Matter of Application of Stanton

SHAW, J.

The petitioner was committed to the state prison at San Quentin on February 5, 1896, under a sentence of twenty-five years for murder of the second degree. Under

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the statute providing for credits to prisoners upon the time of their sentence, allowed for good behavior, the petitioner, if allowed the statutory credits, would have been entitled to his release on May 5,1911. The prison authorities are holding him in custody upon ttie claim that by reason of his misconduct he has forfeited his credits, and that such forfeiture has been declared by the., order of the board duly and regularly made.

The statute relating to prisoners ’ credits was first enacted in 1889 (Stats. 1889, p. 410) and has since been incorporated in the Penal Code as section 1588. Its provisions, material here, are as follows:

“Every convict who shall have no infraction of the rules and regulations of the prison, or laws of the state, recorded against him, and who performs in a faithful, orderly and peaceable manner the duties assigned to him, shall be allowed from his term, instead and lieu of the credits heretofore allowed by law, a deduction of” certain periods arranged according to the number of years of sentence.

“Each convict shall be held entitled to these deductions, unless ttie board of directors shall find that for misconduct or other cause he should not receive them. But if any convict shall commit any assault upon his keeper, or any foreman, officer, convict, or person, or otherwise endanger life, or shall be guilty of any flagrant disregard of the rules of the prison, or commit any misdemeanor, or in any manner violate any of the rules and regulations of the prison, he shall forfeit all deductions of time earned by him for good conduct before the commission, of such offense, or that, under this section, he may earn in the future, or shall forfeit such part of such deductions as to the board of directors may seem just; such forfeiture, however, shall be made only by the board of directors after due proof of the offense and notice to the offender; nor shall any forfeiture be imposed when a party has violated any rule or rules without violence or evil intent, of which the directors shall be the sole judges. ’ ’