Background
David Hirsch appealed a district court denial of his petition under Section two thousand two hundred forty-one of Title twenty-eight of the United States Code. Hirsch claimed the Bureau of Prisons improperly deemed him ineligible to earn First Step Act time credits. In two thousand twenty, Hirsch pled guilty to a drug offense and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in violation of Section nine hundred twenty-four subsection C of Title eighteen of the United States Code. He was sentenced to a total of one hundred twenty months in prison, consisting of sixty months for the drug offense plus sixty months for the Section nine hundred twenty-four subsection C offense.
The court’s reasoning
The court concluded that the district court did not err in denying Hirsch’s petition. The Bureau of Prisons correctly treated Hirsch’s prison terms as a single aggregate sentence. Consequently, the Bureau properly denied him time credits based on his Section nine hundred twenty-four subsection C conviction. The court cited Spencer versus Haynes for de novo review and Clinkenbeard versus Murdock for the principle that prisoners with Section nine hundred twenty-four subsection C convictions are ineligible for such credits.
What it means going forward
This decision confirms that prisoners convicted under Section nine hundred twenty-four subsection C of Title eighteen of the United States Code are ineligible for First Step Act time credits when their sentences are treated as a single aggregate term.