Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes is a few months closer to freedom after her prison sentence has been slightly reduced.
The new projected release date for Holmes, according to the Bureau of Prisons is Aug. 16, 2032, compared to the previous date of Dec. 29, 2032. This follows a separate two-year reduction which was made last July.
Holmes was convicted in January of 2022 of criminal fraud tied to the blood-testing startup and sentenced to over 11 years in prison. She is currently serving her sentence at Federal Prison Camp Bryan, a minimum-security facility located roughly 100 miles from Houston.
Sentence reductions are common with federal prisoners. Sentences are automatically and preemptively reduced by 15% for good conduct. That time can be added back on to the sentence if necessary, but that’s rare, say prison consultants.
Good conduct time can also reduce sentence lengths by up to 54 days per year.
And federal prisoners, including Holmes, are also able to accrue Earned Time Credits (ETC), which can be used to reduce the amount of time spent in prison. That’s done through the First Step Act, a 2018 criminal justice reform bill that aims to reduce the federal prison population and reduce recidivism.
The first year Holmes was in prison, she was eligible to earn 10 days for every month she was in the program (cutting her sentence by up to 120 days). In year two, that earning can go up to 15 days for every month. All totaled, ETC can shave about a year off of her sentence.
She could also shave time off the back end of the sentence by going to a halfway house and, eventually, home confinement.