Piggott v. Commissioner of Correction, 94-P-989

• Decision Date: 09 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-P-989,94-P-989
• Citation: 666 N.E.2d 1314,40 Mass.App.Ct. 678
• Parties: Sean S. PIGGOTT & others 1 v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION.
• Court: Appeals Court of Massachusetts

Page 1314

666 N.E.2d 1314

40 Mass.App.Ct. 678

Sean S. PIGGOTT & others ¹ v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION.

No. 94-P-989.

Appeals Court of Massachusetts Suffolk.

Argued Dec. 1, 1995.

Decided July 9, 1996.

Barry Barkow, Boston, for plaintiffs.

Joel J. Berner, Boston, for defendant.

Before ARMSTRONG, DREBEN and GREENBERG, JJ.

GREENBERG, Justice.

While incarcerated at Southeastern Correctional Center at Bridgewater (M.C.I., Bridgewater), prisoners Sean Piggott and Christopher Harding filed a complaint for declaratory relief in the Superior Court claiming that the defendant, the Commissioner of Correction (commissioner), unconstitutionally withheld good time credits earned by them for participation in programs under G.L. c. 127, § 129D. ² They sought an award of earned good time credits which the commissioner had denied them on August 21, 1987, by depriving certain prisoners of eligibility for earned good time credits for participation in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and counseling programs. ³ The prisoners also sought a declaration that the commissioner's action violated their due process and equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and arts. 1, 10, and 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. After an answer was filed by the commissioner, cross motions for summary judgment were heard by a judge of the Superior Court. On January 14, 1993, he granted partial summary judgment in favor of the prisoners, holding that the commissioner's denial of earned good time credit to some State prisoners but not others violated art. 1 of the Declaration of Rights and the equal protection clause of the Federal Constitution.

On May 17, 1993, another Superior Court judge certified the case as a class action under Mass.R.Civ.P. 23, 365 Mass. 767 (1974), and ordered that "[u]pon submission of an affidavit by a State prisoner who alleges participation in AA, NA or counseling programs between September 1987 and May 1993 and who was incarcerated between September 1987 and May 1993 [Piggott time] under the same term of imprisonment that is now being served, whether comprised of a single sentence or two or more sentences being served concurrently or otherwise, and upon [the commissioner's] reviewing such prisoner's records, defendant shall retroactively award ... earned good time for program participation ... between September 1987 and May 1993" (emphasis added). We shall refer to those sentences in our opinion as "Piggott time sentences." The matter was remanded to the commissioner for compliance.

A dispute arose concerning the scope of relief accorded by the court's order. ⁴ The commissioner granted relief to prisoners still serving the same sentence on May 25, 1993, as they were during the Piggott time. However, he denied retroactive awards of earned good time to those prisoners who had completed their original Piggott time sentences by May 25, 1993, and were now serving consecutive sentences for crimes: (1) committed while on parole; (2) not eligible for statutory good time; (3) subject to a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment; or (4) punishable by confinement in a different correctional institution, such as a county house of correction, Federal penitentiary, or out-of-State prison.

Aggrieved by the commissioner's failure to award full retroactive relief, the prisoners then returned to court. After a hearing, a judge of the Superior Court ruled that the commissioner correctly denied relief. The judge ordered entry of judgment on April 7, 1994. The prisoners now appeal.

We hold that there was error affecting those parts of the judgment that excluded certain current Massachusetts State and county prisoners, who had finished serving their original Piggott time sentence and are currently serving consecutive sentences, from receiving earned good time credits: in particular, those prisoners whose sentences (1) follow directly from and after any preceding sentence; and (2) were imposed for crimes committed before incarceration on the earlier Piggott time sentence. The judgment is affirmed, however, with respect specifically to prisoners now serving consecutive sentences for crimes committed after incarceration on the earlier Piggott time sentence or who are confined in a Federal or out-of-State institution. And in all other respects, the judgment is affirmed.

We turn now to the merits of the appeal, analyzing the four categories the prisoners claim were mistakenly excluded from receiving earned good-time credits. In evaluating the proper scope of relief, judges are guided by twin principles: prisoners should, where possible, not be required to serve "dead time," but have no right to bank time served against future offenses. Manning v. Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Inst., Norfolk, 372 Mass. 387, 396, 361 N.E.2d 1299 (1977).

1. Crimes committed while on parole. First, the prisoners claim that those prisoners who had served a sentence during the Piggott time, were paroled from that sentence, and committed another unrelated crime that resulted in revocation of that parole, are entitled to retroactive relief on their initial sentence. They ask that the wrongfully withheld earned good time credits be applied to their initial Piggott time sentence so that they would have begun serving their parole violation sentence at an earlier date.

We start with the proposition that earned good time credits pursuant to G.L. c. 127, § 129D, cannot be forfeited and are intended to reduce the maximum period of a prisoner's actual confinement. Burno v. Commissioner of Correction, 399 Mass. 111, 122, 503 N.E.2d 16 (1987); Connery v. Commissioner of Correction, 33 Mass.App.Ct. 253, 261, 598 N.E.2d 1135 (1992), S.C., 414 Mass. 1009, 610 N.E.2d 896 (1993). However, it does not follow from such an entitlement that a prisoner who violates a condition of parole by committing another crime is entitled to retroactive relief. Burno v. Commissioner of Correction, 399 Mass. at 124-125, 503 N.E.2d 16; Cordeiro v. Commissioner of Correction, 37 Mass.App.Ct. 690, 692-693, 642 N.E.2d 1062 (1994). Where "the maximum aspect of the (first sentence) against which credit is now claimed [comes] into consideration only as a result of the plaintiff's criminality while on parole," awarding relief for that criminality offends common sense. Cordeiro v. Commissioner of Correction, 37 Mass.App.Ct. at 692-693, 642 N.E.2d 1062. Therefore, any prisoner now serving a consecutive sentence for a crime committed while on parole from his original sentence is not entitled to a retroactive award of earned good time credit derived from the original sentence on the consecutive sentence. See Cordeiro v. Commissioner of Correction, 37 Mass.App.Ct. at 692-693, 642 N.E.2d 1062.

2. Crimes not eligible for statutory good time or subject to a mandatory minimum sentence. Next, the prisoners contend that those prisoners serving a consecutive sentence for a crime not eligible for statutory good time or that is subject to a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment were unfairly denied retroactive relief. They argue that by denying them retroactive relief on completed sentences, both categories of prisoners have been forced to serve "dead time" on those sentences. Put more succinctly, had the commissioner correctly allocated deductions during their initial sentences (i.e., given the prisoners the earned good time credits to which they were entitled), they would have begun serving their consecutive sentences at an earlier date, thereby advancing their ultimate prison discharge date.

The commissioner's position is that these claims are moot because the sentences upon which the prisoners claim credits have been completed. The suggestion that those prisoners have forfeited their § 129D credits on that basis ignores the obvious: they are currently imprisoned and their terms have been extended due to the commissioner's wrongful denial of earned good time credits. Contrast M.C. v. Commissioner of Correction, 399 Mass. 909, 911, 507 N.E.2d 253 (1987). We conclude that those prisoners serving consecutive sentences in Massachusetts correctional facilities are entitled to retroactive relief so long as the consecutive sentence is for a crime committed prior to incarceration on the Piggott time sentence.

While there appears to be no Massachusetts case which has ruled on the point, we may reason by analogy from cases involving sentences voided as a result of appellate review. The Manning Court considered whether a prisoner was entitled to receive credit under a subsequent criminal sentence for time served under another sentence which was later vacated. Manning v. Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Inst., Norfolk, 372 Mass. 387, 361 N.E.2d 1299 (1977). Even though the second sentence was not imposed until the defendant had begun serving his initial albeit erroneous sentence, the court granted relief. In doing so, the court cautioned against the injustice of requiring prisoners to serve dead time and stated that "[l]iberty is of immeasurable value...." Id. at 394, 361 N.E.2d 1299. Similarly, credit has been given for time served to a subsequent sentence where the initial sentence was later declared void or voidable....