Jonah R. v. Gilbert Carmona

Petitioner Jonah R. spent almost 35 months in detention before he was sentenced to a 30-month term of confinement under the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act (“FJDA”), 18 U.S.C. § 5031 et seq. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) calculates sentences for persons, including juveniles like Jonah, remanded to its custody. Pursuant to a recently-adopted policy, the BOP refused to subtract from Jonah’s sentence any of the 35 months he spent in pre-sentence custody. The district court rejected Jonah’s challenge to this policy. We hold that juveniles must receive credit for pre-sentence custody and accordingly reverse.

I. Background

On June 17, 2001, Jonah was arrested after shooting at a law enforcement officer while on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation. He was charged under 18 U.S.C. § 1153 , “Offenses committed within Indian Country,” with assault with a dangerous weapon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 113 (a)(3), and with discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924 (c). In October 2001, the district court transferred Jonah, who was 17 at the time of the incident, to adult status. We reversed in July 2003, holding that because the…