Can I Get Time Served in Federal Case
Welcome to Spodek Law Group. The question you're asking - whether you can get credit for time already served, or even walk out of sentencing because you've already done your time - is one we hear constantly. And the answer is complicated in ways that most defendants never anticipate until there sitting in a federal courtroom realizing the math isn't working how they expected.
Heres the thing nobody explains clearly: getting credit for time served and getting a "time served" sentence are two completely different outcomes. One is almost automatic. The other is incredibly rare. Confusing these two concepts can destroy your ability to plan effectively for whats coming.
Most defendants assume the system works logically. You sit in jail for 14 months waiting for trial, you get sentenced, they subtract 14 months from whatever the judge says. Simple math.
Federal court dosent work that simply.
The Two Kinds of Time Served (And Why It Matters)
Credit for time served means your pretrial detention gets subtracted from your total sentence. If you've been locked up since your arrest, those months count. You will get credit for time spent in federal custody before sentencing - in most cases.
A time served sentence is different. That's when the judge sentences you to exactly the amount of time you've already served, meaning you walk out that day. Your done. This is what everyone hopes for.
The difference is massive and consequential.
Getting credit for time served is handled by the Bureau of Prisons after sentencing. The BOP calculates it, not the judge. The judge dosent even have authority to order specific credit under 18 U.S.C. Section 3585 - that power belongs to the Attorney General through the Bureau of Prisons. This comes from the Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Wilson.
A time served sentence requires the judge to actually impose a sentence equal to or less than your pretrial detention. That's a discretionary decision. And it's rare in federal court because guidelines calculations typically produce sentences far exceeding whatever time you've spent waiting.
So when your asking "can I get time served," the answer depends on which version your talking about.
How the BOP Calculates Your Credit
After sentencing, your file goes to the Bureau of Prisons Designation and Sentence Computation Center. They calculate your projected release date based on three components: the sentence imposed, good time credit, and credit for prior custody.
Credit for prior custody under Section 3585(b) includes time spent in official detention as a result of the offense for which you were sentenced. Every day you spent in a federal detention center, county jail awaiting trial, or other correctional facility gets counted - as long as that time hasn't already been credited to another sentence.
That last part trips people up constantly.
The "no double credit" rule is absolute. If you were serving state time when federal charges dropped, and those state days got credited to your state sentence, they cant also be credited to your federal sentence. The government wont count the same day twice, irrespective of how unfair this feels when your sitting in the same cell.
Theres also the question of what counts as "official detention." Home confinement does not. The Eighth Circuit specifically held that halfway house time before trial dosent qualify either. Immigration detention typically dosent count. Only actual incarceration in a jail, prison, or detention facility qualifies.
So yes, you'll get credit for time served - but maybe not all of the time you feel like you "served."
When Time Served Sentences Actually Happen
Time served sentences in federal court are genuinely rare. The statistics paint a harsh picture: most federal defendants receive sentences measured in years, not months. And if your charged with anything involving drugs, fraud over certain thresholds, or firearms - your guidelines calculation probably produces a range far exceeding whatever pretrial detention you've accumulated.
But they do happen. Heres when:
Lower offense level cases. Simple possession charges under certain circumstances, minor regulatory violations, some misdemeanor-level federal offenses. When the guidelines produce a range of 0-6 months and you've been detained for four months pretrial, a time served sentence makes mathematical sense.
Substantial cooperation. If you've provided information that led to prosecution of others, you may receive a 5K1.1 motion from the government. These departures can be dramatic. Weve seen cases where a defendant facing 10 years received time served after extensive cooperation. But this requires having information the government wants and delivering it effectively.
Strategic pretrial detention. This is counterintuitive but important. Sometimes remaining in custody pretrial - rather than fighting for bail - serves your long-term interests. If you know your going to prison anyway, serving time now means less time later. Some defendants strategically waive bail hearings when the math works in there favor.
Extraordinary family circumstances. A defendant who is the sole caretaker for a seriously ill family member, a parent whose children have no alternative placement - judges sometimes grant variances based on these factors. But "sometimes" is key. This isnt automatic or predictable.
Health conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how health factors can influence sentencing. Defendants with serious medical conditions sometimes receive time served sentences where courts determine that continued incarceration poses unacceptable risk.
What dosent produce time served sentences: being a first-time offender, having a good job, being otherwise upstanding, or crying at sentencing. The federal system was designed to minimize these factors.
The Math That Controls Everything
The federal sentencing guidelines create a grid. Offense level on one axis, criminal history category on the other. Your position on this grid determines your guideline range - the presumptive sentence before any departures or variances.
To understand whether time served is realistic in your case, you need to understand where you fall on this grid.
Drug cases have mandatory minimums that often make time served impossible regardless of pretrial detention. Five kilograms of cocaine triggers a 10-year mandatory minimum. Unless you qualify for safety valve relief, no amount of pretrial detention changes that floor.
Fraud cases scale with loss amount. Fraud involving more then $250,000 starts producing offense levels where guideline ranges exceed most pretrial detention periods. At offense level 24, Category I, your looking at 51-63 months. Few defendants sit that long pretrial.
Firearms cases involving prohibited persons carry mandatory minimums. Immigration violations involving illegal reentry have there own calculation structure.
The point is this: your guidelines calculation happens independently of how long you've been detained. If that calculation produces a range of 37-46 months and you've been locked up for six months, time served isnt happening. You'll get credit for those six months against your sentence, but your still going away for roughly 31-40 months more.
Understanding your guidelines range early in the case is essential for realistic planning. Too many defendants operate on hope instead of math.
The Critical Exceptions and Complications
Several situations complicate time served calculations in ways that blindside defendants.
Writ cases. If your already serving a state sentence when federal charges get brought, you might be produced in federal court on a "writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum." In these situations, your time calculation gets complicated. The time spent in federal custody while on the writ typically remains credited to your state sentence, not your federal sentence. You can end up serving both sentences consecutively even though you were physically present for both cases simultaneously.
Concurrent versus consecutive sentences. Federal judges have discretion to run sentences concurrent with (at the same time as) or consecutive to (one after the other) state sentences. If your case involves both state and federal charges, the judge's decision on this point dramatically affects your actual time.
Detainers. A federal detainer lodged while your in state custody dosent mean that state time counts toward your federal sentence. The detainer simply ensures you get transferred to federal custody when state custody ends. But the time spent in state prison? Still credited to your state sentence only.
The Sentencing Guidelines do provide some relief through Section 5G1.3, which allows courts to adjust sentences when defendants have undischarged terms of imprisonment. But this requires your attorney to understand the interaction and advocate for appropriate adjustments.
What Your Attorney Should Be Doing
Effective federal defense work regarding time served starts long before sentencing.
First, documenting your custody time precisely. Every day matters. Transfer records, booking records, release dates - these documents establish your credit claim. The BOP's calculation is only as good as the records they receive.
Second, analyzing the concurrent/consecutive question if state charges exist. This analysis affects whether advocating for or against bail makes strategic sense.
Third, fighting the offense level calculation. Every level reduction potentially brings a time served outcome closer to reality. The difference between offense level 20 and offense level 16 can be the difference between an impossible time served request and a plausible one.
Fourth, building the record for variance. If time served is even theoretically possible in your case, the sentencing memorandum needs to make the case for why your situation is extraordinary enough to justify such an outcome.
Fifth, understanding what cooperation might achieve. If substantial assistance is on the table, calculating the realistic benefit helps determine whether cooperation makes sense for your situation.
At Spodek Law Group, we approach every case with sentencing in mind from day one. The decisions made in the first weeks after indictment shape what's possible at sentencing months or years later.
Good Time Credit Is Different
Many defendants conflate "time served credit" with "good time credit." These are completely separate calculations that operate independently.
Good time credit is earned during your sentence - not before it. Under 18 U.S.C. Section 3624(b), federal inmates can earn up to 54 days of good conduct time for each year of their imposed sentence. This creates the "85% rule" - with maximum good time, you serve approximately 85% of your sentence.
But heres the catch: good time credit only applies to sentences of 12 months and 1 day or longer. A sentence of exactly 12 months? No good time credit. You serve every single day. This creates an odd situation where a sentence of 12 months and 1 day actually results in less prison time then a sentence of 12 months flat.
Pretrial detention time dosent earn good time credit. Your just sitting there accumulating days toward the sentence that hasnt been imposed yet. The good time calculation starts after sentencing, applied to the sentence imposed.
This distinction matters for strategic planning. If your guidelines range includes both 12-month and 13-month options, the one-day difference is actually significant.
First Step Act Earned Time Credits
The First Step Act of 2018 created another layer of potential sentence reduction through earned time credits. These are separate from good time credit and separate from credit for prior custody.
Eligible inmates can earn 10-15 days of credit for every 30 days of successful participation in recidivism reduction programs or productive activities. The maximum annual credit is 365 days. These credits can result in earlier transfer to halfway house or home confinement - not necessarily release, but movement to less restrictive custody.
However, numerous offense categories are excluded from First Step Act earned time credit eligibility. Violent offenses, terrorism-related charges, sex offenses, certain high-level drug offenses, and firearms violations for repeat felons are among the exclusions.
If your eligible, First Step Act credits add another pathway to earlier release. But they dont affect your sentencing hearing calculation - they affect your post-sentencing incarceration experience.
When the BOP Gets It Wrong
The Bureau of Prisons makes mistakes. Custody records get lost. Transfer dates get recorded incorrectly. Prior custody dosent get credited when it should.
If you believe your time calculation is wrong, options exist.
First, the administrative remedy process. Filing a grievance through the BOP's internal system is typically required before pursuing judicial relief. This happens at your institution through established procedures.
Second, a Section 2241 habeas corpus petition. This is a civil lawsuit challenging the legality of your custody calculation. It can be filed in the district where your incarcerated. But you generally must exhaust administrative remedies first.
Third, having your attorney contact the BOP directly. Sometimes errors get corrected through informal channels when documented properly.
The key is documentation. Keep records of every day you spent in custody, every facility, every transfer. These records are your proof if the BOP's calculation dosent match reality.
The Reality Check
Can you get credit for time served in a federal case? Yes. Almost certainly.
Can you get a "time served" sentence where you walk out the door at sentencing? Maybe. But probably not if your facing serious federal charges.
The defendants who achieve time served sentences typically fall into narrow categories: low-level offenses with extended pretrial detention, extensive cooperators who provided extraordinary assistance, or cases with compelling humanitarian circumstances that moved a judge to grant significant variances.
Hope is not a strategy. Understanding your actual guidelines range, the realistic impact of cooperation, and the mathematical relationship between pretrial detention and likely sentence - that's strategy.
At Spodek Law Group, we give clients honest assessments. If time served is a realistic possibility in your case, we'll explain why and build the record to support that outcome. If it isnt realistic, we'll tell you that too - and focus on the strategies that will actually reduce your sentence.
The federal system is unforgiving. It was built that way intentionally. But understanding how it actually operates is essential for anyone facing these charges.
Moving Forward
If your detained pretrial right now, every day counts toward your eventual sentence. But counting those days isnt the same as achieving a time served sentence.
Your attorney should be able to tell you: what's your estimated guidelines range? How does your pretrial detention compare to that range? What factors might support a departure or variance that could bring time served within reach?
If your attorney cant answer these questions, you need different representation.
The time you've already served is not wasted. It will be credited. The question is whether the math works out so that credit equals freedom, or whether credit just means less time remaining on a longer sentence.
Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. We handle federal defense cases across the country, and we start with the math - not the hope. Your situation deserves an attorney who will tell you the truth about whats actually possible and then fight for the best achievable outcome.
The clock is running. Every day you delay is a day lost in preparing the strongest possible case for the lowest possible sentence.
