On June 7, my federal public defender office had the disturbing experience of losing Barber v. Thomas in the U.S. Supreme Court, a case that — if the outcome had been different — would have prevented up to 36,000 years of federal overincarceration, saving taxpayers up to $951 million. The issue was whether the federal statute that allowed federal prisoners to earn up to 54 days of good-time credits for each year of their sentences meant that a prisoner could reduce the sentence imposed by up to 15%. This sounds like an easy figure to calculate (54/365), but the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), based on time served, came up with a complex formula that works out to 12.8% of the prisoner’s sentence, or only 47 days per year of the sentence imposed. In light of the Court’s majority ruling approving the BOP’s interpretation of 12.8%, Congress should now amend the good-time credit statute to require the 15% rate against the sentence imposed that has received bipartisan support in previous legislation and that provides the basis for the federal guidelines’ sentencing ranges.
Three fundamental reasons favor amendment of the statute to make it crystal-clear that the BOP must replace its complex formula with the common-sense 15% rule that provides the missing seven days per year. First, by providing the full reward for good behavior, prisons become safer and more effective. Federal prisons are operating at 137% of capacity. Prison overcrowding is directly correlated to increased danger for inmates and guards alike. The resulting security priorities directly cut into prison budgets, causing the underfunding or elimination of programs that make the biggest rehabilitative difference, such as industrial training, drug treatment and boot camp.
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