Opinion ID: 2168768
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: good time

Text: Lobato also argues that the trial court erred in ordering that Lobato could not earn good time credits while incarcerated. [W]hen a court sentences a defendant to probation, it may impose any conditions of probation that are authorized by statute. State v. Escamilla, 237 Neb. at 650, 467 N.W.2d at 62; State v. Schroder, 218 Neb. 860, 359 N.W.2d 799 (1984). Lobato asserts that she should be allowed to earn good time credits while incarcerated under Neb.Rev.Stat. § 47-502 (Reissue 1998). Section 47-502 states that a person incarcerated in a city or county jail shall receive 7 days of good time credit for every 14 consecutive days served without committing any breach of discipline or other violation of jail regulations. We have previously addressed the impact of § 47-502 on incarcerated probationers in State v. Salyers, 239 Neb. 1002, 480 N.W.2d 173 (1992). In Salyers, the defendant asserted that probationers serving intermittent sentences should be entitled to earn good time credit under § 47-502. We disagreed, finding that the plain language of the statute required that the jail time be served consecutively in order for § 47-502 to apply. The State asserts that the holding of Salyers is without application in Lobato's case because § 47-502 has been amended since the Salyers decision. At the time Salyers was decided, an inmate in city or county jail was required to serve 21 consecutive days to earn 7 days of good time credit. In 1993, the Legislature amended § 47-502 to provide that inmates must serve 14 consecutive days to earn 7 days of good time credit. This amendment does not affect the holding in Salyers that probationers serving consecutive jail time are eligible to earn good time credit under § 47-502. While the sentencing court may impose such reasonable conditions as it deems necessary or likely to [e]nsure that the offender will lead a law-abiding life, § 29-2262(1), `special provisions of a statute in regard to a particular subject will prevail over general provisions in the same or other statutes so far as there is a conflict,' State v. Escamilla, 237 Neb. 647, 651, 467 N.W.2d 59, 62 (1991). Denying a probationer the ability to earn good time credit as provided for by § 47-502 is thus not a condition of probation authorized by statute. See State v. Escamilla, supra . Lobato was sentenced to serve 180 consecutive days in the county jail. She is eligible to earn good time credit under the terms of § 47-502 while incarcerated. See State v. Salyers, supra . The State argues that because Lobato was sentenced to probation and not sentenced to punitive incarceration, § 47-502 need not apply. We find this distinction unpersuasive. As we noted in State v. Salyers, 239 Neb. at 1007, 480 N.W.2d at 177, the language of § 47-502 is plain and unambiguous and specifically applies to jail inmates who have served [the required number of] consecutive days. The trial court erred in ordering that Lobato could not earn good time credit while incarcerated for 180 consecutive days.