BARBARA CRABB, Chief Judge, District
Petitioner Joseph W. Kipp is an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford, Wisconsin. In this petition for a writ of habeas corpus brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, petitioner contends that the Federal Bureau of Prisons is calculating his good conduct time erroneously. He relies onWhite v. Scibana, 314 F. Supp. 2d 834 (W.D. Wis. 2004), in which I concluded that 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b) required the bureau to calculate good conduct time on the basis of the inmate's imposed sentence rather than the actual time he had served. In an order entered on October 7, 2004, I directed respondent to show cause why petitioner's petition should not be granted. In addition, I noted that petitioner's petition had not been verified as required under 28 U.S.C. § 2242 and I directed petitioner to cure this defect.
On October 18, 2004, petitioner filed proof of service of his petition upon the respondent and he declared under penalty of perjury that the factual assertions made in his petition were true and correct. Respondent has now filed his response to the petition.
In his response, respondent notes that petitioner has exhausted his administrative remedies as he is required to do underSanchez v. Miller, 792 F.2d 694, 699 (7th Cir. 1986). In addition, respondent concedes that petitioner was sentenced on September 11, 1992, to a 169-month and 23-day term of imprisonment. Under the Bureau of Prisons' method of calculating petitioner's good conduct time, petitioner is projected for release on August 3, 2005 and prerelease on February 3, 2005. If his good time credit is recalculated in accordance with White, he will be eligible for release approximately 99 days earlier, and his prerelease date may be similarly adjusted. Accordingly, I will grant the petition and order respondent to recalculate petitioner's good conduct time on the basis of his sentence.
I emphasize, however, that I cannot order respondent to place petitioner in a halfway house on a particular date. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c), the Bureau of Prisons is required, when it is "practicable," to allow inmates to spend a "reasonable part" of their sentence learning to prepare for release. However, the statute grants the bureau discretion to decide how the inmate is to be prepared for release and how much time the inmate needs to prepare. Although it appears that the bureau's practice is to transfer most inmates to halfway houses for the last six months of their sentence, Monahan v. Winn, 276 F. Supp. 2d 196, 199 (D. Mass. 2003), this practice is not required by statute. Therefore, I express no opinion on the question whether or when petitioner should be transferred to a halfway house.
ORDER
IT IS ORDERED that petitioner Joseph W. Kipp's petition for a writ of habeas corpus is GRANTED. Respondent Joseph Scibana is directed to recalculate petitioner's good conduct time on the basis of each year of his sentence rather than on time actually served.