Chase v. U.S. Bureau of Prisons
- Jacquelyn Corley
- 3:21-cv-07566
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Chase v. U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Judge Corley transferred Chase’s sentence-credit petition to the Eastern District of Texas.
Benjamin Chase and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons; the petition will proceed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
What happened
Benjamin Chase, representing himself, filed a petition claiming that prison officials failed to properly calculate his presentence time credits. He brought the case under a federal law allowing prisoners to challenge how their sentences are carried out.
Chase was incarcerated at a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, which is in the Eastern District of Texas. The court said that district was the preferable forum for reviewing how his sentence was being carried out.
Judge Jacquelyn Scott Corley transferred the petition to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The order did not decide whether Chase was entitled to the requested time credits.
The detailed version
- Chase v. U.S. Bureau of Prisons · No. 3:21-cv-07566
- Jacquelyn Corley
- Oct. 15, 2021
Background
Benjamin Chase filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 while representing himself. The petition challenged the execution of his sentence—that is, how prison officials were carrying it out. Chase contended that prison officials had unlawfully failed to calculate his presentence time credits.
Venue and transfer
The court stated that Chase was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas, within the venue of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. It explained that a sentence-execution petition may be heard either in the district where the prisoner is confined or in the district where the prisoner was convicted. The court further stated that the district of confinement is the preferable forum for reviewing the execution of a sentence.
Ruling
The court transferred the petition to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The order addressed venue only and did not decide the merits of Chase’s claim about presentence time credits.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.