Credit for time served in foreign custody is always a hot issue. The concern is that the Bureau of Prisons will not verify the amount of time a defendant served in foreign custody before that defendant completes his or her entire sentence. As a result the defendant never gets credit for the time he or she served abroad. One way to prevent this situation is to request a letter from the prosecutor, directed to the Bureau of Prisons, which states the facts of defendant’s foreign imprisonment. For example, that the defendant was incarcerated in his or her own country solely and continuously from the date of arrest and should be credited for that time. Prosecutors usually have this information on file or can access it easily. Moreover, an attorney can ask that the information be placed on the record in court and request that the judge add the prosecutor’s certification to the Commitment order. Below is a letter recently submitted by a prosecutor addressing this issue.
Dear Judge:
On or about January 1, 2008, the above-named defendant submitted a letter to the Court challenging the Bureau of Prison’s calculation of the credit the defendant was to receive for time spent in custody in Colombia. On May 28, 2008, the government submitted a letter to this Court explaining that the Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the defendant’s challenge, pursuant to Rumsfeld v Padilla, 542 U.S. 426 (2004). However, in an effort to assist the Court and the defendant, the government contacted the Bureau of Prisons and provided the Bureau of Prisons with an accurate calculation as to the amount of time the defendant spent in Colombian custody. Based on the government’s information, the Bureau of Prisons revised Defendant’s time-served calculation, giving him full credit for the time Defendant spent incarcerated in Colombia. According to the Bureau of Prisons website, Defendant was released from federal custody.
Respectfully submitted,
Assistant United States Attorney