ARAGON CONTRERAS v. PETERS

• Court: District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
• Decided: September 29, 2025
• Docket: 3:24-cv-00031
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

MANUEL ARAGON CONTRERAS, ) ) Petitioner, ) ) v. ) ) Civil Action No. 3:24-31 COLETTE PETERS, DIRECTOR, BUREAU ) Judge Nora Barry Fischer OF PRISONS, MICHAEL UNDERWOOD, ) Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto WARDEN, F.C.I. LORETTO, ) ) Respondents. )

MEMORANDUM ORDER

AND NOW, this 29th day of September, 2025, upon consideration of the Report and Recommendation filed by United States Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto on March 5, 2024, (Docket No. 8), recommending that the § 2241 habeas petition filed by Petitioner Manuel Aragon Contreras be dismissed as he had failed to exhaust administrative remedies prior to bringing his petition challenging a denial of earned time credits, Petitioner’s objections which were timely filed after he received an extension, and wherein he states that his petition was misinterpreted by the Magistrate Judge and he is pursuing a claim challenging the denial of his transfer to a halfway house under the Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2018, (Docket No. 14), this matter having been recently reassigned to the undersigned for prompt disposition of the matter, and upon independent review of the record and de novo consideration of the Magistrate Judge’s March 5, 2024 Report and Recommendation, (Docket No. 8), which is ADOPTED as the opinion of this Court, in part, as the BOP Inmate Locator tool currently states that Petitioner was released from all forms of BOP custody as of April 4, 2025, such that his Petition must be dismissed, as moot, see e.g., Malik v. Warden Loretto FCI, No. 23-2281, 2024 WL 3649570, at *2 (3d Cir. Aug. 5, 2024) (“Because Malik had been released to prerelease custody, his request for release to such custody was moot. […] Regardless of whether his request for an earlier transfer to supervised

release was moot at the time of the Magistrate Judge's order or simply meritless because he had already received the maximum credit allowed towards an earlier release from custody to supervised release, see § 3624(g)(3), such a request is moot now that Malik is on supervised release.”); Constantine v. United States, No. 1:23-CV-22, 2023 WL 6811999, at *2 (W.D. Pa. Aug. 28, 2023), report and recommendation adopted, No. CV 23-22, 2023 WL 6810862 (W.D. Pa. Oct. 16, 2023) (“Since the BOP released Petitioner from its custody, there is no longer any habeas relief that this Court can provide.”);

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the § 2241 Petition (Docket No. 7) is dismissed, with prejudice, as moot and no certificate of appealability shall issue, see Goodloe v. Warden Lewisburg USP, 2025 WL 342189, *1, n.1 (3d Cir. 2025) (citing Reese v. Warden Phila. FDC, 904 F.3d 244, 246 (3d Cir. 2018) (“a federal prisoner challenging the denial of a § 2241 petition, he need not obtain a certificate of appealability”); IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Petitioner’s Objections, (Docket No. 14), are overruled, as moot; IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that an appropriate Judgment follows.

s/Nora Barry Fischer Nora Barry Fischer Senior U.S. District Judge cc/ecf: Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto cc: Manuel Aragon-Contreras, Reg. No. 73434-112 F.C.I. Loretto P.O. Box 1000 Cresson, PA 16630 (via first class mail)