A federal appeals court last Thursday struck down a two-year-old Justice Department policy that prohibits federal inmates from being placed in halfway houses until the final months of their sentences.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Morris M. Goldings, an imprisoned former attorney who argued that his eligibility for placement in a halfway house should not be limited to the final 3 1/2 months of his three-year prison term.
The appeals court ordered the lower court to reconsider the complaint.
At issue is a practice the Bureau of Prisons adopted in December 2002 after the Justice Department said it was illegal to allow some federal prisoners to serve all or part of their sentences in halfway houses.
The appeals court found that the tightened eligibility restrictions conflict with Congress' intent in passing the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984.
"Although the change in policy has generated a flood of lawsuits in the federal district courts, no court of appeals has yet spoken on the validity of the (bureau's) new policy," the three-judge panel wrote in its decision. "We do so here and conclude that the new policy is contrary to the plain meaning of" the 20-year-old law.
The panel said the law authorizes the bureau to transfer Goldings to a community corrections center at any time during his prison term.
It was unclear whether the U.S. Attorney's office might appeal the ruling. A phone message seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Goldings pleaded guilty in 2002 to mail and wire fraud and money laundering after the government accused him of stealing $17 million between January 1993 and December 2000 to pay off personal debt. He was sentenced later that year to three years in prison.
Goldings once represented celebrity clients including Boston Bruins star Cam Neely and boxer Marvin Hagler. One victim, Barbara Peabody, the widow of former Massachusetts Gov. Endicott Peabody, was bilked out of $900,000.
Joining the case as friends of the court were the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Criminal Justice Act Board and the Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation.
"There are a lot of people that could be impacted by this," said Charles Rankin, who argued the case on behalf of the groups. "It could mean that from now on, in at least the 1st Circuit, judges will again have the freedom to recommend that someone serves 12 to 14 months in community corrections."