Babatunde Popoola v. Sam Scales, et al.

Summary

The Eastern District of Virginia denies Respondents’ motion to dismiss and grants Babatunde Popoola’s petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. The court holds that the petitioner’s challenge to his transfer from prerelease custody to incarceration based on an immigration detainer is cognizable in habeas and that the Bureau of Prisons’ withdrawal of prerelease custody solely on that basis violates the First Step Act. The court does not find that the reincarceration violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause.

Holdings

1. A federal inmate's challenge to reincarceration from a halfway house based on the Bureau of Prisons' alleged violation of the mandatory First Step Act time-credit provisions is a challenge to the execution of the sentence and is cognizable under § 2241.
2. Section 3621(b)'s bar on review of BOP place-of-imprisonment designations does not bar judicial review of whether the BOP complied with the mandatory First Step Act time-credit provisions.
3. The exhaustion requirement for a § 2241 petition should be waived where the petitioner's release date is approaching, administrative review would likely be futile, and the claim presents a purely legal challenge to a nationwide BOP policy.
4. The First Step Act does not permit the BOP to exclude a noncitizen with an immigration detainer from earning or applying FSA time credits when the inmate has no final order of removal.
5. When an eligible inmate has earned more than 365 FSA time credits, the BOP may not refuse to apply the excess credits toward prerelease custody solely because the inmate has an immigration detainer.
6. Popoola's reincarceration did not violate the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause because returning him to ordinary incarceration did not affect the duration of his sentence or impose an atypical and significant hardship relative to the baseline conditions dictated by his sentence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Popoola's challenge to reincarceration from a halfway house to a prison based on the Bureau of Prisons' administration of First Step Act time credits was cognizable under 28 U.S.C. § 2241.
2. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b) barred judicial review of the Bureau of Prisons' decision to reincarcerate Popoola.
3. Whether the court should excuse Popoola's failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
4. Whether the First Step Act permits the Bureau of Prisons to deny earned time credits to a noncitizen with an immigration detainer but no final order of removal.
5. Whether the Bureau of Prisons satisfied its First Step Act obligations by applying only 365 credits toward supervised release and refusing to apply additional credits toward prerelease custody.
6. Whether Popoola's reincarceration violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause.

Disposition

writ_granted