Cunningham v. Wilson
Cunningham v. Wilson
Opinion of the Court
ORDER
This case is one of at least four that Thomas Cunningham has pending in federal court. The first case is criminal: a jury
The district court was correct that release from custody is not a form of relief available under § 2241 to a federal inmate challenging the conditions of his confinement. See Glaus v. Anderson, 408 F.3d 382, 386-87 (7th Cir. 2005). And even though Cunningham was a pretrial detainee and not a sentenced inmate, the rule of Glaus applies because the “standards applicable to complaints by convicts and by pretrial detainees about unsafe conditions of confinement merge.” Hart v. Sheahan, 396 F.3d 887, 892 (7th Cir. 2005). That is, a federal convict brings his claim about conditions of confinement under the Eighth Amendment and a federal pretrial detainee must use the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, see Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535 n. 15, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), but we apply the same substantive standards to both claims. Therefore, under Glaus, neither claim can be remedied by release under § 2241. We note that, under § 2241, some due process violations occurring during confinement can be remedied by an earlier release from custody. But those violations affect the duration of confinement, e.g., Waletzki v. Keohane, 13 F.3d 1079, 1080-81 (7th Cir. 1994) (claim regarding arbitrary denial of good-time credits), and not, like Cunningham’s alleged violations, the conditions of confinement.
AFFIRMED.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.