Senate Bill S8113

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S8113

SPONSOR: LANZA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to calculation of consecutive
definite sentences

This is one in a series of measures being introduced at the request of
the Chief Administrative Judge upon the recommendation of his Advisory
Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure.

To avoid confusion in calculating multiple consecutive sentences for
jail terms in county facilities, this measure would amend the Criminal
Procedure Law to clarify that the final aggregate term of incarceration
must be computed before applying jail time or good time credit.{1}

Penal Law § 70.30(2)(b) provides that, when calculating consecutive
definite sentences, consecutive terms are added together and, so long as
they are to be served in a single institution, are limited to a maximum
of two years. Confusion arises when county correction staff must deter-
mine how to apply jail time credit and good time credit to consecutive
jail terms. The current statute is silent on how this calculation should
              

be done, which has led to incorrect jail time calculations.

The problem is illustrated in People ex rel Ryan v. Cheverko, (22 N.Y.3d
132 (2013)), where defendant was sentenced to five definite one year
terms of imprisonment, four of which were to run consecutively. Pursuant
to Penal Law § 70.30(2)(b), county corrections calculated the term by
first aggregating all consecutive terms (1,460 days) and then applying
jail time credit and good time credit to that aggregate term (592 days).
This left a total of 868 days. Since the 868 days was longer than two
years imprisonment, they adjusted defendant's discharge date to a date
exactly two years from the date his sentences commenced. However, after
referring to the legislative history of the statute, the Court of
Appeals held that "the two-year limit was intended as an 'aggregate
term' that effectively replaces a court-imposed aggregate term exceeding
two years (22 N.Y.3d at 136).  The Court therefore held that correction-
al authorities must calculate the sentences "based on a two-year aggre-
gate term of incarceration" and jail time credit and good time credit
should be deducted from that two-year aggregate term rather than the
full aggregate term imposed by the sentencing court" (id.).

This measure conforms the statute to the Court of Appeals holding in
Cheverko by making it plain that the maximum sentence that may be
imposed on consecutive sentences is an aggregate term of two years.
This would eliminate the current ambiguity in the statue and signal to
county corrections staff that jail time credit and any earned good time
credit must be applied after determining the correct aggregate term
under the court's sentence.

This measure, which would have no meaningful fiscal impact on the State,
would take effect immediately.

Legislative History:

None. New proposal.


{1} Jail time credit applies to any period of incarceration a defendant
may serve prior to sentence (see PL § 70.30(3)), whereas "good time
credit" reflects any 'discretionary reductions' in the term awarded for
a prisoner's 'good behavior and efficient and willing performance of
duties' while incarcerated (People ex rel Ryan v. Cheverko, 22 N.Y.3d
132, 137 n 2 (2013) citing Correction Law § 804(1)).