Opinion ID: 1811314
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: petitioner cross: offender group 6

Text: Petitioner Cross is serving a number of sentences that qualify for Offender Group 5 [13] awards and a number of offenses that qualify for Offender Group 6 [14] awards. The offenses with the longest prison terms are considered the controlling offenses (since, of course, the inmate cannot be released before they end). Cross's controlling sentence qualifies for Offender Group 6 designation, and thus the award Cross receives as a Group 6 offender controls his release date. [15] When Cross was sent to prison in 1993, he was statutorily eligible for control release consideration and when the Parole Commission first evaluated him for the program, it considered him a good candidate for possible early release. Thus, the Parole Commission placed him in the advanceable pool, see Fla. Admin. Code R. 23-22.006(10)(b)-(c), and began awarding him control release credits. A few months after arriving in prison, however, Cross was returned to the circuit court for probation revocation proceedings regarding 1989 and 1990 cases for which he had been on probation prior to his 1993 return to prison. At those proceedings, the court revoked his probation (effective the date of the violation) and resentenced him in those cases. Upon his return from resentencing, the Parole Commission reassessed Cross's fitness for early release and determined that he was no longer a good release risk. See § 947.146(7)(a)1.e., Fla. Stat. (Supp. 1992). Accordingly, it established Cross's control release date as Maximum Sentence Length Non Advanceable B. See Fla. Admin. Code R. 23-22.006(10)(a)2. This meant that his previously awarded control release credits were canceled and when subsequent credits were awarded, his release date was not reduced (i.e., it was not advanced) because Cross was no longer in the advanceable pool. In early 1999, after this Court's decision in Gomez became final, the Department began auditing inmates' sentences to determine whether any Gomez credits were to be awarded. The Department determined that based on the time-frames in which he was in custody, Cross was entitled to 548 days of the 822 total possible days of provisional credits as to his Group 6 offenses. Cross was entitled to 357 days of the 1830 days total possible days of provisional credits as to his Group 5 offenses. Cross objected, arguing, inter alia, that the Department improperly made him ineligible to receive overcrowding credits for two months for each month in which he received a disciplinary report. Cross admits he committed disciplinary infractions during four separate months and admits that for those months, he is not entitled to overcrowding credits. He is not entitled to these credits because under both the provisional credits statute and the administrative gain time statute, an inmate is not eligible for credits unless he is earning incentive gain-time. See § 944.277(1), Fla. Stat. (Supp.1988) (the provisional credits statute); § 944.276, Fla. Stat. (1987) (the administrative gain time statute). The Department's rules (in effect when provisional credits were in effect) indicated that: An inmate is not eligible to receive incentive gain time for the month in which there is an infraction of the rules of the Department or the laws of the State for which he is found guilty. See Fla. Admin. Code R. 33-11.0065(5)(a) (emphasis added) (now renumbered as rule 33-601.101(6)(a)). Rule 33-11.0065(3)(c) further clarifies the matter and provides: As evaluations are based on activities for the month, no inmate shall be considered as earning incentive gain time until the month is complete, the evaluations have been submitted, and the award has been determined. See Fla. Admin. Code R. 33-11.0065(3)(c) (now renumbered as rule 33-601.101(3)(c)). We conclude, based on these rules, that the Department is justified in denying an inmate overcrowding credits when a disciplinary infraction is committed and it may wait until the month is over to award gain time. However, according to the Department's policy, it has taken the matter one step further: for each month in which a disciplinary infraction was committed, the Department has denied Cross (and apparently all inmates entitled to Gomez credits) overcrowding gain time eligibility for two monthsboth the month in which the disciplinary infraction was committed and the following month. While rule 33-11.0065(5)(a) (now renumbered as 33-601.101(6)(a)) has been amended to provide for subsequent ineligibility for up to six months following the month in which a disciplinary infraction occurs, the amended rule specifically provides that it only applies to inmates who are found guilty of committing a disciplinary infraction on or after April 21, 1996, and who are serving sentences imposed for offenses committed on or after October 1, 1995. Therefore, the amended rule would not apply to the disciplinary infractions at issue in this case. While we completely understand that the Department might want to wait until the month is complete to award gain time, whether the penalty is taken in the first month or the subsequent month, under the rules pertinent to this case, if there is one month of misbehavior, there should be only one month of gain time ineligibility. That being the case, Cross is entitled to 405 days credits on his Group 5 offenses and 612 days credits on his Group 6 offenses. Lastly, the Department and the petitioners assert that the first overcrowding statute should be considered to have gone into effect on June 15, 1983, despite the fact that this Court's charts in Gomez showed it as going into effect on June 16, 1983. They assert that they have essentially disregarded that part of the opinion because they believed it was a mistake and that it would cause too much upheaval, both to the Department and to the parties. The Department brought this issue to the Court's attention on rehearing in Gomez and, while we did not specifically address the matter in the opinion, we considered the issue and concluded that the Department's reliance upon an attorney general opinion was not correct. For that reason, the chart was published showing the first overcrowding statute going into effect on June 16, 1983. We reiterate the determination made in Gomez that the statute became effective on June 16, 1983, when the bill was filed in the Office of the Secretary of State, not on June 15, 1983, when the Governor signed it. See State ex rel. Schwartz v. Bledsoe, 159 Fla. 243, 31 So.2d 457, 460 (1947) (holding that a bill becomes a law when approved and signed by the Governor and by him filed in the office of the Secretary of State). However, the parties agree on this issue and assert that a change would disadvantage numerous inmates as well as disrupt the entire system of calculating gain time since other gain time statutes were also enacted as a part of the same act. We see no reason to disrupt this already established procedure of applying the statute retroactively by one day as the Department has done for nearly twenty years, so long as this application benefits the inmate population and decreases the upheaval already caused by Lynce. Therefore, we have changed the chart to indicate that we will treat the statute as if it had gone into effect on June 15, 1983.