WASHINGTON — On Thursday Congress sent President Trump a criminal justice bill that reduces some of the harshest sentences for federal drug offenders, and boosts prison rehabilitation programs.

5 FAST FACTS ON THE FIRST STEP ACT:

  1. The bill would give judges more discretion on mandatory minimum sentences.​
  2. It would reform sentencing guidelines for non violent crimes.
  3. Supporters believe it will reduce recidivism, when a criminal becomes a repeat offender.
  4. The bill works to place prisoners no more than 500 miles from their families.
  5. Only 181,000 of the more than 2.1 million people in prisons and jails are incarcerated on the federal level. This means only 8 percent of inmates will be impacted by the bill's passage.​

The U.S. House passed the First Step Act 358 to 36. The bill already passed the Senate. 

The legislation addresses concerns that the nation's war on drugs led to the imprisonment of too many Americans for nonviolent crimes.

The nation's federal prison population has soared by more than 700 percent since the 1980s. The federal prison system only represents a fraction of the people incarcerated across the country.

The bill also gives judges more discretion in sentencing some drug offenders and reduces some mandatory-minimum sentences. It also enhances efforts to better prepare inmates for life outside of prison.

But law enforcement groups and some Republicans expressed concerns that the bill did not go far enough in addressing things like gun crimes, drug dealers and sex offenders. 

However, the bill had strong support from President Trump, who tweeted that he was happy to see the bill make it through Congress.