Opinion ID: 1846890
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Heading: Application of Lynce to Lancaster

Text: Three statutes were enacted after the commission of Lancaster's criminal offense which could be asserted as a legal basis to cancel Lancaster's overcrowding gain time. The first two were 1989 amendments to sections 948.06 and 944.28(1). See § 944.28(1); 948.06(6), Fla. Stat. (1989). They added revocation of probation, community control, and provisional release to the circumstances permitting gain time forfeiture. Id. The third statute was section 944.278, Florida Statutes (1993), which was part of the act known as the Safe Streets Initiative enacted on June 17, 1993. It canceled credits for inmates in custody or upon their return to custody. The State asserts that when Lancaster was returned to prison in 1994, the State did not apply section 944.278 (the Safe Streets Initiative) to Lancaster to cancel his overcrowding gain time because before Lancaster was returned to prison, i.e., at resentencing, Lancaster had already been denied credit for his overcrowding gain time. Therefore, the State maintains that there were no overcrowding credits to cancel under section 944.278. The State alleges, however, that overcrowding gain time is still distinguishable from regular (basic and incentive) gain time and that although there is no viable statutory authority for its forfeiture under Green, the State does not need any statutory authority to deny credit for overcrowding gain time. The State maintains that overcrowding gain time is distinguishable because: (1) this Court stated in Bowles v. Singletary, 698 So.2d 1201 (Fla.1997), that Bowles' Control Release credits (another type of overcrowding gain time) had been used to attain early release and had not been cancelled by any subsequent legislation, and (2) that overcrowding gain time is not earned. We reject the contention that there is such a distinction. First, we note that like other types of gain time, the State must have statutory authority to forfeit overcrowding gain time upon supervision revocation. See generally State v. Green, 547 So.2d 925 (Fla.1989). We find, however, that in some cases, the State may claim statutory authority to forfeit overcrowding gain time. Section 944.28(1) states that if the ... probation ... granted to [the prisoner] is revoked, the department may, without notice or hearing, declare a forfeiture of all gain-time earned according to the provisions of law by such prisoner prior to ... his release. (Emphasis added.) [4] Section 948.06(6) states that whenever probation ... is revoked, the offender, by reason of his misconduct, may be deemed to have forfeited all gain-time. (Emphasis added.) [5] It appears that the State believes that neither of those sections includes Provisional Credits or Administrative Gain Time. We believe, however, that sections 944.28(1) and 948.06(6) do provide the State with such authority but they can only be invoked for inmates whose underlying offenses were committed on or after October 1, 1989 (the effective date of the amendments providing for such forfeitures). Lancaster's original offense was committed before that date and thus the State cannot forfeit his Provisional Credits or Administrative Gain Time under those statutes. We further reject the argument that Lancaster's overcrowding gain time has already been canceled or may now be canceled pursuant to section 944.278, Florida Statutes (1993)(the Safe Streets Initiative). We expressly hold that the application of that section to Lancaster would violate ex post facto principles. As mentioned above, the Safe Streets Initiative was enacted in 1993. It canceled all Administrative Gain Time and Provisional Credits for all inmates in custody. The act did not cancel such credits for releasees unless and until they were returned to custody. Section 944.278 provides, in pertinent part: All awards of administrative gain-time under s. 944.276 and provisional credits under s. 944.277 are hereby canceled for all inmates serving a sentence or combined sentences in the custody of the department, or serving a state sentence in the custody of another jurisdiction. Release dates of all inmates with 1 or more days of such awards shall be extended by the length of time equal to the number of days of administrative gain-time and provisional credits which were canceled. Inmates who are out of custody due to an escape or a release on bond, or whose postrelease supervision is revoked on or after the effective date of this act, shall have all administrative gain-time and provisional credits canceled when the inmate's release date is reestablished upon return to custody. Offenders who are under provisional release supervision as of the effective date of this section shall be subject to the terms and conditions established at the time of release until such offenders have been discharged from supervision. Offenders who have warrants outstanding based on violation of supervision as of the effective date of this section, or who violate terms of supervision subsequent to enactment of this section, shall be terminated from supervision and returned to custody. All provisional credits shall be canceled when an offender's tentative release date is reestablished. § 944.278, Fla. Stat. (1993) (emphasis added). We conclude that both the first emphasized portion of section 944.278 providing for the cancellation of the awards for  all inmates serving a sentence or combined sentences in the custody of the department,  and the second emphasized portion providing for the cancellation of credits specifically directed at releasees would technically cover Lancaster's situation. The State argues that the portion of the Safe Streets Initiative concerning the cancellation of credits specifically directed at releasees (the second emphasized section above) would be constitutional even if it were applied to inmates whose original offenses were committed prior to enactment, so long as the misconduct necessitating the revocation of supervision was committed after the enactment of section 944.278. The State argues that there is a critical distinction between laws that change the penalty for the original offense and laws that change penalties for new behavior, which results in the revocation of post-release supervision. The State asserts that the circumstances surrounding the loss of Lancaster's overcrowding gain time were factually different from those surrounding Lynce's case. It argues that while Lynce committed no violation of any terms of release, Lancaster, on the other hand, violated the terms of his release. See Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. at 436, 117 S.Ct. 891. In other words, it is asserted that Lynce's case concerned a cancellation of overcrowding credits without any subsequent misbehavior on Lynce's part while Lancaster's case concerned a forfeiture of overcrowding credits due to the revocation of probation caused by Lancaster's subsequent misbehavior. We note, however, that Lancaster had already been released on probation by the time the Safe Streets Initiative was enacted. Furthermore, we have already rejected the subsequent or future misconduct argument in our recent decision in Britt v. Chiles, 704 So.2d 1046, 1047 (Fla.1997). In that case, the State argued that there was no ex post facto violation when it retroactively applied a later-enacted statute and rule which provided for a mandatory disciplinary punishment consisting of up to a six-month period of time in which inmates were made ineligible to receive gain time. The State argued that while there was no such mandatory provision in the statutes in effect at the time of Britt's offense, there was no constitutional violation because the increased punishment was due to Britt's future or subsequent misconduct, not the original crime. We concluded that under Weaver v. Graham 450 U.S. 24, 34, 101 S.Ct. 960, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981), as reaffirmed in Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. at 442, 117 S.Ct. 891, the new provision violated ex post facto principles because, by curtailing the availability of future credits it effectively postpone[d] the date when [an inmate] would become eligible for early release. Britt, 704 So.2d at 1048 (quoting Lynce, 519 U.S. at 442, 117 S.Ct. 891). Accordingly, we find we are required to reject the State's subsequent or future misconduct argument in this case as well. There is also the question of whether the State can constitutionally invoke the aforementioned first emphasized portion of section 944.278 providing for the cancellation of the awards for  all inmates serving a sentence or combined sentences in the custody of the department. Before Lynce was decided, the time of the offense was the only relevant time frame for determining whether an inmate had an ex post facto right to a certain benefit. See Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 30, 101 S.Ct. 960, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981). Further, there was no ex post facto violation where a retroactive change affected a benefit, if, at the time of the offense, the desired benefit was merely speculative. See California Dept. of Corrections v. Morales, 514 U.S. 499, 509, 115 S.Ct. 1597, 131 L.Ed.2d 588 (1995). After Lynce, however, an ex post facto inquiry involves not only looking at the time of offense, but also involves looking at subsequent time frames as well to determine whether a possible, yet speculative benefit has become more definite. See Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. at 446, 117 S.Ct. 891. In Lynce, the grant of overcrowding credits was speculative at the time of that inmate's offense because no one could tell for sure whether the prison overcrowding levels would become so extreme as to trigger the relevant overcrowding statutes. Nevertheless, Lynce was subsequently awarded a certain amount of credits which ultimately led to his release from incarceration. Therefore, by the time Lynce was released, the credits were clearly no longer non-quantifiable or unknown. On the contrary they had become a certainty. Id. (concluding that unlike in Morales, the actual course of events makes it unnecessary to speculate). In the present case, as in Lynce's case, at the time of Lancaster's offense overcrowding gain time had already been provided for by statute. See § 944.598, Fla. Stat. (Supp.1986) (Emergency Gain Time); § 944.276, Fla. Stat. (1987)(Administrative Gain Time). Accordingly, Lancaster could have contemplated receiving overcrowding credits at the time of his offense. Furthermore, Lancaster did receive these credits and was actually released by way of the above-mentioned statutes. Furthermore, when Lancaster was released on probation, the 1993 Safe Streets Initiative had not been enacted yet. Thus, akin to the situation with Lynce, Lancaster's hope of receiving overcrowding gain time had become a reality. As mentioned above, the Safe Streets Initiative was enacted in 1993, long after Lancaster's underlying offense and approximately two years after his release on probation. If the State were to now apply that later-enacted law to Lancaster and cancel his overcrowding gain time, the effect of that law would be to retroactively take away something to which Lancaster had an expectation at the time of his offense, actually received during his incarceration, and actually retained after revocation or must now be awarded because the 1989 forfeiture provision, section 944.28(1), may not be applied to him (as discussed above). We find that the application of the Safe Streets Initiative to Lancaster now would result in the taking of something which was certainly not speculative. Accordingly, we conclude that under the analysis of Lynce, the State cannot apply section 944.278 (the Safe Streets Initiative) to Lancaster to cancel his Administrative Gain Time or Provisional Credits without violating the Ex Post Facto Clause. See also Jackson v. Singletary, 695 So.2d 494 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997)(applying first part of section 944.278 canceling awards for all inmates serving sentences in DOC's custody to petitioner would be an ex post facto violation based on analysis in Lynce ); State ex rel. Florida Dept. of Corrections v. Stevenson, 695 So.2d 727 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996) (finding it unconstitutional to apply second part of section 944.278 to Stevenson, who had been released prior to the statute's enactment, because such inmates could not have contemplated the later-enacted statute's additional consequences for their violation of probation), review granted, 687 So.2d 1306 (Fla.1997). For the foregoing reasons, we approve the result of the Fourth District's decision finding that the State cannot cancel or forfeit Lancaster's Provisional Credits or his Administrative Gain Time. It is so ordered. HARDING, C.J., and SHAW, KOGAN and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur. WELLS, J., dissents with an opinion. PARIENTE, J., recused.