Paroling, Recommitting, and Supervising Federal Prisoners: Prisoners Transferred to the United States Under Prisoner-Exchange Treaties

Résumé

The U.S. Parole Commission is amending its regulation concerning transfer treaty prisoners to suspend the requirement for a downward adjustment of 15 percent from the release date determined by the Commission under 18 U.S.C. 4106A and to remove a provision authorizing the Commission to reopen a decision if the prisoner is denied good time credit for prison misconduct. The amendment reflects the new policy of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons which now deducts foreign and domestic good time credits from the release date set by the Commission under 18 U.S.C. 4106A. The 15 percent downward adjustment was instituted by the Commission to compensate transferees, whose release dates are set pursuant to the sentencing guidelines, for the absence of the statutory good time deductions that would reduce the guideline sentences of similarly-situated U.S. Code offenders. An interim rule suspending that downward adjustment is necessary because, in three judicial circuits, federal appellate courts have now ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons must deduct a transferee's foreign and domestic good time credits under 18 U.S.C. 4105.