Barber v. Vose

• Decision Date: 20 August 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-18-MP,95-18-MP
• Citation: Barber v. Vose, 682 A.2d 908 (R.I. 1996)
• Parties: Byron BARBER v. George A. VOSE, Jr.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 908

682 A.2d 908

Byron BARBER v. George A. VOSE, Jr.

No. 95-18-MP.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Aug. 20, 1996.

Byron Barber, Pro Se, and Paula Lynch Hardiman, Asst. Public Defender, for Plaintiff.

Stephen A. Regine and David J. Gentile, Asst. Attys. General, for Defendant.

OPINION

BOURCIER, Justice.

This is an appeal from a final judgment of the Superior Court denying Byron Barber's petition for habeas corpus.

The petitioner, Byron Barber (Barber), is presently confined at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI). On June 10, 1986, following his conviction by a jury in the Superior Court on an indictment charging him with first degree sexual assault, he was sentenced to a term of twenty-five years, twenty of which was to be served in prison and the five year remainder suspended, with probation. That conviction was affirmed by this Supreme Court on March 23, 1988. State v. Barber, 539 A.2d 76 (R.I.1988).

Barber, in his petition for habeas corpus, claims that he is presently being illegally detained at the ACI. A Superior Court justice denied his petition. We affirm. In doing so, we specifically note as significant the hearing justice's findings of fact designated as Nos. 22, 23, 26, 28, 35 and 36. Her findings in Nos. 22 and 23 were that institutional industries sentence reduction credits were being awarded by the department of correction's supervisor of records and identification in violation of G.L.1956 § 42-56-24(c). In finding No. 35, she concluded that the present method of crediting inmate good behavior sentence credits by the department of corrections was not in compliance with the specific recommendation and consent requirements of § 42-56-24(a). In findings No. 26 and No. 28, the trial justice, in considering whether Barber's good behavior and institutional industries sentence credit time had been properly calculated, apparently used what she referred to as the "pre-1976 formula." In doing so, she apparently overlooked our Opinion to the Governor, 91 R.I. 187, 162 A.2d 814 (1960), wherein we advised the Governor that the law in effect at the time of an inmate's sentencing regarding good-behavior credits is the law that governs throughout his or her serving of that sentence. In Barber's case, he was sentenced on June 10, 1986, and the law in effect at that time was § 42-56-24, as last amended by P.L.1976, ch. 290, and not pre-1976 law. The trial justice's concern regarding Barber's alleged equal protection claim arising from his request for pre-1976 law treatment need not be addressed by us because that question has long since been determined contrary to his contention in Mastracchio v. Superior Court, 98 R.I. 111, 200 A.2d 10 (1964), and Sousa v. Langlois, 97 R.I. 196, 196 A.2d 838 (1964).

I Denial of the Writ

The hearing justice in the Superior Court found that Barber's sentence to the ACI, however calculated, had not yet expired. Accordingly, she correctly determined that Barber was not being illegally detained and was not entitled to immediate release and denied his application. The writ of habeas corpus has never been recognized to permit the release of a prisoner being held in lawful confinement by virtue of a valid conviction and sentence. Ouimette v. Langlois, 97 R.I. 210, 211, 196 A.2d 828, 828 (1964); Fleury v. Langlois, 94 R.I. 412, 414, 181 A.2d 244, 246 (1962); Lee v. Kindelan, 80 R.I. 212, 223, 95 A.2d 51, 56 (1953); Asadoorian for Writ of Habeas Corpus, 48 R.I. 50, 54, 135 A. 322, 324 (1926). See also 39 Am.Jur.2d Habeas Corpus § 1 (1968).

II Computation of Inmate Good Behavior Credits

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,...