Compassionate release, codified at 18 U.S.C. §3582(c)(1)(A), permits federal courts to reduce an incarcerated person's sentence when "extraordinary and compelling reasons" exist. Before the First Step Act of 2018, only the Bureau of Prisons director could initiate such motions — an authority exercised so rarely that hundreds of eligible prisoners died in custody awaiting decisions. The 2018 reform allowed prisoners to file directly with courts after the BOP denied or ignored their requests. The U.S. Sentencing Commission sets policy guidelines defining what qualifies as "extraordinary and compelling," but the Supreme Court's 2026 ruling in Rutherford v. United States held that Congress's nonretroactive changes to sentencing law cannot serve as such grounds.