Sean Harris, a federal prisoner serving a 144-month sentence for a drug offense, filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 alleging that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) miscalculated his First Step Act time credits. Harris argued that his sentence commenced on the date of his sentencing in April 2021, meaning he should have been eligible to earn credits during the seven months he spent in holdover status or in transit before arriving at his designated facility in November 2021. He claimed he engaged in productive activities, such as working as an orderly, during this period. The district court denied the petition, finding that while the BOP's regulation defining the start of a sentence might conflict with the statute, Harris failed to prove he had actually completed qualifying programming assigned by the BOP before his arrival at the designated facility.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the lower court's decision without addressing the broader legal question of when a sentence commences for First Step Act purposes. The court focused on the statutory requirement that a prisoner must 'successfully complete' evidence-based recidivism reduction programs to earn time credits. The opinion notes that nearly all federal courts have found the BOP's regulation defining the commencement of a sentence to be invalid, but the court held that this issue was unnecessary to resolve in this case. The court emphasized that Harris bore the burden of proving he was held in violation of the law. The record showed that Harris did not undergo the mandatory risk-and-needs assessment until after arriving at his designated facility, and there was no documentation that he participated in any BOP-assigned qualifying programming before that date. Although Harris claimed to have worked as an orderly and taken a survey, he provided no evidence such as program descriptions, transcripts, or certificates of completion. The court cited the Fourth Circuit's recent decision in White v. Warden, which held that time credits are granted only to prisoners who earn them through actual participation in qualifying programming. The court concluded that because Harris failed to show he participated in qualifying programming, he could not establish entitlement to the claimed credits.
The decision affirms the district court's judgment, leaving Harris without the time credits he sought. It clarifies that federal prisoners must provide concrete evidence of successful participation in BOP-assigned programs to claim First Step Act credits. The ruling does not resolve the underlying statutory conflict regarding the commencement of a sentence for credit eligibility, leaving that legal question open for future cases. Prisoners in similar transit or holdover situations will need to demonstrate actual participation in qualifying programming to succeed in habeas petitions.