Community Release Board v. Superior Court

Opinion

GARDNER, P. J.

It is hardly “man-bites-dog” news to the trial judges of this state to observe that the new determinate sentence law is hardly a model of legislative clarity.

1

In this case we are called upon to ascertain the legislative intent in two of its more murky provisions. The issue is whether a prisoner is entitled to good time credit under section 2931 (all citations are to the Penal Code) against time confined under section 3057 for parole revocation.

[816]

Since prisoners are not necessarily paradigms of responsible behavior and since, in climbing up civilization’s ladder, we have abandoned the lash and torture chamber, some method must be devised to control the obstreperous inmate. Under the Indeterminate Sentence Law, this was done by administrative term fixing and parole practices. Since these dangling carrots are absent under the new law, the Legislature substituted “good behavior and participation credit.” Under the present law, the judge sentences the prisoner to a definite term under section 1170. Then to give the prisoner an incentive to behave himself, section 2931 provides that the prison authorities may reduce his time by one-third for good behavior and participation. As indicated, the question involved in this case is whether the prisoner is entitled to that same one-third time off for good behavior when confined for a parole violation under section 3057.

2

In order to make this matter remotely intelligible, we strip the facts to their essentials. The prisoner was sentenced to prison. He was then paroled. He had been given good behavior credit under section 2931 on his initial commitment. He then violated his parole and was committed to six additional months under section 3057. He wanted good behavior credit applied during the time he was confined under that section. The Community Release Board declined to give him such credit. He petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus. The trial court agreed with his contentions and ordered his release since, with the good time credit applied to his six-month term, he had served that term. The board then petitioned this court for a writ of prohibition/mandate to set aside the trial court’s ruling. We grant the petition.