Benton

ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

I. INTRODUCTION

On September 27, 2002, petitioner Deborah Benton pled guilty to one count of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341 . At the December 23, 2002, sentencing hearing, the Court determined petitioner’s offense level to be 10, thereby falling within Zone C of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Pursuant to the guidelines, petitioner was sentenced to five months imprisonment and five months of home confinement. The Court recommended that the custodial part of the sentence be served at the Urban Work Camp. Petitioner’s self surrender date was set for February 21, 2003.

On December 13, 2002, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson was advised, through a memorandum prepared by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, that the Bureau of Prisons’ (“BOP”) long-standing policy of interpreting the term “imprisonment” to encompass community confinement was unlawful. According to the memorandum, U.S.S.G. § 5C1.1 vests only limited authority in the sentencing court to designate an offender to community confinement after having sentenced him to a term of imprisonment. Further, the federal circuit courts…