose a good behavior sentence of up to 54 days per year after a sentence exceeding a year. Bannon’s sentence was 4 months, so there was no time for good behavior.

In addition to time for good behavior, prisoners can earn First Step Act loans by participating in productive programs while in prison. That could take up to 10 days a month off the sentence… so Bannon could earn 30 credits or a month of release. While Bannon may have participated in some programs to pass his time, he did not receive First Step Act credits because his 4-month sentence did not come with post-conviction supervised release. Thus, Bannon will serve the full 120 days of his sentence.

Finally, many prisoners, even those at the highest security levels, are eligible for the Second Chance Act, which can place the prisoner in a community known as pretrial detention for up to a year. Many prisoners with shorter sentences receive little or no time in the community, although they are entitled to do so. However, Bannon’s pending indictment puts him in trouble again, as he cannot be in public housing while he has a pending indictment.

There have been several stories in less reliable news outlets about Bannon being unfairly targeted by the BOP for holding him throughout his sentence… but the rules to keep him there have been in place for decades.

If Bannon is found guilty in the next New York case, there will be no good news for him. There is no First Step Act to commute his sentence, and perhaps more importantly for Bannon, there is no presidential pardon if his favorite buddy wins.