Plan to track down justice's children (Kenneth W. Leaming)

[Famspear]

Kenneth Wayne Leaming, inmate # 34928-086, had been scheduled for release on December 5, 2018. However, the Federal Bureau of Prisons shows that he is still at the penitentiary at Marion, and his scheduled release date is now July 12, 2019.

EDIT: Looking back, I see that by June 2014, his projected release date had been changed to February 13, 2019. So, the change to July 12, 2019 happened some time after June 2014.

Maybe he's been a bad boy in prison????

[TBL]

If someone picks up additional charges in prison, will they show up in PACER?

[wserra]

If someone picks up additional charges in prison, will they show up in PACER?

New unrelated charges, yes, but under a new docket. If the "someone" is awaiting trial and a superseding indictment comes down the pike, that of course will be filed under the same docket.

[TBL]

Ok, so does anyone know if the extension was due to additional charges? I didn't think admin disciplinary issues in prison could extend a term.



--Edited for CDO reasons.

[noblepa]

Ok, so does anyone know if the extension was due to additional charges? I didn't think admin disciplinary issues in prison could extend a term.



--Edited for CDO reasons.

IANAL, but that is my understanding, as well. However, disciplinary issues can result in the loss of "good behavior" credits, causing the inmate to serve his/her full sentence, rather than being released early.

If an inmate commits a crime, such as assaulting a guard, rather than a simple rules infraction, that crime would be charged and tried in a court. Those proceeding, I assume, would definitely show up in Pacer.

[Famspear]

Ok, so does anyone know if the extension was due to additional charges? I didn't think admin disciplinary issues in prison could extend a term.

Disciplinary issues in prison don't extend the prison "term" in the sense in which I think you might mean.

I'm no expert on this, but my understanding is that in the U.S. Federal prison system, the "original" projected release date is not the date of the end of the prison term that was imposed by the Court, in the Judgment of Conviction. Instead, the projected release date, as originally published, is a date that shows that the inmate might get out when he or she has served about 85% of the prison time imposed by the Court.

This means that when an inmate gets out on the exact date of the projected release date, he or she is getting out early (because of good behavior, etc). Thus, if the projected release date is changed to some later date, that's not an "extension" of the prison term imposed by the Court.

Example: The convict is sentenced by the Court to 10 years in prison (120 months). The web site for the Federal Bureau of Prisons will probably show a projected release date of about 102 months (that is, 85% of 120 months), or 8 years and 6 months. If for some reason the web site for the Federal Bureau of prisons shows a change in the projected release date to a date that is three months later than what was originally specified, that means that the prisoner is now expected to serve 105 months (102 + 3 = 105), or 8 years and 9 months. That's not an extension of the ten year (120 month) sentence imposed by the Court. Indeed, the prisoner would still be serving LESS than the total prison time stated in the Judgment of Conviction.

[Famspear]

And, there's more: Often, the original projected release date (which tends to be a prediction of the total actual "prison" time of 85% of the amount of the sentence imposed by the Court) is the date that the inmate is released from the "custody" of a "residential reentry management (RRM) field office." My understanding is that several weeks prior to the posted date of projected "release", the inmate is actually released from the prison facility and is sent to the RRM field office.

Other regulars here know more about the RRM field offices than I do, but I think this means that the inmate is actually released from what most people would consider a real "prison" some weeks prior to the date shown as the "release date."

[Famspear]

From the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) web site:

The BOP contracts with residential reentry centers (RRCs), also known as halfway houses, to provide assistance to inmates who are nearing release. RRCs provide a safe, structured, supervised environment, as well as employment counseling, job placement, financial management assistance, and other programs and services. RRCs help inmates gradually rebuild their ties to the community and facilitate supervising ex-offenders' activities during this readjustment phase.

[ . . . ]

Residential Reentry Centers provide programs that help inmates rebuild their ties to the community and reduces [sic] the likelihood that they will recidivate.

[ . . ]

In-house counts are conducted throughout the day at scheduled and random intervals. An inmate is only authorized to leave the RRC through sign-out procedures for approved activities, such as seeking employment, working, counseling, visiting, or recreation purposes. During the approved activity, the inmate's location and movements are constantly monitored and RRC staff may visit or call them at any time. In addition, when the inmate returns they may be given a random drug and alcohol test.

[ . . . ]

RRC staff assist inmates in obtaining employment through a network of local employers, employment job fairs, and training classes in resume writing, interview techniques, etc. Ordinarily, offenders are expected to be employed 40 hours/week within 15 calendar days after their arrival at the RRC.

[ . . . ]

During their stay, offenders are required to pay a subsistence fee to help defray the cost of their confinement; this charge is 25 percent of their gross income, not to exceed the per diem rate for that contract. The contractor assists inmates in locating suitable housing (if necessary), to which they can release from the RRC. In cases where an inmate will be released with supervision, the contractor verifies the proposed address and forwards its comments to the U.S. Probation Office. [ . . . ]

See:

https://www.bop.gov/about/facilities/re ... enters.jsp

[Famspear]

As of right now, the BOP web site indicates that Mr. Leaming is still at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois.

[Dr. Caligari]

As of right now, the BOP web site indicates that Mr. Leaming is still at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois.

...a particularly nasty place to be housed, I understand.

[morrand]

Ok, so does anyone know if the extension was due to additional charges? I didn't think admin disciplinary issues in prison could extend a term.

Disciplinary issues in prison don't extend the prison "term" in the sense in which I think you might mean.

I'm no expert on this, but my understanding is that in the U.S. Federal prison system, the "original" projected release date is not the date of the end of the prison term that was imposed by the Court, in the Judgment of Conviction. Instead, the projected release date, as originally published, is a date that shows that the inmate might get out when he or she has served about 85% of the prison time imposed by the Court.

For the record, Mr. Leaming's original sentence was 97 months per docket entry #253 (WAWD 3:12-CR-05039). That judgment was entered on May 27, 2013. There were a couple of rounds of nominal resentencing on appeal; the judgment that was finally affirmed is docket #328, entered Feb. 19, 2016. No change in the length of the sentence.

Counting from the date that he was arrested (Nov. 22, 2011) and assuming he got full sentence credit for each day between then and sentencing, 97 months after that date would be December 22, 2019. Allowing 85% for good time gets him out in 82 months, or around Sept. 22, 2018, a little earlier than his previous projected release, but whether that reflects his fault or mine, I don't know. Given the subsequent rescheduling of his release, I would guess he bears some responsibility for that.

Anyway, barring some really serious misbehavior on his part, it kind of looks like he'll still be out by the end of this year.

ETA — And of course, if you assume he got the 18 months pre-sentencing as full day-for-day credit, that apparently wouldn't be counted in the 85% allowance: he would serve 85% of 97 - 18 = 79 months, or a starting point of around 85 months; and, in short, would add about 3 months to his projected release. So December 2018 is probably about right for a first projected release date. (I'm dropping fractional months left and right here, of course: if I can't even get the months right, I've no hope of getting the exact date worked out, and I just expect that the BOP has a better slide rule at their disposal than I have at mine.)

[KickahaOta]

Don't feel bad about not being able to understand how release date calculations work. Congress wrote the law on it, and they've screwed it up. Twice.

The law in question is 18 USC § 3624, "Release of a prisoner". As originally written, it looked like this:

"[...]a prisoner who is serving a term of imprisonment of more than 1 year  other than a term of imprisonment for the duration of the prisoner’s life, may receive credit toward the service of the prisoner’s sentence of up to 54 days for each year of the prisoner’s sentence imposed by the court, subject to determination by the Bureau of Prisons that, during that year, the prisoner has displayed exemplary compliance with institutional disciplinary regulations."

In other words, for each year of the term of imprisonment, you can get 54 days of good behavior. 54/365 is 14.8%, which is about 15%. So this is why everyone says "You have to serve 85% of your term -- if you're sentenced to 1000 days, you have to serve roughly 850." And that's almost certainly what Congress meant.

But there's a problem. What does "term of imprisonment" mean? If you're like most people, you think it means "the sentence announced by the judge." And again, that's almost certainly what Congress meant. But the Bureau of Prisons took a different approach. The Bureau of Prisons decided that "term of imprisonment" meant "the time you actually served in prison." And, as it turns out, this makes a big difference. Because by this interpretation, since the fact that you're getting good-time credit means that you're serving less time in prison, that means that you're eligible for less good-time credit to begin with. So if you're sentenced to 1000 days, you don't get out in 850 days. You get out in around 871 days, because at that point those 871 days served have earned you 129 days of good-time credit.

So federal prisoners have actually served around 87.1% of their sentence rather than 85%. Which doesn't sound like much of a difference, but try serving 20 years and see how that extra 153 days or so at the end feels.

And this went to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court said 'Both interpretations of that language are valid. We won't say that the BOP's interpretation is the one Congress had in mind. We won't even say that it's the best interpretation. But it's a reasonable interpretation, and so we're going to defer to the BOP and allow it."

And so federal prisoners served that extra time, and even though Congress could have fixed it at any point, they didn't, presumably because not enough folks wanted to look soft on crime.

And just recently, Congress passed the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act, in which they finally decided to fix this, among other things. And so they changed the language to "up to 54 days for each year of the prisoner’s sentence imposed by the court", which eliminates the ambiguity.

And they meant for this change to be retroactive. And they tried to write that it would be retroactive. But they screwed that up too, so that the change only applies once the DOJ finishes making rules about a completely different fix.

[morrand]

Don't feel bad about not being able to understand how release date calculations work. Congress wrote the law on it, and they've screwed it up. Twice.

Well, what prompted me to write the correction was that I was doing my weekly trawl through the 7th Circuit's new opinions and orders, and found one in which a former parolee was suing her parole officer for illegally prolonging her parole. The court of appeals had to send the case back down to the district court to figure out when her parole had actually ended.

I figure that, if even the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals can't figure out a parole term on its own, some random bozo on the internet is...well, not entitled to do worse, but at least entitled to a lower standard of accuracy in computing prison terms.

I also forgot to mention that, in researching Leaming's case, I noticed that the AUSA on the case was Vince Lombardi. I can't recall if this was pointed out upthread already or not, but either way, as a Middle Westerner, I find this unreasonably hilarious. And to my great surprise and delight, it turns out that this is not entirely a coincidence, but that there is a real connection back to Green Bay.

[TBL]

Got it, I was just trying to figure out if he was being naughty in class.

[Famspear]

Kenneth Leaming was released from Federal prison on schedule, on July 12, 2019.