Reno v. Koray, 515 U.S. 50, 10 (1995)

Page:   Index   Previous  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  Next

Cite as: 515 U. S. 50 (1995)

Opinion of the Court

The context and history of § 3585(b) also support this view. As for context, § 3585(b) reduces a defendant's "imprisonment" by the amount of time spent in "official detention" before his sentence, strongly suggesting that the period of presentence "detention" must be equivalent to the "imprisonment" itself. It would be anomalous to interpret § 3585(b) to require sentence credit for time spent confined in a community treatment center where the defendant is not subject to BOP's control, since Congress generally views such a restriction on liberty as part of a sentence of "probation," see 18 U. S. C. §§ 3563(b)(10), (12), and (14), or "supervised release," see § 3583(d), rather than part of a sentence of "imprisonment." See United States v. Zackular, 945 F. 2d 423, 425 (CA1 1991).

With respect to history, § 3585(b)'s predecessor, 18 U. S. C. § 3568 (1982 ed.) (repealed), required the Attorney General to award sentence credit for "any days spent in custody in connection with the offense or acts for which sentence was imposed." (Emphasis added.) The Courts of Appeals uniformly held that the phrase "in custody" did not allow sentence credit because of restrictions placed on a defendant's liberty as a condition of release on bail. See Polakoff v. United States, 489 F. 2d 727, 730 (CA5 1974) (time spent on "highly restricted bond" not creditable as " 'custody' "); United States v. Robles, 563 F. 2d 1308, 1309 (CA9 1977) ("[T]ime spent on bail or on bond pending appeal is not time served 'in custody' "), cert. denied, 435 U. S. 925 (1978); Ortega v. United States, 510 F. 2d 412, 413 (CA10 1975) (" 'custody' " refers to "actual custodial incarceration," not "the time a criminal defendant is free on bond"); United States v. Peterson, 507 F. 2d 1191, 1192 (CADC 1974) (" 'in custody' " does "not refer to the stipulations imposed when a defendant is at large on conditional release"). In 1984, Congress enacted § 3585(b) and altered § 3568 by, inter alia, "replac[ing] the term 'custody' with the term 'official detention.' " Wilson, 503 U. S., at 337; see also

59

Page:   Index   Previous  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007