Opinion ID: 852934
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Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trial Court Award of Credit Time

Text: The defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to correct sentence. He argues that he was entitled to receive credit toward his sentence for the days he served while imprisoned before his sentence plus an additional one day of credit time for each day of pre-sentence imprisonment, and that the trial court's abstract of judgment violated the statutory obligation to separately include designation of both time served and the amount of credit time thus earned. The State acknowledges that, for the defendant's 187 days of pre-sentence incarceration, he could be entitled to a total of 374 days credit against his sentenceso long as he remained classified in the credit time classification granting one day of credit time for each day imprisoned (for a total credit of two days). The State argues that this classification was subject to change by the Department of Correction (DOC) and thus the trial court may only make recommendations but may not enter a binding order fixing credit time. Amicus Indiana Public Defender Council urges that a sentencing judge has a statutory duty to separately determine not only credit for time spent in confinement but also credit time earned based on a prisoner's credit time classification, and that the Department of Correction does not have statutory authority to deprive a person of good time credit for a pre-sentence violation of a jail rule or rule of a non-DOC penal facility. As to the latter point, we disagree. As noted above, Indiana Code § 35-38-3-2 requires the trial court's judgment to include the amount of credit, including credit time earned, for time spent in confinement before sentencing. Under the Indiana Penal Code, prisoners receive credit time that is applied to reduce their term of imprisonment. A person imprisoned for a felony or misdemeanor generally shall be released upon completion of the fixed term of imprisonment, less the credit time he has earned. Ind.Code §§ 35-50-6-1(a), 35-50-6-2. The time spent in confinement before sentencing applies toward a prisoner's fixed term of imprisonment. The amount of additional credit is primarily determined by the prisoner's credit time classification. The applicable statute provides: (a) A person assigned to Class I earns one (1) day of credit time for each day he is imprisoned for a crime or confined awaiting trial or sentencing. (b) A person assigned to Class II earns one (1) day of credit time for every two (2) days he is imprisoned for a crime or confined awaiting trial or sentencing. (c) A person assigned to Class III earns no credit time. Ind.Code § 35-50-6-3. The statute also provides: A person imprisoned for a crime or imprisoned awaiting trial or sentencing is initially assigned to Class I. Ind.Code § 35-50-6-4(a). In addition to this credit time, a person may also earn credit time in one other mannerby successfully completing specified educational achievements while demonstrating a pattern consistent with rehabilitation. Ind. Code § 35-50-6-3.3. We interpret Indiana Code § 35-38-3-2 to require that a trial court's judgment of conviction separately include both the amount of time spent by the defendant prior to imposition of sentence and also the amount of credit time earned in accordance with the defendant's credit time class. Other statutory provisions authorize a prisoner's credit time class and earned credit time benefits to be diminished: A person may be reassigned to Class II or Class III if he violates any of the following: (1) A rule of the department of correction. (2) A rule of the penal facility in which he is imprisoned. (3) A rule or condition of a community transition program. However, a violation of a condition of parole or probation may not be the basis for reassignment. Before a person may be reassigned to a lower credit time class, he must be granted a hearing to determine his guilt or innocence and, if found guilty, whether reassignment is an appropriate disciplinary action for the violation. The person may waive his right to the hearing. Ind.Code § 35-50-6-4(b). A person may, with respect to the same transaction, be deprived of any part of the credit time he has earned for any of the following: (1) A violation of one (1) or more rules of the department of correction. (2) If the person is not committed to the department, a violation of one (1) or more rules of the penal facility in which the person is imprisoned. (3) A violation of one (1) or more rules or conditions of a community transition program. (4) If a court determines that a civil claim brought by the person in a state or an administrative court is frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless. Ind.Code § 35-50-6-5(a). Summarizing, a prisoner's release date is determined by the term of imprisonment imposed by the trial court less the time spent in confinement before sentencing less credit time earned. Credit time is accrued in two ways: (1) by the credit time classification to which a prisoner is assigned, Indiana Code § 35-50-6-3, and (2) by educational achievement pursuant to Indiana Code § 35-50-6-3.3. There is no other provision for the award of any credit time for good behavior. [4] It is possible, however, for a prisoner to be deprived of credit time classification or earned credit time for violations of penal facility rules. Ind.Code §§ 35-50-6-4(b), 35-50-6-5(a). Thus, credit time earned under Class I and that earned for educational achievements is sometimes described as good time credit because such credit is conditioned on the absence of bad conduct. [5] A. Finality of Trial Court Credit Time Determination We now turn to resolve whether a trial court's designation of credit time earned for confinement before sentencing is merely a recommendation, or whether it is final and immune from subsequent modification by the Department of Correction. The authorization to reduce credit time benefits in Indiana Code § 35-50-6-4 and 6-5 is not limited to the Department of Correction. The County Jail Standards contained in the administrative rules promulgated by the Department of Correction expressly provide for the imposition of discipline by jail officials subject to procedural safeguards. Ind. Adm.Code title 210, rule 3-1-17 (2004). This regulation states in relevant part: Discipline. (a) Each sheriff shall establish written rules of inmate conduct for the maintenance of order and discipline among inmates. Such rules shall describe the conduct for which disciplinary action may be imposed.... (c) Any of the following may be imposed as disciplinary action on jail inmates: ... (8) Reassignment to a lower credit time class under IC XX-XX-X-X; (9) Deprivation of earned credit time under IC XX-XX-X-X. While local jail personnel are authorized to modify a prisoner's credit time class and/or credit time, the Department of Correction may later revise such determinations. Indiana Code § 11-11-5-3 expressly authorizes the Department of Correction to also impose various sanctions as disciplinary actions. Among these are [r]eassignment to a lower credit time class under IC XX-XX-X-X and [d]eprivation of earned credit time under IC XX-XX-X-X. The credit time class assigned pursuant to Indiana Code § 35-50-6-4 includes both a person's initial assignment to Class I while awaiting trial or sentencing as well as subsequent reassignments to lower credit time assignments for violation of a rule of the penal facility in which he is imprisoned (as well as providing for restoration of prior credit time assignments). Similarly, the credit time deprivations and restorations authorized by Indiana Code § 35-50-6-5 are not limited to those accrued during confinement at the Department of Correction but may also be imposed with respect to violations of a rule of the penal facility in which the person is imprisoned. We therefore hold that the credit time earned while awaiting sentencing in a trial court is subject to subsequent deprivation by the Department of Correction. In addition, it appears that viewing a sentencing statement's credit time designation as a mere recommendation may be a relic from prior times. Previous statutes had required the sentencing judge to specify the days spent in confinement and to make recommendations as to credit for good time conduct for time spent in confinement prior to sentencing. Ind. Code §§ 35-8-2.5-15 ( repealed in Acts 1979, Public Law 120, Section 22). The present statute specifying the content of the sentencing judgment was enacted in 1983 and does not call for recommendations but simply requires that the judgment must include ... the amount of credit, including credit time earned, for time spent in confinement before sentencing. Ind.Code § 35-38-3-2. Nonetheless, recent opinions have held that a sentencing judge only has the authority to make recommendations with respect to good time allowances. Kindred v. State, 771 N.E.2d 760, 763 (Ind.Ct.App.2002), citing Leavell v. State, 181 Ind.App. 69, 73, 391 N.E.2d 246, 248 (1979). We disapprove of this view. [6] In Campbell v. State, 714 N.E.2d 678 (Ind.Ct.App.1999), our Court of Appeals confronted a claim that the trial court exceeded its statutory authority by denying Campbell's request for credit time for serving in the work release program prior to the revocation of his probation. Concluding that the deprivation or restoration of a person's credit time is a discretionary matter entrusted not to the courts but to the administrators of the DOC, the Campbell court held that the trial court exceeded its statutory authority. Id. at 683-84. Campbell did not involve a challenge to the trial court's sentencing judgment. In the course of its discussion, however, the court stated that credit time should be initially determined by the DOC, not the trial court. 714 N.E.2d at 682. This view was followed by the Court of Appeals in its opinion on rehearing in the present case. Robinson v. State, 789 N.E.2d 965, 967 (Ind.Ct.App.2003). We find this to be incorrect. Indiana Code § 35-38-3-2(b) unequivocally declares that the trial court sentencing judgment must include the amount of credit earned for time spent in confinement before sentencing. This determination serves to memorialize any modifications in credit time class or credit time imposed by local prison authorities upon a person confined before trial and sentencing. A trial court's sentencing judgment thus does not merely recommend. On the contrary, it determines a prisoner's credit time for time served as of the time of sentencing. This credit time, however, is subject to modification thereafter by the Department of Corrections pursuant to statutory procedures. Appellate authority has been rather inconsistent in providing direction to our trial courts on this issue. Compare Crow v. State, 797 N.E.2d 319, 325 (Ind.Ct.App. 2003) and Hatchett, 794 N.E.2d at 547 (trial court sentencing must include credit time) with Robinson, 789 N.E.2d at 967 and Kindred, 771 N.E.2d at 763 (sentencing judge may only make credit time recommendations). It is not surprising that the sentencing judgments of many trial judges is presented in language of recommending that credit time be awarded, or in omitting any reference to credit time whatsoever. As discussed above, a person is initially entitled to Class I credit for the days confined before sentencing, subject to a deprivation of Class I status by the Sheriff or other penal authority, and a trial court's sentencing judgment must include both days imprisoned before sentencing and the credit time earned thereby, thus reflecting any credit time deprivation imposed before sentencing. In an effort to facilitate the fair and expeditious resolution of appellate litigation arising from these judgments, we adopt the following appellate presumption. Sentencing judgments that report only days spent in pre-sentence confinement and fail to expressly designate credit time earned shall be understood by courts and by the Department of Correction automatically to award the number of credit time days equal to the number of pre-sentence confinement days. In the event of any pre-sentence deprivation of credit time, the trial court must report it in the sentencing judgment. [7] Because the omission of designation of the statutory credit time entitlement is thus corrected by this presumption, such omission may not be raised as an erroneous sentence. B. Omission of Credit Time from Abstract of Judgment There is a split of authority regarding whether a trial court's failure to specify credit time requires remand or correction on appeal. Concluding that a trial court must determine the amount of credit time for pre-sentence imprisonment, some cases have granted relief. See, e.g., Crow v. State, 797 N.E.2d 319 (Ind.Ct.App.2003); Senn v. State, 766 N.E.2d 1190 (Ind.Ct. App.2002). But in Hatchett v. State, 794 N.E.2d 544, 547 (Ind.Ct.App.2003), while emphasizing that trial courts may not routinely disregard the requirements of Indiana Code § 35-38-3-2(b)(4) requiring a sentencing judgment to included credit time earned, the court held that a trial court's failure to record a defendant's credit time earned ... in its abstract of judgment does not render the defendant's sentence facially erroneous. Id. For the reasons discussed in this opinion, we do not completely approve of these cases. In the present case, the defendant's claim is based on the trial court's entries on the abstract of judgment, a form issued by the Department of Correction and completed by trial judges for the convenience of the Department. The instructions on this form requested that it accompany the Judgment, Pre-Sentence Report, and all other documents required by law, upon the commitment of the adult offender to the Indiana Department of Correction. The form called for the signature of the committing judge and the attestation of the county clerk. Part 3 of the abstract of judgment form, entitled Judge's Recommendations, contains a box requesting No. of days confined prior to sentencing. It is unclear from the form whether the Department was seeking the trial judge's verification of (a) actual time spent in pre-sentence confinement or (b) credit time earned from time spent in pre-sentence confinement. Clearly, however, the abstract of judgment form requested only one number. In this box, the trial judge entered 187. In contrast to the abstract of judgment, the trial court's actual sentencing judgment includes the following: The Court also finds that the Defendant shall be given one hundred eighty-seven (187) days credit toward the sentence of imprisonment for time spent in confinement as a result of this charge and the Court recommends that said time be considered as good time credit provided by law. Supplemental Appendix at 10-11. Thus in this case, the trial court's written judgment entry imposing the sentence presumptively complied with the statutory requirement that the sentencing judgment include the amount of credit, including credit time earned, for time spent in confinement before sentencing. Ind.Code § 35-38-3-2(a). However, the abstract of judgment form signed by the trial judge for transmission of the judgment to the Department of Correction contained no separate reference to credit time. Our Court of Appeals has stated that Indiana trial courts use the abstract of judgment to convey the final judgment to the receiving authority, and that it is the abstract of judgment which embodies the final judgment of the trial court. Hatchett, 794 N.E.2d at 546, quoting Risner v. Indiana Parole Board, 779 N.E.2d 49, 52 (Ind.Ct.App.2002). Transfer to this Court was not sought in either Hatchett or Risner. The statute requiring the trial court's inclusion of credit time does not refer to the abstract of judgment. (a) When a convicted person is sentenced to imprisonment, the court shall, without delay, certify, under the seal of the court, copies of the judgment of conviction and sentence to the receiving authority. (b) The judgment must include: (1) the crime for which the convicted person is adjudged guilty and the classification of the criminal offense; (2) the period, if any, for which the person is rendered incapable of holding any office of trust or profit; (3) the amount of the fines or costs assessed, if any, whether or not the convicted person is indigent, and the method by which the fines or costs are to be satisfied; (4) the amount of credit, including credit time earned, for time spent in confinement before sentencing; and (5) the amount to be credited toward payment of the fines or costs for time spent in confinement before sentencing. (c) The judgment may specify the degree of security recommended by the court. (d) A term of imprisonment begins on the date sentence is imposed, unless execution of the sentence is stayed according to law. Ind.Code § 35-38-3-2 (emphasis added). Other than the ambiguous box labeled No. of days confined prior to sentencing, the Department of Correction's abstract of judgment form requested only the information specified by subsection (b)(1), and clearly did not seek that specified in subsections (b)(2), (b)(3), and (b)(5). The contents of the abstract of judgment form do not control the information that the sentencing judge must include in the judgment of conviction. We construe the italicized word judgment in subsection (b) above to refer to the phrase judgment of conviction in subsection (a) and thus to require the inclusion of designated information only in the judgment of conviction, a copy of which must be provided by the trial court to the Department as receiving authority. The Department's abstract of judgment form is not the judgment of conviction. To the extent they hold otherwise, Hatchett and Risner are overruled. The remedy of a motion to correct sentence arising from Indiana Code § 35-38-1-15 speaks only in terms of sentence, not judgment of conviction: If the convicted person is erroneously sentenced, the mistake does not render the sentence void. The sentence shall be corrected after written notice is given to the convicted person. The convicted person and his counsel must be present when the corrected sentence is ordered. A motion to correct sentence must be in writing and supported by a memorandum of law specifically pointing out the defect in the original sentence. Id. (emphasis added). We nevertheless hold that the sentence that is subject to correction under this procedure means the trial court's judgment of conviction imposing the sentence and not the trial court's entries on the Department of Correction's abstract of judgment form. It is the court's judgment of conviction and not the abstract of judgment that is the official trial court record and which thereafter is the controlling document. Therefore, a motion to correct sentence may not be used to seek corrections of claimed errors or omissions in an abstract of judgment. We note that the actual judgment of the trial court included the fact that the defendant had spent 187 days in confinement before sentencing and designated that he was entitled to credit time for these 187 days, which results in a total credit of 374 days. This judgment of conviction, not the abstract of judgment, is controlling. Because the defendant is seeking correction of the abstract of judgment in his case, there is no error in denying the defendant's motion to correct sentence. [8]