Barnes v. Scibana

Full title: JOHN D. BARNES, Petitioner, v. JOSEPH SCIBANA, Respondent

Court: United States District Court, W.D. Wisconsin

Date published: Jun 24, 2004

04-C-406-C (W.D. Wis. Jun. 24, 2004)

Opinion

04-C-406-C.

June 24, 2004

ORDER

BARBARA CRABB, Chief Judge, District

In White v. Scibana, 314 F. Supp.2d 834 (W.D. Wis. Apr. 23, 2004), I concluded that the Bureau of Prisons was acting contrary to 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b) by calculating petitioner Yancey White's good conduct time on the basis of the actual time he had served rather than his imposed sentence. I granted White's petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 and ordered the warden to recalculate White's good conduct time in accordance with § 3624(b).

Like White, petitioner John Barnes is an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford, Wisconsin. His petition under § 2241 raises the same issue as that in White: he alleges that the bureau is calculating his good conduct time on the basis of time served rather than the sentence imposed. Petitioner has paid the $5 filing fee.

In the time that has passed since Yancey White's petition was granted, many other prisoners at the Oxford facility have filed habeas corpus petitions challenging the Bureau of Prisons's method of calculating their good time credits. I have stayed most of these petitions pending a decision from the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in White. Because the court of appeals will likely resolve the question definitively, it makes sense to wait to decide new cases, unless the petitioner has a looming release date. Therefore, until the court of appeals makes its decision, I will issue orders to show cause only in cases in which (1) the petitioner submits a sentence computation from the bureau showing his release date and (2) his release date would be imminent after a recalculation of his good conduct time in accordance with White.

In this case, petitioner has alleged only that he was sentenced to a term of 84 months and is entitled to 378 days of good conduct time. He has not submitted his sentence computation report showing when he is scheduled for release. Therefore, it is impossible to determine whether petitioner's release date would be imminent if his good conduct time was recalculated in accordance with White.

ORDER

IT IS ORDERED that a STAY is imposed on the question whether the court should issue an order to show cause or enter a stay in this case pending a decision by the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in White v. Scibana, No. 04-2410. Petitioner may have until July 12, 2004, in which to submit documentation revealing the date of his sentence and his release date as it is presently calculated by the Bureau of Prisons. If petitioner fails to respond to this order by July 12, 2004, I will enter an order staying the action pending a decision by the court of appeals.