Criminal Practice – First Step Act of 2018 – Time Credits

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Because Appellant’s multiple-term sentence includes a sentence for a disqualifying conviction and is, by reason of § 3584(c), to be treated as a single aggregate sentence, Appellant is ineligible for FSA time credits.

We affirmed the district court’s judgment denying Appellant’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

In an effort to promote the release of prisoners who possess a reduced risk of recidivism and thus reduce the federal prison population, Congress enacted Title I of the First Step Act of 2018 (FSA), which incentivizes qualified federal prisoners to participate in and complete “recidivism reduction programs or productive activities” and thereby earn various benefits, including generous jail-time credits. The FSA, however, denies the particular benefit of jail-time credits to any prisoner “serving a sentence for a conviction under” 68 specified laws, including 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), which punishes “possession or use of a firearm during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime.

Appellant is serving a 144-month sentence in a federal prison camp in South Carolina, 120 months of which is attributable to convictions for drug trafficking offenses, which are not disqualifying crimes for FSA time credits, and 24 months of which is attributable to a conviction under § 924(c), which is a disqualifying crime. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) denied Appellant’s request for FSA time credits as to his 120-month sentence, treating his multiple prison terms “as a single, aggregate term of imprisonment,” as required by 18 U.S.C. § 3584(c), and finding him ineligible because that aggregate sentence includes imprisonment for violating § 924(c). From the district court’s judgment, Appellant filed this appeal.

In his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, Appellant challenged the BOP’s decision, arguing that he is eligible to earn FSA time credits during his service of the 120-month component of his sentence attributable to his convictions for drug trafficking, even though he acknowledges that he cannot earn FSA time credits during his service of the 24-month component attributable to his § 924(c) conviction. The district court denied his petition, concluding that Appellant’s position is not supported by the texts of the FSA and § 3584(c), and Appellant appealed.

Because Appellant is serving a revocation sentence for a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) as a component of his single, aggregate 144-month sentence, he is ineligible for FSA time credits under 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(D)(xxii).

Affirmed.

Bonnie v. Dunbar (Lawyers’ Weekly No. 001-174-25, 33 pp) (Paul V. Niemeyer, J.) Appealed from the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Florence (David C. Norton, J.) ARGUED: Patricia Louise Richman, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellant. Kimberly Varadi Hamlett, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: John L. Warren III, LAW OFFICE OF BILL NETTLES, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Adair F. Boroughs, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee. Timothy W. Grinsell, HOPPIN GRINSELL LLP, New York, New York, for Amici Due Process Institute and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit