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Sanford v. State

The authority to determine what good-time or extra good-time allowance to give a defendant vests solely in the Board of Corrections.

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Randall W. Sanford pled guilty to driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license, and driving without proof of insurance. The trial court sentenced Sanford to 36 months and directed that he serve 30 days in confinement with the remainder on probation. On December 22, 2000, after Sanford violated the terms of his probation, the trial court entered an order revoking the probation and requiring him to serve “180 days with credit for 24 days served / NO EARLY RELEASE.”1 After the trial court denied Sanford’s motion to delete the “no early release” provision from the sentence, we granted his Application for Discretionary Appeal. For reasons that follow, we remand the case to the trial court to modify the sentence.

Georgia law authorizes the custodian of a county inmate to “award earned time allowances . . . based on institutional behavior” and requires that “an inmate sentenced to confinement as a county inmate shall be released at the expiration of his or her sentence less the time deducted for earned time allowances.”2 We have ruled that “these provisions are directly related to the duties of administration, affirmatively delegated to the custodians of inmates by the legislature.”3 Likewise, our Supreme Court has ruled that a sentencing “judge has no authority to say what good-time or extra good-time allowance a prisoner shall be given, as the law vests that authority in the Board of Corrections for prisoners under its jurisdiction . . . and as to misdemeanor prisoners sentenced to serve in the county, in the custodian of the prisoners.”4

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