United States v. Scparta

• Decision Date: 19 April 2020
• Docket Number: 18-cr-578 (AJN)
• Citation: United States v. Scparta, 567 F.Supp.3d 416 (S.D. N.Y. 2020)
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. Gerard SCPARTA, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

567 F.Supp.3d 416

UNITED STATES

v.Gerard SCPARTA, Defendant.

18-cr-578 (AJN)

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

Signed April 19, 2020

Filed April 20, 2020

Sagar Kananur Ravi, U.S. Attorney's Office, New York, NY, for United States.

OPINION & ORDER

ALISON J. NATHAN, District Judge:

Defendant Gerard Scparta is currently incarcerated at FCI Butner in North Carolina, which is the site of one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 in any federal prison. He suffers from a number of serious medical issues that put him at high risk of severe medical consequences were he to contract the virus. As a result, he has filed an administrative request with the Bureau of Prisons and an emergency motion for compassionate release, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c), with this Court. While this motion was pending, the BOP decided that Mr. Scparta should be released from custody to serve the remainder of his term in home confinement.

One might conclude that this admirable decision would resolve the issue and moot the compassionate-release motion. Unfortunately it does not. That is because the BOP has determined that Mr. Scparta must remain in custody during the peak of the pandemic for what it labels a "14-day quarantine"—but his current confinement is neither a quarantine nor limited to 14 days. In fact, following inquiries from this Court, the Government revealed that Mr. Scparta is housed with many other people in conditions that will inevitably permit the virus to spread. Moreover, as of April 14, the BOP determined that Mr. Scparta's 14-day-clock must start over because one of the many people he is now housed with tested positive. Under the BOP's policy, if any one of the individuals in Mr. Scparta's unit, most of whom have also been approved for home confinement, tests positive, the 14-day waiting period for all inmates in the unit starts anew. The Government also revealed that, despite express authority from the Attorney General to do so, the BOP has not and will not consider permitting Mr. Scparta to self-quarantine in his residence for 14 days.

Given this dangerous set of conditions and Kafkaesque approach, Mr. Scparta presses the Court to grant his still pending motion for compassionate release and order him immediately released on conditions that include a 14-day period of self-isolation in his home. Without any hesitation, the Court concludes that Mr. Scparta is entitled to compassionate release. The barrier to the Court acting immediately, however, is that Mr. Scparta has not exhausted his administrative remedies. In a previous case, the Court determined that it lacked power to waive compliance with the compassionate-release provision's exhaustion requirement. See United States v. Gross , No. 15-cr-769 (AJN), 2020 WL 1862251 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 14, 2020). Since reaching that conclusion, however, another Court in this District issued a decision that reached a contrary conclusion. See United States v. Russo , No. 16-cr-441 (LJL), 2020 WL 1862294 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 14, 2020). This Court is persuaded by Judge Liman's decision. As Justice Frankfurter warned: "Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late." Henslee v. Union Planters Nat. Bank & Tr. Co. , 335 U.S. 595, 600, 69 S.Ct. 290, 93 L.Ed. 259 (1949) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). Accordingly, for the reasons that follow, Mr. Scparta's request is GRANTED, and the Government is ordered to release Mr. Scparta from custody immediately.

I. BACKGROUND

In April 2019, Mr. Scparta was charged in a four-count superseding information. Dkt. No. 30. The Government accused Mr. Scparta of submitting fraudulent social security disability claims for about two decades. Id. ; see also Dkt. Nos. 35, 45. That same month, Mr. Scparta pled guilty to one count of theft of government funds, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641, and one count of tax evasion, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201. See Dkt. No. 35. In August 2019, the Court sentenced Mr. Scparta to 18 months' imprisonment, to be followed by three years' of supervised release. Dkt. Nos. 46 (judgment); 48 at 25–26 (sentencing transcript).

Mr. Scparta is currently serving his sentence in FCI Butner in North Carolina. His expected release date, reflecting good-time credit, is December 28, 2020. Mr. Scparta therefore has served a little more than half of his sentence. On April 8, 2020, he filed an emergency motion for compassionate release. Dkt. No. 51. Two days earlier, Mr. Scparta had submitted the same request to the warden of his prison. Dkt. No. 51, Ex. B. Mr. Scparta seeks compassionate release because his underlying health conditions make him highly vulnerable to COVID-19. Mr. Scparta is 55-years old and suffers from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, and hypertension, and he therefore contends that he is susceptible to serious injury or death if he contracts the disease. In support of his motion, he submitted a letter from his primary-care doctor, who stated: "Given recent conditions with [the] COVID-19 pandemic and due to his hypertension and other medical issues, [Mr. Scparta] is at high risk for COVID." Dkt. No. 51, Ex. C. Mr. Scparta also relied upon statistics regarding the spread of COVID-19 at FCI Butner, which have become even more shocking since his filing. As of April 19, 2020, FCI Butner has had 65 inmates and 25 staff members positive for COVID-19, and five inmates have died. See Bureau of Prisons, Coronavirus, https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/. Testing in BOP facilities is severely limited however, and the real numbers are likely far higher.

The Government opposed Mr. Scparta's request. Dkt. Nos. 52, 53. In its submission the Government argued that the Court is powerless to grant Mr. Scparta's proposed relief because he has not exhausted administrative remedies. Dkt. No. 52. The Government further argued that, even if Mr. Scparta had exhausted, he is not entitled to release. Dkt. No. 53.

Nevertheless, on April 14, 2020, the Government informed the Court that the Bureau of Prisons has determined that Mr. Scparta is eligible for home confinement pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c). Dkt. No. 55. The BOP scheduled Mr. Scparta for transfer to home confinement on April 30, 2020, after what the Government represents to be a "14-day quarantine period" at FCI Butner. Id. The Government represented that FCI Butner is "quarantining" all inmates who will be released on home confinement for 14 days before their release, pursuant to "current directives of the Attorney General." Dkt. No. 63 at 2. Mr. Scparta, however, contends that this purported "quarantine" is no quarantine at all. Mr. Scparta remains in regular and close contact with other inmates and prison staff at FCI Butner. He lines up with other inmates in close proximity in order to receive food and medication multiple times per day. He also shares communal spaces like toilets, sinks, and showers with dozens of other people. Indeed, Mr. Scparta is not housed in a cell by himself; he shares his cell with another prisoner. See Dkt. No. 62 (describing the conditions of Mr. Scparta's confinement). The Government does not contest any of these facts. See Dkt. No. 63. Mr. Scparta therefore asks to quarantine in his home in Orange County, New York, where it is undisputed that he can safely distance from members of his family and the public and receive medical care if necessary. See Dkt. No. 62.

On April 17, 2020, the Court noted that the guidance from the Attorney General, which the Bureau of Prisons uses to justify its quarantine requirement, also provides the BOP with discretion to immediately release inmates who have been approved for home confinement, so that they may quarantine at home instead of the facility at which they are incarcerated. See William P. Barr, Attorney General, Memorandum for Director of Bureau of Prisons: Increasing Use of Home Confinement at Institutions Most Affected by COVID-19, at 2 (Apr. 3, 2020). The Court therefore asked the Government how often the Bureau of Prisons has exercised this discretion for inmates approved for home confinement at FCI Butner, and whether the BOP considered exercising this discretion to immediately transfer Mr. Scparta to his home.

On April 18, 2020, the Government filed a reply. Dkt. No. 65. The Government represented that to date, FCI Butner "has not been exercising case-by-discretion as to whether inmates should be released to a 14-day quarantine prior to release." Id. at 1. Instead, "the BOP instructed FCI Butner staff to place all inmates being released to home confinement into quarantine 14 days prior to their scheduled transfer date." Id. Mr. Scparta was placed in what the Government labels "quarantine" on April 10, "along with other inmates with upcoming home confinement dates," such that they could be released on April 24. However, and entirely unsurprisingly, on April 14, "one of the inmates in the defendant's unit become symptomatic and has since tested positive for COVID-19." Id. at 1–2. Under the BOP's policy, this caused the 14-day quarantine period "for each inmate in the unit, including Scparta, [to] re-start[ ], and the quarantine will now be completed on April 28, 2020, assuming no other inmates in the defendant's unit becomes symptomatic." Id. at 2.

The Court notes the plain absurdity of the Government's and the Bureau of Prisons' position. Under this policy—which, as far as the Court is aware, is not mandated by any statute, regulation, or informal guidance issued by the Attorney General—many inmates who are on the cusp of relief to home confinement to protect them from COVID-19, which is spreading rampantly at FCI Butner, are housed together in close quarters for at least 14 days. No testing for COVID-19 is done before placement in this group quarantine. If any inmate in the unit tests positive, the 14-day clock for every individual being quarantined starts anew. See id. If somehow 14 days go by for an inmate with no other inmate showing symptoms of COVID-19, the...