§ 2241 Habeas

What it covers

• How his sentence was calculated: when it started and which earlier jail time counts. See when county jail time is not being counted.
• First Step Act time credits that are missing or not being applied. See how the credits work.
• Good conduct time taken away at a disciplinary hearing that did not give him the process he was owed. See what that process is.

Where to file, and who to name

It is filed in the federal district where he is being held right now, not where he was sentenced. The person named on the other side is the warden of the prison holding him. The filing fee is $5, or he can ask to proceed without paying. The official form is AO 242.

First, the BOP's own appeal process

Courts almost always expect him to work through the Bureau of Prisons administrative remedy process before filing. After an informal attempt to resolve it with staff, the steps are usually:

• BP-9 to the warden, generally within 20 calendar days of what happened.
• BP-10 to the Regional Director within 20 calendar days of the warden's answer.
• BP-11 to the Central Office within 30 calendar days of the regional answer.

If the BOP does not answer within its own time limit, he can treat the silence as a denial and move to the next step. Our guide to the BP-9 walks through each form.

What it cannot do

Since the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Jones v. Hendrix, a § 2241 petition generally cannot be used to attack the conviction or sentence itself just because a § 2255 motion is too late or was already used. Read when § 2241 can stand in for § 2255.

What you can do this week

1. Ask him to request his sentence computation sheet and his First Step Act time credit assessment from his case manager.
2. Compare the dates against his judgment and the time he spent in custody before he was sentenced.
3. If something is wrong, he should file the BP-9 now, in writing, and keep a copy.
4. Write down the date he hands in every form and the date every answer comes back. Those dates decide what happens next.