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LAST-SECOND HAIL MARY ON GOOD TIME BATTED DOWN IN D.C. COURTROOM END ZONE
Sadly, football preseason is still a few weeks away, but that did not stop the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a D.C. legal foundation dedicated to fight federal agency infringement of liberties, from unloading a “Hail Mary” in its suit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons on behalf of an inmate late last month.
NCLA argued that its client, Robert Shipp, is due to be released in November under the old good-time calculation. But under the First Step Act, the extra good time he will get should have let him out in June. Even though he was due to be released from custody last month under a change in federal law, NCLA argued, “the BOP has refused to release him while it waits until July 19, 2019 to apply the new law at its discretion. There are some 4,000 federal prisoners like Shipp across the country who sit in limbo at BOP’s mercy.”
In the Washington Examiner last week, NCLA’s attorney said, “Each day the BOP ignores Congress’ orders, thousands of people continue to be held beyond their lawful release dates, away from their families. BOP is stealing time from them that they will never get back. Agencies like the BOP cannot wait until they find it convenient to follow the law; they should uphold the law and give people the good time credit they have earned.”
Unfortunately, life imitated sport. NCLA’s request for the emergency order was denied last week. With the clock running out, NCLA filed a motion for an emergency order telling the BOP to calculate the extra good time immediately. The judge held:
Shipp asserts that delaying the effectiveness of the amendment “makes no sense in light of the clearly stated Congressional intent to rectify the BOP’s previous actions in calculating good time credit.” He urges the application of the rule of lenity in his favor because “[a]t worst, the statute is silent as to the effective date for t[he]… good-time fix provision.” And he points to the legislative history of the act, which he contends shows that the good time credit amendment was intended to be effective immediately. But while it is sympathetic to Shipp’s position, the Court cannot agree with his interpretation of the Act. The statutory text clearly points to a single possible interpretation, which trumps any contrary indication of Congressional intent or in the Act’s legislative history. It may be that Section 102(b)(2) was inartfully drafted, and does not reflect what Congress intended in amending 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b). But even if that were the case, “[i]t is beyond [the Court’s] province to rescue Congress from its drafting errors, and to provide for what [the Court] might think… is the preferred result.” Having determined that Section 102(b)(1)(A) is not yet effective, and thus that Defendants are not unlawfully failing to comply with their obligations under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b), the Court finds that Shipp’s claim is unlikely to succeed on the merits and it denies his emergency motion for injunctive relief.”
Memorandum Opinion and Order, Shipp v Hurwitz, Case 1:19-cv-01733-RC, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113096 (D.D.C. July 9, 2019)
Washington Examiner, Despite sentencing reform, the US Bureau of Prisons is holding thousands of inmates illegally beyond their release dates (July 8)
– Thomas L. Root