Cite as: 515 U. S. 50 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
Title 18 U. S. C. § 3585 determines when a federal sentence of imprisonment commences and whether credit against that sentence must be granted for time spent in "official detention" before the sentence began. It states:
"Calculation of a term of imprisonment
"(a) Commencement of Sentence.—A sentence to a term of imprisonment commences on the date the defendant is received in custody awaiting transportation to, or arrives voluntarily to commence service of sentence at, the official detention facility at which the sentence is to be served.
"(b) Credit for Prior Custody.—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—
"(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." 18 U. S. C. § 3585 (emphasis added).
In United States v. Wilson, 503 U. S. 329, 337 (1992), we specifically noted Congress' use of the term " 'official detention' " in § 3585(b), but we had no occasion to rule on the meaning of that term. We must do so today.2
2 Our task is strictly one of statutory interpretation. Respondent argued in the District Court that § 3585 violated equal protection principles by treating pretrial defendants differently than postsentenced defendants. App. 23. The District Court rejected this argument. App. to Pet. for Cert. A-28. Respondent waived his equal protection argument in the Third Circuit, see 21 F. 3d 558, 559, n. 1 (1994), and he has not renewed it here. In an amicus curiae brief filed with this Court, University of Southern California Law Center's Post-Conviction Justice Project raises a similar equal protection argument, see Brief for USC Law Center's Post-Conviction Justice Project as Amicus Curiae 20-23, but that argu-
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