This time of year frequently lulls me into a spell of counting days. It happens because I don’t know for certain how many days I will serve in prison before release. I know the length of my sentence, but since I was convicted in accordance with laws the existed in 1987—and those laws were changed not long after I was convicted—I have factors in my sentence that don’t apply to any other prisoner around me.
I’m sentenced in accordance with rules of the old law. Those rules entitle me to receive more credit toward the completion of my sentence than prisoners who were convicted under rules of the new law. I’m also entitled to parole consideration for a portion of my sentence. Whenever I reach the last month of the year, I begin computing my sentence repeatedly, trying to figure out how much more time I’ll have to serve.
I know that as of today I’ve served 8,150 calendar days. Besides those calendar days, the Bureau of Prisons has credited my sentence with 5,400 days known as statutory good time (SGT). Taken together, the calendar days and SGT days amount to 13,550 days toward the completion of my sentence. But there’s more.
In addition to the calendar days and the SGT days, I also receive credit on my sentence from Earned Good Time (EGT), provided I don’t violate the disciplinary code. The length of my sentence entitles me to five days of EGT for every month that I’ve served—except for the first year of my term, during which I received three days of EGT for each of my 12 initial months of confinement. Since I’ve now served 268 months, authorities have credited my sentence with more than 1,300 EGT days.
By adding my 8,150 calendar days, as of today my sentence has been credited with approximately 14,850 days. But in order for the parole board to consider me, I must first satisfy the initial portion of my sentence that doesn’t qualify for parole, and that portion is 43 years. In 43 years, there are 15,706 days. Thus, in order to calculate my parole eligibility date, I must subtract the 14,850 days of credit to date from the 15,706 days of the parole-eligible portion of my sentence. That calculation leaves me with 856 more days to complete the 43-year term for which I’m not parole eligible.
The calculation is confusing for anyone unfamiliar with the rules of old law, but when adding the 365 calendar days in a year together with the 60 days of EGT I receive every year, the BOP credits my sentence with 425 days. Therefore, next year at this time, I will have approximately 15,275 days completed toward my sentence, and by December of 2011, in only two years, I calculate that the parole board could consider me for release. If the board were to grant me a presumptive release date in December of 2011, then the BOP could release me to halfway house by next December, in 2010.
The BOP calculates my eligibility for parole differently, and that’s why I’m always counting in December. I’ll have to resolve this issue in 2010, so I’m constantly counting days. Either way, I’m closing in on the completion of my sentence.
This morning I ran 10 miles.
[daily running log: 3,163 miles in 354 days]
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