Federal Prison News · Release Dates and Time Credits

They Aren't Counting the Time He Sat in County Jail. How Do We Fix It?

Writ Large · October 12, 2026

He sat in the county jail for eleven months waiting on the federal case. You counted those months. Then his paperwork came through and the release date is built as if none of it happened, and everyone you ask points at somebody else.

There is a rule for that jail time, an office that applies it, and a piece of paper showing their work. You can get all three this week.

The judge is not the one who does this math

In United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992), the Supreme Court held that the sentencing judge does not calculate this credit at all: "Congress has indicated that computation of the credit must occur after the defendant begins his sentence. A district court, therefore, cannot apply § 3585(b) at sentencing." The job belongs to the Bureau of Prisons: "the Attorney General has no choice but to make the determination as an administrative matter when imprisoning the defendant."

A letter to the judge will not fix a computation. This gets fixed inside the Bureau, in writing.

The one clause that decides it

Here is the rule from 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b):

"A defendant shall be given credit toward the service of a term of imprisonment for any time he has spent in official detention prior to the date the sentence commences" and that falls into one of two groups: "(1) as a result of the offense for which the sentence was imposed; or (2) as a result of any other charge for which the defendant was arrested after the commission of the offense for which the sentence was imposed; that has not been credited against another sentence."

Read the last clause again: "that has not been credited against another sentence." It is why most of these disputes end as they do.

Two questions decide his jail credit. Was that county time official detention tied to this offense, or to a charge he was arrested on after it? And has another court already applied those same days to another sentence?

If a state judge already gave him those eleven months against a state sentence, the statute does not let him have them twice. That was Wilson's own situation. A Tennessee court credited him 429 days, and the Supreme Court reversed the award of the same days against his federal term. Hard news, and better than a year spent fighting it.

But if nobody credited that time anywhere (the state charges were dropped, or there was never a state sentence), then those days belong on his federal number, and you are looking at an error in a record, not a ruling about his case.

Under § 3585(a) the sentence "commences on the date the defendant is received in custody awaiting transportation to" the facility where it will be served. Everything before that date is what § 3585(b) covers.

This is a different thing from time credits

Three numbers move on his sheet, and only one is jail credit. Good conduct time is a deduction for behavior, up to "54 days of GCT credit for each year of the sentence imposed by the court." 28 C.F.R. § 523.20(b)(1). First Step Act time credits he has to earn by programming: 10 days per 30 days of successful participation, plus 5 more at minimum or low risk. 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4); 28 C.F.R. § 523.42(c). Those are applied toward prerelease custody or supervised release only on the conditions in 18 U.S.C. § 3624(g) and 28 C.F.R. § 523.44, and the move is permissive: the Director "may transfer the prisoner to begin any such term of supervised release at an earlier date, not to exceed 12 months." § 3624(g)(3).

Here is the crossover that matters. He cannot earn First Step Act credits for anything he did in that county jail. There are no credits for programming completed "during official detention prior to the date that the prisoner's sentence commences under section 3585(a)." § 3632(d)(4)(B)(ii). The classes he took waiting on the case do not convert. The days may still count as jail credit; the programming does not. If those got tangled in somebody's explanation, that is why his release date won't move even though he is doing everything asked. How the earning side works is worth reading once.

What to do today

Ask him to put in a written request to his case manager (the inmate request form, the cop-out) for printed copies of his sentence computation and the judgment and commitment order the Bureau is working from. Records about him; the request is free.

Your half, today:

Write down the exact date he went into county custody and the exact date he left.
Ask the county jail's records division for a certified jail time certification, a letter on their letterhead giving the dates held and the charge. Put the request in writing and keep a copy.
If there were state charges, get the disposition: dismissed, nolle prossed, or sentenced. If a state sentence exists, get the state's computation showing whether those days were applied to it.

Those answer the "credited against another sentence" question, and nobody at the Bureau will find them for you.

What to do this week, if the numbers still don't match

The remedy available from inside is the Administrative Remedy Program, and it runs on short clocks.

Informal first: "an inmate shall first present an issue of concern informally to staff." 28 C.F.R. § 542.13(a). Inside, that is the BP-8.
Then the BP-9 to the warden, due "20 calendar days following the date on which the basis for the Request occurred." 28 C.F.R. § 542.14(a). Calendar days, not business days. Already past it? Section 542.14(b) allows an extension where he "demonstrates a valid reason for delay," so he files anyway and explains the delay in writing.
One issue per form; unrelated issues on one form "shall be rejected and returned without response." § 542.14(c)(2).
Then BP-10 to the Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the date the warden signed, and BP-11 to the General Counsel within 30 calendar days of the date the Regional Director signed. "Appeal to the General Counsel is the final administrative appeal." 28 C.F.R. § 542.15(a).
Silence counts. If the time runs out with nothing, "the inmate may consider the absence of a response to be a denial at that level." 28 C.F.R. § 542.18. That is permission to move up, not a dead end.

Language for the BP-9, in his own handwriting:

My sentence computation awards no credit under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b) for the period ______ through ______, during which I was held in official detention at ______ County Jail as a result of the offense for which this sentence was imposed. That time has not been credited against any other sentence. I request a corrected computation and a written statement identifying any other sentence the Bureau believes this time was credited against.

He signs it and files it. Outside help can gather the records, type them and mail him copies, but the Request goes in under his name.

When the administrative side is finished and the answer is still wrong

Wilson describes the road: "Federal regulations have afforded prisoners administrative review of the computation of their credits, see 28 CFR §§ 542.10-542.16 (1990) . . . and prisoners have been able to seek judicial review of these computations after exhausting their administrative remedies."

That step is a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, filed where he is held. It is the route for a fight about how the Bureau computed a sentence, not about the conviction. Order matters: finishing the administrative chain is what makes the court step possible, and the filing checklist walks the sequence. Nobody can promise how a court rules.

What to stop worrying about tonight

That the judge already decided this against him. Under Wilson he could not have; the computation is still open inside the Bureau.

That you have to buy the answer. Every rule here is free, his computation sheet is his for the asking, and the county's records are yours to request. More is on the habeas and sentence-computation hub.

Where this came from

18 U.S.C. §§ 3585(a), 3585(b), 3624(g), 3632(d)(4); 28 C.F.R. §§ 523.20, 523.42, 523.44, 542.13, 542.14, 542.15, 542.18; United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 329 (1992). Each was retrieved and quoted from the source itself.

The First 72 Hours

We put the whole checklist in one place: the records and computations to ask for, the written requests you can copy, what to write down, and the order to do it in. It is free and it comes by email, so you have it on your phone when you are standing in a parking lot outside a facility.

Send me the First 72 Hours guide →

If you would rather just talk to a person, call the Prisoner Legal Aid Family Help Line at 786-408-5073, or text 727-635-0600. If it is the middle of the night, send the email instead and it will be read in the morning.

Prisoner Legal Aid prepares documents, requests records, explains deadlines, and connects families with independent civil rights attorneys, under the oversight of a licensed attorney. Nobody can tell you how this ends. What can be done is to lay his county custody dates next to his sentence computation and tell you, on paper, whether the days are missing or already spent.

Need this prepared for your case?

You have read what the process involves. If you want it done properly, tell us the situation and we will follow up.

Full name * Phone * Email * What do you need? * Briefly, what's going on? * How did you hear about us? * By submitting, you agree to our Privacy Policy. This is a request for document preparation services, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Submitting this form does not stop any deadline from running. If you are facing one, call 786-408-5073.