OPINION OF THE COURT
I.
On April 23, 1991, Ziya Koray was arrested for laundering monetary instruments in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1). On June 18, 1991, Koray entered a guilty plea. On June 25, 1991, a federal Magistrate Judge released Koray pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3142(c) & (h) (1988 & Supp. Ill 1991) into the custody of the Pretrial Services Agency and ordered him to be “confined to the premises of [the Volunteers of America ‘halfway house type facility’] and shall not be authorized to leave for any reason unless accompanied by Special Agent Dennis Bass.” App. at 17. On October 21, 1991, the district court sentenced Koray to 41 months imprisonment with two years of supervised release. Koray remained at the Volunteers of America halfway house until November 25,1991, when he reported to the Allenwood Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Pennsylvania.
Koray received a credit of 64 days for the time spent in jail between April 23 and June 25 pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3585 (1988). However,-the Bureau of Prisons declined to credit him for the approximately 150 days he was confined to the Volunteers of America facility. After exhausting his administrative remedies, Koray sought a writ of habeas corpus from the district court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on October 15, 1992, arguing that the Bureau misapplied the statute in not crediting him for the time spent while “released” with restrictive conditions. The district court found that restrictive release conditions can never amount to “official detention” under section 3585(b) and denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Koray filed this timely appeal. The district court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (1988). We have appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1988) and review this question of statutory interpretation
de novo.
1
See Barden v. Keohane,
II.
Credit for prior custody is determined by 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b), which provides: *560 (emphasis added). The relevant question is whether “official detention” includes a court order of confinement in a facility such as a halfway house as a condition of bail.
*559 Credit for prior custody. — A defendant shall be given credit toward the service of a term of imprisonment for any time he has spent in official detention prior to the date the sentence commences—
(1) as a result of the offense for which the sentence was imposed; or
(2) as a result of any other charge for which the defendant was arrested after the commission of the offense for which the sentence was imposed;
that has not been credited against another sentence.
*560 A.
Prior to 1960, sentencing courts gave credit toward the sentence imposed for time spent in pre-sentence custody.
See Soyka v. Alldredge,
This provision was amended in 1966 to expand the credit provisions, removing the requirement that credit only be granted in cases of mandatory mínimums, increasing the offenses which could be counted for credit and removing any mention of bail. It required that the “Attorney General shall give any such person credit toward service of his sentence for any days spent in custody in connection with the offense or acts for which sentence was imposed.” Pub.L. No. 89-465, § 4, 80 Stat. 214, 217 (1966) (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3568 (1982)).
In the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Congress rewrote section 3568 and recodified it as section 3585(b).
See
Pub.L. No. 98-473, 98 Stat. 1998, 2001 (1984). “Congress entirely rewrote § 3568 when it changed it to its present form in § 3585(b). It rearranged its clauses, rephrased its central idea in the passive voice, and more than doubled its length.”
United States v. Wilson,
— U.S. -, -,
B.
We have had few opportunities to consider the scope of either section 3585 or its predecessor. This court recently declined to decide the question presently before us because the defendant had not exhausted his administrative remedies.
See United States v. Brann,
The only prior decision in which this court spoke to the issue of credit for time outside of prison was
United States v. Golden,
We rejected the defendant’s claim that he was entitled as a matter of law to credit for the time he spent in the Witness Protection Program, stating “[generally, a defendant is not entitled to credit for time spent released on his own recognizance prior to entering *561 prison.” Id. at 21. Therefore, we rejected the defendant’s contention that failure to credit his sentence for time spent in the Witness Protection Program was a breach of the plea agreement, stating:
The plea agreement specifically provided that he would be given credit for periods of incarceration prior to sentencing. By statute, credit for time prior to commencement of the sentence is given for time spent in custody. However, custody has been defined as actual incarceration. See United States v. Ortega,510 F.2d 412 (10th Cir.1975). While restrictions were placed on [the defendant], the district court was not required to equate his life in the Witness Protection Program with incarceration.
Id.
On the other hand, we suggested that the issue of credit was one for the discretion of the district court, stating that on resentenc-ing the district court “may determine that [defendant] is entitled to a credit for some portion of the twenty-one months between the time [he] was sentenced and the time he was actually ordered to report to prison.” Id. Thus, we may have been suggesting that some of the time the defendant was in the Witness Protection Program was more restrictive than mere recognizance and therefore could be entitled to credit.
Finally, although not directly on point, we considered the issue of comparability between prison and a halfway house in
United States v. Parker,
C.
The other Courts of Appeals to have considered this issue are divided. Although most have concluded that section 3585, like its predecessor section 3568, does not require the Bureau to credit presentenced defendants whose bail conditions allowed them to be confined outside of Bureau of Prison facilities, that conclusion was not reached without dissent.
See, e.g., Moreland v. United States,
In reaching the decision that no credit should be awarded, some of the courts have deferred to the interpretation of the statute used by the Bureau of Prisons.
See Moreland,
It is far from clear that the Bureau of Prisons’ determination that section 3585 does not require credit be granted when a court “releases” a pre-sentenced defendant to a halfway house should be granted the substantial deference that
Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.,
Even when we accord the Bureau’s interpretation some level of deference, we must examine whether the Bureau engaged in the necessary “reasoned analysis” of this issue.
See Motor Vehicles Mfrs. Ass’n v. State Farm Mutual Auto Ins. Co.,
Although the Bureau still retains this functional analysis for. defendants governed .by section 3568, see Bureau of Prisons, Program Statement 5880.30(7)(b)(5) (July 16, 1993), it uses a different approach for section 3585. Now it focuses on whether the defendant has been “released” to pretrial services or “detained” by the Attorney General. See 18 U.S.C. § 3141(a) (1988) (“A judicial officer authorized to order the arrest of a person under section 3041 of this title before whom an arrested person is brought shall order that such person be released or detained, pending judicial proceedings, under this chapter.”).
The Program’s current position is that “[tjime spent in residence in a community corrections center as a result of the Pretrial Services Act of 1982 (18 U.S.C. § 3152-3154), or as a result of a condition of bail or bond (18 U.S.C. § 3141-3143), is not creditable as presentence time.” Bureau of Prisons, Program Statement 5880.28(c) (Feb. 21, 1992). It has determined that “[a] condition of bail or bond which is ‘highly restrictive,’ and that includes ‘house arrest’, ‘electronic monitoring’ or ‘home confinement’; or such as requiring the defendant to report daily to the U.S. Marshal, U.S. Probation Service, or other person; is not considered as time in official detention.” Id. The rationale given by the Bureau is that “[sjuch a defendant is not subject to the discretion of the U.S. Attorney General, the Bureau of Prisons, or the U.S. Marshals Service, regarding participation, placement, or subsequent return to a more secure environment, and therefore is not in a status which would indicate an award of credit is appropriate.” Id. The Bureau also believes that “the government may not prosecute for escape in the case of an unauthorized absence in such cases, as the person has been lawfully released from ‘official detention.’ ” Id.
The distinction in approaches is highly significant for Koray. Under the earlier ratio *563 nale he might be able to convince the Bureau or a court that his conditions of confinement in the Volunteers of America facility were similar to those in a “jail-type facility” and that credit was appropriate notwithstanding the Bureau’s generally applicable rule denying credit for time spent in a halfway house. Under the current rationale, Koray would not have that opportunity because he is clearly in the custody of pretrial services rather than the Attorney General.
In order to determine whether the Bureau’s interpretation withstands “reasoned analysis” we must examine whether the intervening statutory change from “custody” to “official detention” can carry the weight of this new interpretation. The legislative history of the change is both lengthy and unenlightening. While we describe it in the margin, we note that Congress has used the terms “custody,” “official custody,” “confinement” and “official detention” interchangeably in describing this provision, as would a normal English speaker.
2
Indeed, the title of the subsection remains “Credit for Prior
Custody.”
(emphasis added).
See INS v. National Ctr. for Immigrants’ Rights, Inc.,
— U.S. -, -,
From this we conclude, as have all the circuits which have considered the issue, that the use of the word “official detention” rather than the word “custody” was not intended to alter the meaning of the statute.
See Moreland,
It follows that before we accord any substantial deference to the Bureau, we must look to whether the Bureau has articulated any sustainable rationale for reading “official detention” as if it provided “official detention
by the Attorney General or the Bureau of Prisons.”
The plain meaning of the words “official detention” does not require this result; there is nothing in the statute which
*564
requires or suggests that a defendant must be under the detention of the Bureau.
But see Randall,
It is therefore difficult to view Koray’s detention as other than “official” since he was put in the “custody” of pretrial services, 18 U.S.C. § 3142(c)(1)(B)®, and was confined to the halfway house by court order. Although the Bureau notes that only an escape from one of its facilities permits prosecution as an escape from confinement under 18 U.S.C. § 751(a),
see United States v. Baxley,
Moreover, the Bureau itself does not always. limit “official detention” to that served under the custody of the Attorney General. In this connection we note that the Bureau has characterized other custody as “constructive federal custody” and has been willing to give presentenced defendants credit under section 3585 and its predecessor section 3568 for certain time spent in state facilities, even though the defendant was not in the Attorney General’s custody.
See, e.g.,
Bureau of Prison, Program Statement 5880.-28(c)(l)(a)(2),
3
5880.28(c)(1)(b)
4
(Feb. 21,
*565
1992);
id.
at 5880.30(7)(c)(l) (July 16, 1993);
5
see also Moreland,
It follows from the anomalous result proffered by the Bureau and the absence of any support therefor in the statute or legislative history that the deference which we must accord it is minimal.
See Mills,
After all, it is the statutory language we must construe. “To a normal English speaker, even to a legal English speaker, being forced to live in a halfway house is to be held ‘in custody1 ...”
Ramsey,
Notwithstanding the latter, we are not prepared to open the floodgates of credit by viewing “official detention” as encompassing the vast array of alternative sentencing mechanisms which are currently used in the federal system to confine and rehabilitate accused and convicted defendants. Instead, we find ourselves persuaded by the comments of Judge Heaney, for the five dissenters in
Moreland:
“Under the statute, the degree of confinement is what is at issue.... Moreover, ... the restrictions on [the defendant’s] liberty were among the most severe
*566
that could have been imposed as a condition of pretrial release. The government placed [the defendant] into a halfway house not only to ensure his appearance at trial but also to protect the community, a goal that is perhaps the central purpose of incarceration today.”
Moreland,
Although the Bureau of Prisons maintains its position that “conditions at. community treatment centers generally are neither penal in nature nor nearly as restrictive as those in a full custodial environment,” Appel-lee’s Br. at 9 (emphasis added), it does not argue that the release conditions imposed on Koray are not equal to the restrictions imposed on some defendants in the custody of the Bureau who do receive credit against their sentence. While the district court did not make factual findings regarding the conditions of confinement at the Volunteers of America facility, according to the allegations in Koray’s motion in the district court (unchallenged by the Bureau), he was subjected to substantial restrictions on his liberty: he was permitted to leave the facility only once in 150 days (for a medical exam), he had to account for his presence five times a day, he was subject to random breath and urine tests, his access to visitors was limited in both time and manner, and there was a paucity of vocational, educational, and recreational services compared to a prison facility. In its brief, the Bureau admits that1 “the Volunteers of America maintains a halfway house similar to the manner in which the Bureau- of Prisons may also operate such facilities.” Appellee’s Br. at 14.
The Bureau would preclude any factual determination of whether a prisoner was held under jail-type conditions, arguing that a bright-liné rule is necessary in light of the fact-specific nature any alternative would require. Some courts have agreed.
See Randall v. Whelan,
Similarly, the cases relied upon by the Bureau from other courts which have refused to grant credit because the conditions imposed were not substantial enough to be equivalent to imprisonment are inapposite to this case.
See, e.g., United States v. Zackular,
We therefore do .not believe it will be administratively difficult to give credit for *567 time served by defendants under jail-type detention. The overwhelming majority of defendants will not be affected since only a small percentage of federal defendants are released to a halfway house. We also note that the Bureau was able to incorporate the Ninth Circuit’s decision into its Program Statement, 6 and there is no allegation, much less evidence, that this overwhelmed the Bureau’s administrative process.
Moreover, we note the inherent unfairness in declining to grant credit to a defendant who sought bail but was confined under jail-like conditions without giving the defendant notice that this would be the result. Some defendants, such as Koray, might choose not to request bail under these circumstances, particularly if the alternative is “official detention” in a minimum-security type institution with facilities superior to those in the halfway house in question. Further, we cannot ignore that the government derives the full benefits of incarceration, protecting the public and ensuring the defendant’s presence at trial at a lower cost while freeing scarce jail space for truly dangerous offenders. See Garry A. Berger, Pre-Sentence Halfway House Residents: Are They Entitled to Credit Toward Subsequent Prison Sentences?, 27 Colum.J.L. & Soc.Probs. 191, 194 n. 11 (1993).
After careful consideration of the decisions of all the other courts to have ruled on the issue and the position of the Bureau of Prisons, we conclude that “official detention” for purposes of credit under 18 U.S.C. § 3585 includes time spent under conditions of jail-type confinement. While we do not go as far as does the Ninth Circuit which appears to authorize credit for confinement under somewhat less restrictive conditions, we believe the standard we establish is consistent with the language of the statute, Congress’s intent, and the Bureau’s initial rationale under the statute. We are confident that the district courts will have no difficulty in applying this test in the few situations we anticipate will arise. To assist the district courts, we explain this does not include confinement in drug rehabilitation facilities, where the defendant is receiving the benefit of the confinement, nor of course any halfway house where defendant leaves to work during part of the day. Because there has been no finding that Koray was in fact held under such conditions, we will remand for the necessary fact finding.
III.
We will reverse the order of the district court and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. The district court should conduct those proceedings with expedition, because the time that Koray must serve in prison will have expired if he is entitled to credit for the time he was con *568 fined in the Volunteers of America facility. 7 The mandate shall issue forthwith.
Notes
. In the district court, Koray also argued that the statute violated equal protection by treating pretrial defendants differently than post-sentenced defendants. The district court rejected this argument. Koray does not raise his equal protection argument on appeal, and we do not address it.
. The “official detention" language now codified at § 3585 was originally introduced in the 93rd Congress in S. 1, which was a comprehensive effort to revise Title 18 of the United States Code. See S. 1, 93d Cong., 1st Sess. (1973). That language remained when the version of the bill was reported out of the Judiciary Committee in the 94th Congress. See S. 1, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. (1975). In the only discussion of this section, the Judiciary Committee's Report described the then present federal law, which was § 3568, as providing “that the offender will receive credit for any time spent in custody” and described the proposed language as providing "credit towards the sentence of imprisonment for any time the defendant has spent in official custody prior to the date the sentence was imposed." S.Rep. No. 00, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 926-27 (1976) (emphasis added). The same language of the bill continued throughout revisions in the 95th, 96th and 97th Congress as S. 1437, S. 1722, and S. 1630 respectively. See S. 1437, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. (1977); S. 1437, 95th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1978); S. 1722, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. (1979); S. 1630, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. (1981). Moreover, the Judiciary Committee's Report used the same descriptive language concerning this provision each time. See S.Rep. No. 605, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 935-36 (1977); S.Rep. No. 553, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. 996 (1980); S.Rep. No. 307, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. 1049 (1981). Finally, in the 98th Congress, the provision was included in two bills, S. 668 and S. 1762. The Senate Judiciary Committee reported out both these bills with the exact same descrip-fion of the provision. S.Rep. No. 223, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. 125-26 (1983); S.Rep. No. 225, 98th Cong. 1st Sess. 128-29 (1983), reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3182, 3311-12. The Senate passed S. 1762.
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee which reported out H.R. 6915 tracking the language of the previous Senate bills described the provision as providing "a defendant be given credit toward the service of a term of imprisonment for any time spent in confinement before the commencement of the sentence of imprisonment if that time has not been credited against another sentence.” H.R.Rep. No. 1396, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. 474 (1980) (emphasis added). In the 98th Congress, the House Judiciary Committee, while rejecting much of what was in S. 1762, proposed its own crime bill which incorporated a provision similar to the Senate's credit provision except that it provided that a "defendant shall be given credit toward the service of a term of imprisonment for any time spent in custody before the date on which the term commences.” H.R. 6012, 98th Cong., 2d Sess. (1984) (emphasis added). The Judiciary Committee reported that this provision required credit be given for "any time spent in confinement before the commencement of the sentence of imprisonment." H.R.Rep. No. 1017, 98th Cong., 2nd Sess. 54 (1984) (emphasis added). The House passed the Senate's version without any changes to the credit provision.
. Under the Program Statement cited in the text, credit will not be given for any portion of time spent serving another sentence regardless of whether the sentence is federal, state, or foreign, except as follows:
a. Time spent serving another foreign or state sentence that is vacated may be creditable as prior custody time credit provided the sentence was not vacated merely for resentenc-ing. Any such time which is credited must be time spent after the commission of the federal offense. If a vacated state or foreign sentence results in a re-trial and subsequent resentenc-ing, any credit applied to that resentencing must be removed from the federal sentence computation, provided the inmate has not yet been released from that sentence.
b. Time spent serving another federal, foreign or state sentence that is vacated merely for resentencing shall not have any effect on the [Sentencing Reform Act (SRA)] sentence computation until such time as the inmate is resentenced. If the resentencing results in a term which is less than the time the inmate has already served on the vacated sentence, the excess time not now credited to any other sentence shall be credited to the SRA term provided it was time spent after the commission of the federal offense.
. Under another section, credit related to 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b)(2) will be given as follows:
1. Prior Custody Credit will be given for time spent in official detention as the result of any federal, state or foreign arrest which is not related to, yet occurred on or after the date of commission of the federal offense for which the.SRA sentence was imposed; provided it has not been credited to another sentence. The language in this Section eliminates any need for a federal detainer to be on file or for bail to be set on the state or foreign charges as a prerequisite for applying such presentence time credit toward the federal sentence. Relevant prerequisites are:
a. The non-related official detention must have occurred on or after the date of the federal offense for which the SRA sentence was imposed.
b. The non-related official detention must not have been granted on another sentence. If it was applied on a state or foreign sentence, then credit is not applicable to the SRA sentence.
2. Failure by the state to grant official detention credit on a state sentence can be determined if:
a. The state charges are dismissed.
b. State probation is granted.
c. The federal term is concurrent with the state term and the Full Term Date of the state term is absorbed within the Full Term Date of the federal sentence (prior to applying any pre-sentence credits and regardless of any award of prior custody credits by the state). Prior custody credits would be given up to the date that the first sentence begins to run, federal or state. Credit may not be applied for any time *565 spent prior to the date of the SRA offense. Further, if the release from the non-federal sentence occurs prior to the imposition of the federal sentence, then any non-federal prior custody time awarded on the state sentence may not be applied to the federal sentence.
d. The state sentence is vacated with further prosecution deferred, thereby effectively vacating the state’s credit....
e. Ordinarily, if a state sentence is served, the inmate will have received credit for the presentence official detention. However, if it can be demonstrated that the state did not credit the time, the credit will be awarded for time in state custody consistent with the instructions set forth in this section.
(table omitted).
. This section, entitled "constructive federal custody,” applies to defendants still governed by section 3568 as follows:
(1) For time in non-federal custody when the non-federal custody is based on charges that later resulted in a federal sentence.
(a) Credit shall be given for all time spent in non-federal or foreign custody when the underlying basis for custody in fact is a federal warrant. For example, if a federal warrant is issued and the defendant is arrested by county police or foreign officials on the basis of the federal warrant, credit shall be given from the date of arrest to the date of sentence for all days in custody. Inquiries or requests for foreign presentence time credit, along with copies of the judgment and commitment and copies of any documentation in the institution or in the possession of the prisoner, must be sent to the Chief of Inmate Systems Management for verification.
(b) If the federal defendant has been in pre-sentence state or foreign custody on essentially the same charges, credit shall also be given even though a federal detainer may not have been on file during that time. Credit shall also be given for time spent in non-federal presen-tence custody when the non-federal and federal charges are similar enough to be considered the same criminal act or offense. This non-federal presentence custody is applicable when the factors of time, location, and the criminal acts are identical in both charges. Credit shall also be given for all time spent serving a state sentence (on the same charges as defined in this paragraph), which has its conviction vacated with no further prosecution to follow, in addition to any other non-federal presentence time.
. The Program Statement accommodates the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Brown by providing as to defendants governed by section 3568 that:
An exception to the rule, contained in paragraph 7.b.(5) above, pertains to any person sentenced in the Ninth Circuit, regardless of where that person is presently located or may transfer, who was ordered to spend time in a halfway house as a condition of bond, if that condition required that the person spend the night in the halfway house. (If the person worked nights and was ordered to spend off duty hours in the halfway house, then such off duty hours would be considered “nights” for crediting purposes.) For this particular group of defendants, credit must be given for each presentence day spent in the halfway house. (See Brown v. Rison,895 F.2d 533 (9th Cir.1990)).
Regardless of whether a person is presently confined, or is received in the future, records need not be reviewed until the person requests Brown credit. Exhaustion of administrative remedy is not required. Credit may be requested on a request to staff member form. Credit will only be given when the person can provide evidence, e.g., name of pretrial services officer, name and location of the halfway house, and dates of “custody” in the halfway house, to support the claim that such credit exists.
Based on the information provided by the prisoner, staff are responsible for obtaining necessary documentation to substantiate the claim before Brown credit may be given. If information is received from some source other than the prisoner that Brown credit may apply, of if it is obvious that such credit may apply, then staff shall initiate an inquiry by interviewing the prisoner involved.
Bureau of Prisons, Program Statement 5880.-30(7)(b)(6) (July 16, 1993).
. We leave it to the discretion of the district court whether, under the circumstances, Koray should be released pending such a hearing,
