Fields v. Keohane, s. 90-5088

• Decision Date: 15 August 1990
• Docket Number: 90-5173,Nos. 90-5088,s. 90-5088
• Citation: 954 F.2d 945
• Parties: Linwood FIELDS, Appellant, v. Patrick KEOHANE, Federal Bureau of Prisons Attorney General, of the United States. Wardell HILLARD; Charles R. James-Bey; Andre Springs, Appellants, v. Patrick W. KEOHANE. . Argued and Submitted under Third Circuit Rule 12(6)
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 945

954 F.2d 945

Linwood FIELDS, Appellant, v. Patrick KEOHANE, Federal Bureau of Prisons Attorney General,

of the United States.

Wardell HILLARD; Charles R. James-Bey; Andre Springs, Appellants, v. Patrick W. KEOHANE.

Nos. 90-5088, 90-5173.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued and Submitted under Third Circuit Rule 12(6)

Aug. 15, 1990.

Decided Jan. 28, 1992.

Linwood Fields, pro se in No. 90-5088.

James J. West, U.S. Atty., Martin C. Carlson, Asst. U.S. Atty., Harrisburg, Pa., for appellee in No. 90-5088.

Louise O. Knight (argued), Clement & Knight, On Behalf of Lewisburg Prison Project, Lewisburg, Pa., Robert C. Hauhart, Prisoners' Rights Program, Lorton, Va., for appellants in No. 90-5173.

James J. West, U.S. Atty., Frederick E. Martin (argued), Asst. U.S. Atty., Lewisburg, Pa., for appellee in No. 90-5173.

Before MANSMANN, GREENBERG, and SEITZ, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

GREENBERG, Circuit Judge.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellants Wardell Hillard, Charles R. James-Bey, and Andre Springs, appeal from an order of the district court entered on December 21, 1989, denying their joint petition for habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241, and appellant Linwood Fields separately appeals from an order of the district court entered on December 8, 1989, denying his separate petition for habeas corpus also filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241. On July 16, 1990, we entered an order approving a stipulation consolidating the appeals. ¹ The appellants' principal contention is that there is a constitutional requirement that the District of Columbia Good Time Credits Act of 1986, though by its terms largely limited to prisoners retained in a District facility, be applied to prisoners like themselves who were convicted of offenses under District law in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia but serve their custodial sentences in the federal prison system. The claim can arise because the District of Columbia Code provides that a prisoner convicted of a District offense is committed to the custody of the Attorney General of the United States for service of sentence in a facility, designated by the Attorney General, whether maintained by the United States, the District, or otherwise, within or without the District. D.C.Code Ann. § 24-425.

The basic facts of the cases are not in question. The appellants, all convicted of violent criminal offenses under District law, were sentenced in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia under the District of Columbia Code as follows: (1) on November 19, 1984, Hillard was sentenced to an aggregate term of 20 years to life imprisonment; (2) on April 20, 1983, James-Bey was sentenced to an aggregate term of 32 years to 96 years imprisonment; (3) on October 18, 1978, Springs was sentenced to an aggregate term of 18 years and two months to 56 years and six months; and (4) on August 26, 1977, Fields was sentenced to an aggregate term of 15 years to life imprisonment. The Attorney General has provided for their confinement at the United States Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, rather than at a District of Columbia facility.

Their confinement at Lewisburg has had a significant effect on the appellants' potential parole eligibility for, as federal prisoners, they are subject to the federal good time credits system rather than that under the Good Time Credits Act. ² The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Moss v. Clark, 886 F.2d 686 (4th Cir.1989), explained the difference as follows:

The District and federal good time systems differ in significant respects. Under the federal good time system, the Bureau of Prisons applies good time credits to the prisoner's maximum sentence which moves the mandatory release date forward, but does not affect the minimum term required to be served before an inmate becomes eligible for parole. 18 U.S.C. § 4161 (1982). Under the District scheme, good time credits are applied to reduce the minimum term of imprisonment, which determines the date of parole eligibility, as well as to reduce the maximum term of imprisonment, which determines mandatory release. D.C.Code § 24-428(b).

Under the federal system, the Bureau of Prisons awards 'good conduct' credits of five to ten days per month, based on the length of the sentence, to those prisoners who demonstrate good behavior. 18 U.S.C. § 4161. The amount is not awarded automatically at the beginning of a sentence, but credited monthly as earned. Under the District system, an inmate incarcerated in a District correctional facility is automatically entitled to a maximum of 10 days institutional good time per month. D.C.Code § 24-428(a). The credits cannot be revoked without a hearing. D.C.Code § 24-432 (1989 Replacement Vol.). In addition to these automatic good conduct credits, extra good time credits are available under both systems, but with some variations. See, 18 U.S.C. § 4162; 28 C.F.R. §§ 523.1-523.17; D.C.Code § 24-429 (1989 Replacement Vol.). Although the parties disagreed over the exact number of days involved in available credits under the federal versus the District good time systems, the district court found a significant difference in the opportunity to reduce petitioners' sentences under the two schemes. For example, under the federal system, the earliest parole date for petitioner Moss would be April 1994. If awarded credits under the District scheme, Moss would face a parole eligibility date of either January 1991 or June 1992. Moss [v. Clark], 698 F.Supp. at 646 [ (E.D.Va.1988) ].

Id. at 688-89 (footnote omitted). ³

The appellants have supplied a detailed explanation of their eligibility for good time credits. Thus, in their joint brief Hillard, James-Bey and Springs make the following assertions:

Application of the federal good time credits statutes to Appellant Hillard reveals that for his sentence from 20 years to life he must serve 20 years before he is eligible for parole. D.C. Code §§ 24-428 and 429 would have reduced his minimum by almost 50% or 10 years, making him eligible for parole in 1995 instead of January 30, 2005. Appellant James-Bey's sentence of from 32 years to 96 years requires that he serve 32 years before he is parole eligible under the federal system. Under the D.C.Code, he would enjoy reduction of his minimum by almost 50% to 16 years, making him eligible for parole in 1999 instead of March 30, 2015. Similarly, Appellant Springs' sentence of from 18 years 2 months to 56 years 6 months under the federal system requires him to serve 18 years and 2 months before he is parole eligible. By comparison, D.C.Code §§ 24-428 and 429 would reduce his minimum by almost 50% or by 9 years and 1 month, making him eligible for parole immediately instead of on May 18, 1997.

Brief at 8.

The appellee, though not stating his specific agreement with these calculations, does not dispute them. In any event, even if the calculations are not accurate, the appellee does not contend that the appellants are not eligible for parole earlier under the District system than under the federal system.

Fields contends that, under the federal system, he is obliged to serve 15 years from when he was sentenced, i.e., until August 26, 1992, to be eligible for parole, whereas under the District of Columbia system his minimum would be reduced "by almost 50% or 8 years, making [him] eligible for parole in 1985," thus permitting his immediate release. Brief at iii. The appellee does not contend that Fields's calculations are incorrect.

The appellants assert that the Good Time Credits Act denies them equal protection of the laws and due process of law under the Fifth Amendment, because its failure to extend the liberal good time credits computation under the Act to District prisoners confined in a federal facility is not rationally related to a legitimate "state" interest and because there are no objective, rational and ascertainable standards to determine which District prisoners are sent to federal prisons. ⁴ They further contend that they have a "liberty interest" in receiving the benefits of the Good Time Credits Act and in their place of confinement within a District facility and that this liberty interest was taken from them in violation of due process of law protections by their assignment to Lewisburg. The appellee responds that it is constitutional to limit the application of the Good Time Credits Act to prisoners in District facilities, as the District of Columbia Council enacted the Good Time Credits Act to address an overcrowding problem in its own facilities. The appellee further urges that the appellants do not have a liberty interest for due process purposes because the Good Time Credits Act only provides for credits for prisoners within a District facility and the District Code expressly permits the Attorney General to transfer district prisoners to a federal institution.

II. ANALYSIS

It is important at the outset of our analysis to emphasize that this appeal involves habeas corpus proceedings brought by the appellants and thus they can only challenge the bases on which they are held in custody. See Coleman v. Thompson, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2546, 2554, 115 L.Ed.2d 640 (1991) (on habeas a federal court does not review a judgment; rather it reviews "the lawfulness of the petitioner's custody simpliciter"). It therefore follows that unless resolution of the constitutional issues raised by the appellants in their favor can affect the length of their custodial terms, there is no point in addressing the issues. At bottom, of course, the appellants complain that their equal protection and due process rights have been infringed because they are treated differently than District prisoners assigned to a District facility. Thus, if the Good Time Credits Act is not applied to any person convicted of a crime in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, regardless of that person's place of confinement, the appellants would...