Bolanos v. Jenkins

Background

Gaylene L. Bolanos, a federal prisoner held at FCI-Dublin, sought release under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 because she believed her current confinement conditions exposed her to a high risk of contracting COVID-19. The opinion states that she was 63 years old and had various medical conditions, including a heart-valve defect and high blood pressure. She had been sentenced to 120 months in the Eastern District of California.

Claims and Analysis

Bolanos sought compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582, as well as relief based on the Equal Protection Clause and memoranda issued by Attorney General William Barr directing Bureau of Prisons officials to consider release or transfer for certain at-risk prisoners.

The court held that a compassionate-release request under § 3582 had to be presented to the sentencing court. The Northern District of California therefore could not decide that request through a § 2241 petition. The court stated that Bolanos’s request for compassionate release under § 3582 was DENIED and identified the Eastern District of California as the proper court for that request.

The court separately held that Bolanos’s equal-protection and prison-conditions claims were civil-rights claims, not claims properly brought through a petition challenging the legality of her custody. Those claims could be pursued in a federal civil-rights action. The court also explained that a federal prisoner must exhaust available administrative remedies with the Bureau of Prisons before filing such a prison-conditions action.

Disposition

The court DISMISSED without prejudice the federal habeas corpus action. The dismissal was without prejudice to Bolanos’s filing a compassionate-release request in the sentencing court and without prejudice to filing a civil-rights action after exhausting available administrative remedies. The Clerk was directed to enter judgment for the respondent and close the file. Judge William H. Orrick signed the order on June 16, 2020.