Dennis Michael Roe Jr. v. Warden, FCI-Leavenworth

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of Kansas denied Dennis Michael Roe Jr.'s pro se petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. The court held that Roe failed to exhaust available Bureau of Prisons administrative remedies and did not establish futility. The court also concluded that Roe had not shown entitlement to relief concerning First Step Act credits, prerelease custody, or delayed drug-treatment programming.

Holdings

1. A petitioner seeking § 2241 habeas relief must exhaust available administrative remedies before seeking relief in federal court, and Roe's conceded failure to exhaust supported denial of his petition.
2. The narrow futility exception to § 2241 exhaustion requires a petitioner to demonstrate extraordinary circumstances showing that administrative exhaustion would be futile; generalized allegations of widespread Bureau of Prisons errors are insufficient without supporting evidence.
3. A district court may deny an unexhausted habeas claim on the merits.
4. Petitioner was not entitled to § 2241 relief based on alleged failure to apply First Step Act credits because he did not show that the Bureau of Prisons had failed to recognize the 180 days of credits he identified.
5. Petitioner did not establish eligibility for immediate transfer to prerelease custody under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(g) because he did not show that he had earned credits equal to the remainder of his term of imprisonment.
6. The alleged delay in completing the drug treatment program did not establish entitlement to habeas relief because petitioner remained eligible for a possible one-year sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3621(e) upon eventual completion of the program.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the § 2241 petition should be denied because petitioner failed to exhaust available administrative remedies.
2. Whether petitioner established that exhaustion would be futile under the narrow exception to the exhaustion requirement.
3. Whether petitioner demonstrated that the Bureau of Prisons failed to recognize earned First Step Act credits.
4. Whether petitioner established eligibility for immediate transfer to prerelease custody under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(g).
5. Whether the alleged delay in completing a drug treatment program affected execution of the sentence sufficiently to warrant habeas relief.

Disposition

writ_denied