The June 7, 2010 ruling by the Supreme Court has Stephen R. Sandy, the Chief Deputy Public Defender for the District of Oregon,disturbed. Sady argued Barber v Thomas, before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the way the U.S. Bureau of Prisons calculates good-time credit.
The case revolved around the issue of whether the federal statute that grants federal inmates up to 54 days of good-time credit for each year they serve of their sentence would indeed cut their sentence by 15%. Using basic math skills, the calculation would conclude that 365 days - 54 days =311 days. So, an inmate serving a ten year sentence, and who earned all of his or her good-time credit, would be released after serving 8.5 years. The BOP calculates differently.
Using its own calculations, the BOP came up with a formula that reduces good-time credit to 12.8%, or only 47 days a year. Under this formula an inmate most serve 8.7% of the sentence. At first glance the difference between both calculations might not seem significant, but further investigation proves otherwise.
In an article published in The National Law Journal, Chief Deputy Public Defender Sady concludes that issuing the 15% good-time credit would make federal prisons safer for both inmates and staff because federal prisons are running at a capacity of 137%. Overcrowding, states Sady, is a major cause of prison unrest, and reduces prison budgets, depleting funds for programs that might have a positive impact on an inmate’s reentry process.
Calling the 12.8% calculation “wasteful and unproductive,” Sady maintains the difference between 12.8% and 15% has major financial repercussions, and no effect on public safety. Sady asserts that the annual cost of housing one federal inmate is $25,894. The $1 billion dollars spent on incarcerating 200,000 federal prisoners could be better utilized, according to Sady, particularly when incarceration costs rise almost $95 million dollars each year.
The good-time statute was designed to encourage inmates to follow rules and to behave well. The Court’s decision to allow the BOP to reduce the amount of good-time credit an inmate receives has some Supreme Court judges concerned. Dissenting Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg agree with Justice Arthur Kennedy that the BOP’s calculations are “devastating’ to prisoners, and will cost U.S. taxpayers “untold millions of dollars…” Now, Sady and other criminal justice reform advocates are calling for Congress to amend the good-time statute to up to 15%, thereby rewarding good behavior, and reducing the overburdened federal budget.
Source: The National Law Journal
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