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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO 

EASTERN DIVISION 

LAKEISHA N. BURNEY, 

 CASE NO. 1:07-CR-00137(1) 

 Petitioner, JUDGE GREGORY L. FROST 

 v. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Respondent. 

ORDER 

 This matter is before the Court on defendant’s Motion 

Requesting that the Court Intercede on Petitioners’ Behalf in 

Order to Ensure a Successful Re-Entry into Society via the 

Second Chance Act Prisoner Reentry Initiative of 2007, ECF No. 78, 

(“Defendant’s Motion”). Defendant Lakeisha N. Burney was convicted, 

on her plea of guilty, to two counts of bank robbery. On April 4, 

2008, defendant was sentenced to 125 months’ imprisonment. Judgment, 

ECF No. 35. The Bureau of Prisons’ (“BOP”) web site, 

http://www.bop.gov, indicates that defendant’s release date is 

September 18, 2017. Defendant alleges that her “Home Detention 

Eligibility” date is March 18, 2017. Defendant’s Motion, PAGEID# 393 

 In Defendant’s Motion, defendant “asks for judicial 

recommendations for placement in Community Corrections or Home 

Confinement pursuant to 18 USC 3621(b) and 18 USC 3624(c).” Id., at 

PAGEID# 394. “By allowing petitioner to serve the remainder of her 

sentence at a CCM (halfway) house, petitioner will be able to adjust 

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at a rate that will not be overwhelming, nor will it allow or promote 

previous behavior that was the result of the petitioners’ 

incarceration.” Id., at PAGEID# 394-95 [sic]. This Court has no 

authority to grant the relief requested by defendant. 

 The BOP is charged by statute with designating the place of a 

prisoner’s imprisonment. 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b). The BOP must make that 

designation after considering certain enumerated factors. Id. The BOP 

is also charged by statute with facilitating a prisoner’s reentry into 

society. 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c). The Second Chance Act of 2007, 42 

U.S.C. § 17501, provides that the BOP Director shall “ensure that a 

prisoner serving a term of imprisonment spends a portion of the final 

months of that term (not to exceed 12 months), under conditions that 

will afford that prisoner a reasonable opportunity to adjust to and 

prepare for the reentry of that prisoner into the community.” Second 

Chance Act, Pub. L. 110-199, § 251, 122 Stat. 660, 692 (2008). In 

doing so, however, the BOP must consider the factors set forth in 18 

U.S.C. § 3621(b). Keeper v. Lappen, (N.D. Ohio May 18, 2010). 

A prisoner has no constitutional right to be placed in a 

community correctional center earlier than the date on which the BOP 

assigns her, so long as the BOP has considered the factors enumerated 

in 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b). Because Congress has vested in the BOP the 

right to exercise complete and absolute discretion in matters relating 

to the incarceration and classification of a lawfully convicted 

prisoner, 18 U.S.C. § 3621, this Court is without authority to direct 

the terms of defendant’s incarceration. Moreover, a prisoner has no 

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constitutional right to serve her sentence in a facility of her 

choosing. Beard v. Livesay, 798 F.2d 874 (6th Cir. 1986). Similarly, a 

prisoner has no constitutional right to release prior to the 

expiration of her sentence. Greenholtz v. Inmates of Mebraska Penal & 

Correctional Complex, 442 U.S. 1, 7 (1979). Finally, to the extent 

that Defendant’s Motion may be construed as a petition for a writ of 

habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241, the matter must be 

dismissed, in light of defendant’s failure to affirmatively allege 

that she has exhausted her administrative remedies. See Little v. 

Hopkins, 638 f.2D 953 (6TH Cir. 1981)(“It is well established that 

federal prisoners complaining of events or conditions relating to 

their custody must exhaust their administrative remedies before habeas 

relief may be granted.”). 

 For all these reasons, defendant’s Motion Requesting that the 

Court Intercede on Petitioners’ Behalf in Order to Ensure a Successful 

Re-Entry into Society via the Second Chance Act Prisoner Reentry 

Initiative of 2007, ECF No. 78, is DENIED. 

IT IS SO ORDERED. 

 /s/ GREGORY L. FROST 

 GREGORY L. FROST 

 United States District Judge 

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