Opinion
Civil Action No. 04-289J.
June 21, 2006
Report and Recommendation
Recommendation
Pending is petitioner's petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241. I recommend that the petition be denied.
Report
Petitioner was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment by Honorable Paul Matia of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, on December 11, 2002. At the time, the Bureau of Prisons considered inmates for placement in community corrections centers and halfway houses for the last six months of their sentences. On December 13, 2002, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel issued a letter opinion advising the Bureau of Prisons that its practice of placing inmates in community corrections centers for the last six months of their sentences disregarded the limitation in 18 U.S.C. § 3624 that placement be for "a reasonable part, not to exceed six months, of the last 10 per centum of the term to be served." (my emphasis). Adopting this restriction, the Bureau of Prisons originally intended to consider petitioner for community corrections centers placement only for the final 3.6 months of his sentence. Faced with numerous judicial opinions holding that the Department of Justice's interpretation of the Bureau of Prisons's power to place inmates was erroneous, the Bureau of Prisons reconsidered petitioner for placement in a community corrections center without regard to the 10% restriction and decided to place him there for an additional two weeks. Petitioner was not deemed suitable for any additional time in a community corrections center because he had a misconduct while incarcerated which involved possession of contraband.
The legal argument that placement in a community corrections center is not limited to the last 10% of a sentence has been generally accepted by the courts; even the subsequent attempt by the Bureau of Prisons to amend its regulations to achieve the same limitation has been declared contrary to the interplay between 18 U.S.C. § 3621 and 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b). See Woodall v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 432 F.3d 235 (3d Cir. 2005).
Having the possibility of being released to a community corrections center for up to six months, needless to say, is not the same as being released for six months. Petitioner has, by being reconsidered under the pre-December 13, 2002 rule for placement beyond the 10% limitation, received all the relief to which he is entitled. The petition should therefore be dismissed as moot.
Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b) (1), the parties are given notice that they have ten days to serve and file written objections to this Report and Recommendation.