Jenkins v. Segal
- Wilhelmina Wright
- 0:23-cv-00425
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 4
Jenkins v. Segal: Judge Wright denied and dismissed without prejudice Jenkins’s petition challenging refusal to apply earned credits because a deportation order made her ineligible.
Betty Lee Jenkins, a self-represented federal prisoner with a final deportation order, could not apply her earned First Step Act time credits to her sentence.
What happened
Betty Lee Jenkins v. Warden Michael Segal involved Jenkins’s petition seeking release from prison through application of time credits earned under the First Step Act. She had accrued the maximum 365 days of credits, but prison officials refused to apply them because an immigration court had issued a final deportation order against her.
Jenkins argued that she should receive the credits earned before the deportation order was issued. The court concluded that the law makes a prisoner with a final deportation order ineligible to apply these credits and does not distinguish between credits earned before or after the order.
Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright overruled Jenkins’s objection, adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation, and denied and dismissed the petition without prejudice.
The detailed version
- Jenkins v. Segal · No. 0:23-cv-00425
- Wilhelmina Wright
- Oct. 30, 2023
Background
Betty Lee Jenkins was serving a 126-month prison sentence for conspiracy to manufacture 100 or more marijuana plants and maintaining a drug-involved premises. Her projected release date was December 14, 2023.
The First Step Act directs the Department of Justice to offer evidence-based recidivism-reduction programs and allows eligible prisoners to earn time credits that may reduce the time they serve. The statute excludes a prisoner who is subject to a final order of removal under the immigration laws from applying those credits.
Jenkins had participated in eligible programming and had accrued 365 days of earned time credits, the maximum allowed. In 2020, while she was earning the credits, an immigration court issued a final order of deportation to Canada. The Bureau of Prisons refused to apply the credits to her sentence. Jenkins filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 seeking immediate release and an order requiring the Bureau of Prisons to apply the credits earned before the deportation order.
Report and Recommendation and Objection
A magistrate judge recommended dismissing Jenkins’s petition. Jenkins objected. The district court reviewed the portions of the recommendation to which she objected. Because the court found that her objection repeated the argument in her petition, it reviewed the objection for clear error. The court also liberally interpreted her filings because she represented herself.
Court’s Analysis
The court held that the plain language of 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(E)(i) made Jenkins ineligible to apply earned time credits because she had a final deportation order. The court rejected her argument that credits earned before the order should remain usable, explaining that the statute does not distinguish eligibility based on when the deportation order was issued. Jenkins did not dispute that the final order existed.
Disposition
The court found no clear error, overruled Jenkins’s objection, and adopted the Report and Recommendation. It denied Jenkins’s petition and dismissed the action. The order specifically states that the petition was denied and dismissed without prejudice.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.