Campbell v. Warden
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-07744
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Campbell v. Warden, Judge Swain transferred Campbell’s sentence-challenge petition to Pennsylvania because he is incarcerated there.
George Campbell’s federal sentence-challenge petition was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Middle District of Pennsylvania; the merits of his disciplinary and good-time-credit claims were not decided.
What happened
In Campbell v. Warden, George Campbell, who was representing himself, challenged disciplinary action at a federal prison. He alleged that prison officials denied him fair procedures after accusing him of possessing a weapon, and he asked to erase the incident and restore his good-time credits.
The court did not decide whether Campbell’s rights were violated. Instead, it ruled that a petition challenging how a federal sentence is carried out generally belongs in the district where the prisoner is held and where the custodian is located. Because Campbell was incarcerated at FCI Schuylkill in Pennsylvania, the court transferred the case to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Judge Swain directed the clerk to transfer the action and closed it in the Southern District of New York. The transferee court will decide whether Campbell may proceed without paying the filing fee. The court also declined to issue a certificate allowing an appeal based on a constitutional-rights claim and denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
The detailed version
- Campbell v. Warden · No. 1:22-cv-07744
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 15, 2022
Background
George Campbell, who was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania, filed a self-represented petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. A § 2241 petition is a request to challenge the execution, or administration, of a federal sentence. Campbell alleged that while he was confined at FCI Otisville, the Federal Bureau of Prisons disciplined him for possessing a weapon but denied him due process during the disciplinary proceedings. He sought to have the incident removed from his prison record and to have his good-time credits restored.
Transfer ruling
The court held that it needed jurisdiction over Campbell’s custodian to consider the petition. Citing the rule that a challenge to present federal custody generally must be filed in the district where the prisoner is confined, the court noted that FCI Schuylkill is in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, within the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The court therefore transferred the action to that district in the interest of justice under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a). The court did not reach the merits of Campbell’s due-process allegations or decide whether he was entitled to restoration of his good-time credits.
Disposition
The clerk was directed to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and the Southern District of New York case was closed. Because Campbell had neither paid the $5 filing fee nor submitted an application to proceed without paying it, the transferee court was left to decide whether he could proceed without payment. The court stated that Campbell had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied, so it would not issue a certificate of appealability. It also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.