Davis

We must decide whether the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) may deny reduction of a prisoner’s period in custody 1 under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (VCCLEA) to otherwise eligible prisoners who have been convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g) (felon in possession of a firearm) on the ground that they have been convicted of an offense that was not “nonviolent.” We conclude that the BOP may not do so.

BACKGROUND

Albert Davis was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced to 52 months in prison.. While imprisoned, Davis completed a 500-hour intensive drug and alcohol treatment program sponsored by the BOP. He then applied for sentence reduction under VCCLEA, 18 U.S.C. § 3621 (e)(2)(B), which provides, inter alia, that the BOP may grant as much as one year in sentence reduction to prisoners “convicted of a nonviolent offense” who successfully complete drug and alcohol treatment programs.

The BOP refused to grant Davis sentence reduction, finding him ineligible under the regulation it has promulgated to implement the sentence reduction program, 28 C.F.R. § 550.58 , and a policy statement that interprets § 550.58, Program Statement 5162.02…