In Gonzalez v. Herrera, --- F.4th ---, No. 24-2371 (9th Cir. 2025), the Court reversed the district court’s order denying Leon Gonzalez’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 and remanded with instructions to grant the petition in part, direct the government to recalculate Gonzalez’s earned time credits under the First Step Act of 2018, and provide the recalculation to his probation officer.
The Court held that the plain language of the First Step Act and the relevant canons of construction clearly demonstrated that Congress created the Act’s time credit scheme to allow for the reduction in length of a supervised release term.
Petitioner Leon Gonzalez served his custodial sentence. He is now on supervised release and sitting on a heap of FSA time credits that he asks to be applied to reduce the term of his supervised release. The Government argues that those credits are worth nothing—that the time and energy Gonzalez spent earning credits in excess of his custodial sentence is wasted. We disagree. The plain language of the law and the relevant canons of construction clearly demonstrate that Congress created the FSA’s time credit scheme to allow for the reduction in length of a supervised release term in Gonzalez’s circumstances. Therefore, we reverse the order dismissing Gonzalez’s petition for writ of habeas corpus and remand with further instructions.A thin slice of the United States Code controls this case. 18 U.S.C. § 3632 codifies the FSA’s mandate for a risk and needs assessment system, subsection (d) provides incentives for prisoners to participate, and subsubsection (4) creates earned time credits. Subsubsubsection (C) is entitled “[a]pplication of time credits toward prerelease custody or supervised release,” and reads:Time credits earned under this paragraph by prisoners who successfully participate in recidivism reduction programs or productive activities shall be applied toward time in prerelease custody or supervised release. The Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall transfer eligible prisoners, as determined under section 3624(g), into prerelease custody or supervised release. 18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(C).From the plain text and canons of construction, it is clear that Congress intended for the FSA’s earned time credits to reduce a prisoner’s supervised release term. To conclude otherwise, as the Government urges us to do, would require bending and twisting the statutory language and reading incongruence into criminal statutes. We decline to do so and instead rest upon a reading coherent with the plain text inquiry and context.
