Opinion ID: 2069112
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Computation of Inmate Good Behavior Credits

Text: Barber, in his application for the writ of habeas corpus, premised his request therefor upon his contention that by virtue of his good behavior and institutional industries time credits his prison sentence service time had expired. He asserts that G.L.1956 § 42-56-24 guaranteed him so-called up-front good time credits that were to be awarded to him immediately upon his initial entry to the ACI thereby reducing instantly his original term of sentence confinement. Section 42-56-24 reads as follows: Time allowed for good behavior.  (a) The director or his or her designee shall keep a record of the conduct of each prisoner, and for each month that a prisoner who has been sentenced to imprisonment for six (6) months or more and not under sentence to imprisonment for life, appears by the record to have faithfully observed all the rules and requirements of the institutions and not to have been subjected to discipline, there shall, with the consent of the director of the department of corrections or his or her designee, upon recommendation to him or her by the assistant director of institutions/operations, be deducted from the term or terms of sentence of that prisoner the same number of days that there are years in the term of his or her sentence; provided that when the sentence is for a longer term than ten (10) years, only ten (10) days shall be deducted for one month's good behavior; and provided, further, that in the case of sentences of at least six (6) months and less than one year, one day per month shall be so deducted; (b) For purposes of computing the number of days to be deducted for good behavior, consecutive sentences shall be counted as a whole sentence; (c) For every day a prisoner shall be shut up or otherwise disciplined for bad conduct, as determined by the assistant director, institutions/operations subject to the authority of the director, there shall be deducted one day from the time he or she shall have gained for good conduct; (d) The assistant director, or his or her designee subject to the authority of the director, shall have the power to restore lost good conduct time in whole or in part upon a showing by the prisoner of subsequent good behavior and disposition to reform; and (e) For each month that a prisoner who has been sentenced to imprisonment for six (6) months or more and not under sentence to imprisonment for life who has faithfully engaged in institutional industries there shall, with the consent of the director, upon the recommendations to him or her by the assistant director, institutions/operations, be deducted from the term or terms of the prisoner an additional two (2) days a month. These two (2) days a month shall be deducted regardless of the length of the sentence of the prisoner. Barber, in his application for habeas corpus, outlines his up-front good behavior and institutional industries sentence credit time contention as follows: The applicable rate of calculating Barber's good time is, Barber is entitled to receive (12) days per month for each one of his (240) in the term of his (20) year sentence. The applicable method of applying good time on an (2) year sentence (i.e., (12) days per month), and spread it over the entire length of Barber's term, causing his sentence to expire after he has served a total of (12) years (1) month and (10) days. Barber is entitled to have 2,880 days good time deducted from the term of his (20) years, meaning, deduct 2,880 days from his 7,300 day term of sentence, meaning (20) years. 2,880 days to be deducted from the term of sentence amounts to (7) years (10) months and (20) days, leaving a remainder to be served, (12) years (1) month and (20) days. (Emphasis added.) The apparent and obvious fault with that contention, in light of the particular statutory language of § 42-56-24, is that a convicted defendant, upon his arrival at the prison, and before serving one day of his or her sentence, would be awarded good prison behavior time credits as well as institutional industries work time credits before that prisoner had exhibited any good behavior or worked in any prison industry. In Barber's case, those credits would total 2,880 days of future good behavior and institutional industries work. That figure would include good prison time credits for over seven years during which he would not actually be in the prison. In addition, his 2,880 days of granted sentence reduction credits would be given without the prior required statutory recommendation of the assistant director of the department of corrections and the required consent of the director of that department. An examination of § 42-56-24(a) shows that it provides for the allowance of sentence credits to be awarded to prison inmates who faithfully observe all the rules and requirements of the institutions and who have not been subjected to discipline. That statute is similar to others in some of our sister states that are said to be intended not only to encourage rehabilitative efforts on the part of inmates by encouraging the industrious and orderly, but also to aid prison discipline by rewarding the obedient. Woodring v. Whyte, 161 W.Va. 262, 275, 242 S.E.2d 238, 246 (1978). The controversy in the litigation before us appears to concern not what the good behavior time statute says and requires, but instead, the manner in which it is being implemented. Barber, in his application, asserts one method of implementation, and the supervisor of records and identification at the ACI, while essentially agreeing with Barber's implementation method, arrives at a different computation of the number for good behavior and institutional industries credits. We revisit the hearing justice's findings of fact Nos. 22, 23, and 35. It appears fundamental that Barber's right to good behavior and institutional industries credits is purely statutory and may be acquired only in the manner and under the circumstances pointed out by statute. Burns v. Page, 446 P.2d 622, 623 (Okla.Crim.App.1968) (citing 72 C.J.S. Prisons § 21). See also State v. Barnard, 126 Ariz. 110, 612 P.2d 1073 (1980); 60 Am. Jur.2d Penal and Correctional Institutions, § 222 (1987). In Douglas v. Sigler, 386 F.2d 684 (8th Cir.1967), the court there pointed out: The allowance of good time to a prisoner and its denial or forfeiture are strictly matters of statute and are, of course, dependent upon the provisions of the particular statute under consideration. As a general rule the right to a good-time allowance is contingent until the time arises that its allowance will end imprisonment; the grant or denial of such an allowance is discretionary with the executive officer charged with the administration of its provisions; and its allowance is a matter of grace rather than a right. See Anno. 95 A.L.R.2d 1267 (1964). In Pagliaro v. Cox, 143 F.2d 900 (8 Cir. 1944), this Court concisely stated the controlling principle at p. 901: `The allowance of good time, until earned for the entire term ( Estabrook v. King, Warden 8 Cir., 119 F.2d 607, 609; Douglas v. King, 8 Cir., 110 F.2d 911, 913, 127 A.L.R. 1200; United States v. Nicholson, 4 Cir., 78 F.2d 468, 470, certiorari denied 296 U.S. 573, 56 S.Ct. 118, 80 L.Ed. 405), is a privilege which is conditioned expressly by the statute, sec. 710, Title 18 U.S.C.A., allowing it upon a record of conduct showing that he has faithfully observed all the rules and has not been subjected to punishment. See Wipf v. King, 8 Cir., 131 F.2d 33, 34.' Douglas, 386 F.2d at 686. We also address Barber's contention at this time that he has a constitutionally vested and protected property right guaranteeing him immediate up-front good behavior and institutional industries credit deductions from his total prison term sentence. He bases his contention upon Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974). He misinterprets Wolff. Our good-behavior or good-time sentence credit statute § 45-56-24 is discretionary in its application. It is dependent upon an inmate's monthly compliance with and obedience to prison rules and regulations as well as the further affirmative discretionary action on the part of two different department of corrections officers. Under our good behavior time credit statute, the assistant director of institutional operations in the department of corrections and the director of the department of corrections are vested with discretion in granting or refusing to grant good-behavior and institutional industries credit time to an inmate. Wolff procedures are only required when the statute in question is mandatory or specifically limits the discretion of prison department authorities. Because the department of corrections officials designated in § 42-56-24 are vested with discretion in granting or refusing to grant good-behavior and institutional industries time credits, depending upon the inmate's monthly record of conduct, the predicate for Barber's invocation of the Fourteenth Amendment protection as construed and applied in Wolff is totally nonexistent. See, e.g., Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 49 L.Ed.2d 451, reh'g denied 429 U.S. 873, 97 S.Ct. 191, 50 L.Ed.2d 155 (1976); Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236, 96 S.Ct. 2543, 49 L.Ed.2d 466 (1976); Jackson v. Hogan, 388 Mass. 376, 446 N.E.2d 692 (1983) (prison inmate has no vested constitutional right to good-time deductions). Accordingly, we turn to the statute and determine therefrom what good behavior and institutional credits Barber was in fact entitled to, pursuant to the terms of the statute. We do so because we deem it necessary at this time to construe § 42-56-24. We do so in part motivated by what we are told by the department of correction's counsel, namely, that there is now pending in the Superior Court in excess of 100 petitions and applications similar to that presented by Barber, all of which question the department of corrections' implementation of the good behavior time statute. We do so also because we deem it expedient at this time to provide guidance to those charged with the responsibility of implementing § 42-56-24 and to the state's institutional inmates who rely upon that statute. We shall address § 42-56-24 both from its legislative origins and from our past judicial precedents concerning that statute. We note that in none of those past judicial precedents did we ever squarely construe the statute in question, although we did leave therein some indications of what we then believed the statute both provided and required. Those indications will be noted in the course of this opinion.