(HC) Alvarado-Melendez v. United States

I. Background

Petitioner, Jose Alvarado-Melendez, an inmate confined in the United States Penitentiary, Atwater (USP-Atwater), California, filed the instant petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §2241. (Doc. 1). Along with his petition, Alvarado-Melendez filed a motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis. Petitioner seeks a total of 859 days prior custody credit toward his sentence and, as a result for this Court to “discharge him immediately from custody for time served.” Id. For the reasons outlined below, the petition will be transferred to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

II. Discussion

The statute governing jurisdiction over writs of habeas corpus provides that writs may be granted by “the district courts ... within their respective jurisdictions.” 28 U.S.C. §2241(a). In Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426

(2004), the United States Supreme Court noted that the phrase “within their respective jurisdictions” means that a writ of habeas corpus acts not upon the prisoner, but upon the prisoner’s custodian, and that only those courts

with jurisdiction over the custodians, that is, those courts…