Opinion ID: 1819049
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the proper remedy

Text: When challenging a sentence-reducing credit determination by the Department, such as a gain time or provisional release credit determination, once a prisoner has exhausted administrative remedies, he or she generally may seek relief in an original proceeding filed in circuit court as an extraordinary writ petition. [1] In such a case, if the prisoner alleges entitlement to immediate release, a petition for writ of habeas corpus is the proper remedy [2] ; whereas if the prisoner does not allege entitlement to immediate release, a petition for writ of mandamus is the proper remedy. [3] In the present case, the State contends that the Court should overrule Schmidt because language in the decision may be read as authorizing prisoners to challenge sentence-reducing credit determinations via collateral remedies rather than extraordinary writ petitions. We disagree. Specifically, the Court in Schmidt did not hold that a challenge to a sentence-reducing credit determination is actually a collateral challenge that must be pursued via a postconviction remedy. [4] First, although the Court in Schmidt did state that a gain time challenge is analogous to a collateral challenge to a sentence in a criminal proceeding because the end result is the samethe inmate's time in prison is directly affected, 878 So.2d at 367, the Court used the term analogous and did not state that a gain time challenge is a collateral challenge. [5] And second, although the Court stated that [this] gain time challenge should be considered a `collateral criminal proceeding,' id., the Court did so in the context of the prisoner indigency statute, and the statement is limited to that context. [6] To clarify this matter, we hold that the proper remedy for a prisoner to pursue in challenging a sentence-reducing credit determination by the Department, where the prisoner has exhausted administrative remedies and is not alleging entitlement to immediate release, continues to be a mandamus petition filed in circuit court.