Opinion ID: 2311108
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Administrative Procedures Act

Text: The trial justice's conclusion that the APA was not applicable to the department's adoption of a method for calculating good time and industrial time credits was also correct. In delineating the procedure agencies must follow when adopting agency rules, the APA specifically excludes from its mandate statements concerning only the internal management of an agency and not affecting private rights or procedures available to the public. G.L.1956 § 42-35-1(h). The computation method through which good time and industrial time credits are awarded is clearly a matter of internal management and, thus, is not subject to the requirements of the APA. The amount of good time and industrial time credits an inmate can receive and the requirements that must be met before receiving those credits are both specifically prescribed by § 42-56-24, as we discussed in detail in Barber, supra . The actual method of computation of those credits is left to the discretion of the department. That calculation method, however, does not affect the number of days an inmate can receive as good time or industrial time credits since that number is already fixed in § 42-56-24. For each inmate whose sentence is for more than six months' imprisonment and not for life, an inmate is entitled to receive one day per month, for each year of the inmate's sentence, not to exceed ten days per month. Furthermore, the statute's method of calculation does not affect the conditions that must be complied with before the inmate becomes eligible to receive those credits, such as compliance with the rules and requirements of the institution. Additionally, the method of calculation does not affect the procedure for receiving the credits, which, as we explained in Barber, requires both the recommendation of the assistant director of institutions/operations and the consent of the director of the Department of Corrections or his or her designee. Barber, 682 A.2d at 912-15; see also § 42-56-24. Thus, the method of calculation chosen by the department, in its discretion, only affects the manner in which the department accomplishes the task of granting good time credits, as those credits are delineated in § 42-56-24. That calculation method is, therefore, purely a matter of internal management and is not subject to the requirements of the APA.