Opinion ID: 612089
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: any pertinent policy statement issued by the Sentencing Commission....

Text: 29 Id. § 3621(b) (1988 & Supp. II 1990) (emphasis added). 30 The Sentencing Reform Act also provides that the Bureau shall, to the extent practicable, assure that a prisoner spend some portion of the last 10% of the term of imprisonment under conditions that will allow the prisoner to prepare for re-entry into the community. Id. § 3624(c) (1988 & Supp. II 1990). Typically such preparatory reentry confinement involves reassignment to a minimum security facility such as a halfway house. The government states that it is not in fact the Bureau's policy automatically to deny § 3624(c) reassignment to aliens if they can show that they had in the United States (a) at least five years of domicile, (b) strong family and community ties, and (c) a history of stable employment; and that, though Restrepo had not made this showing at the time his PSR was prepared, it was not clear that he would not do so in time to be granted reassignment. Though we, like the district court, are skeptical of the suggestion that the Bureau would actually reassign Restrepo, a deportable alien who is not eligible for discretionary relief from deportation, to a minimum-security facility, we think it unnecessary to consider the government's suggestion. Even if it were a steadfast policy of the Bureau to deny reassignment to relaxed-security facilities to alien prisoners who must be deported on account of their convictions, we would consider that policy an inappropriate basis for departure from the imprisonment range prescribed by the Guidelines. Assuming that § 3624(c) was intended to apply to deportable aliens, the statute does not on its face require the Bureau to ensure that all prisoners participate in such a program, but only to do so if practicable. For example, the Bureau need not reassign the prisoner to a halfway house if there is no such unit in his home state, and the absence of such a facility has been held to be an impermissible ground for departure from the Guidelines, United States v. Pozzy, 902 F.2d 133, 140 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 943, 111 S.Ct. 353, 112 L.Ed.2d 316 (1990). 31 More importantly, Congress has directed that upon release from prison, a deportable alien is not to be released back into the community, but must instead, pending deportation, be released to the custody of the Attorney General. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(A) (1988 & Supp. III 1991). Given the focus of § 3624(c) on prisoners who are to reenter the community, it is arguable that Congress, having instructed that deportable aliens not be released into the community, did not mean § 3624(c) to apply to such aliens. Had Congress so stated, a court's disapproval of that policy choice would not be an appropriate basis for a departure from the Guidelines, for the court's attempt to palliate that choice would encroach on the prerogative of the Legislative Branch. Considering the discretion that Congress has confided to the Bureau and the reasonableness of the Bureau's consideration of the fact that the prisoner will be deported following the completion of his term of imprisonment, we think the court's disapproval of the Bureau's exercise of its discretion to deny that prisoner reassignment to a minimum-security facility is likewise an inappropriate basis for departure. 32 In any event, if there is a defect in the Bureau's policy toward reassignment of deportable aliens, the appropriate way to remedy that defect would be pursuit of an action that challenges such a policy head-on, not the ad hoc granting of departures that have the effect of creating the very type of disparity in sentencing that the adoption of the Guidelines was intended to eliminate. 33