Counting Jail Credit Days

If a defendant is arrested on Monday, detained all week, and sentenced on Friday, how many days of jail credit does he get? It’s either four or five, right? Five if you subscribe to the theory that any portion of a day is a day for credit purposes. Four if you consider that the first day of confinement isn’t actually complete until the second calendar day, or perhaps if you figure that the sentence begins on the day it is imposed (Friday), and so that day shouldn’t get counted twice, once for jail credit and again as the first day of the sentence. What does the law say? Let’s start with the principal jail credit statute, which says that credit “shall be calculated from the date custody under the charge commenced . . . .” G.S. 15-196.1 (emphasis added). That suggests Monday counts for credit. G.S. 15A-1353(a) says that, in general, “the date of the order [of commitment] is the date service of the sentence is to begin.” That suggests Friday doesn’t count for jail credit, because it is day one of the post-conviction sentence. The Division of Adult Correction (DAC) in fact treats the day of sentencing as day one. (Interestingly, DAC does not release a person until the day after a sentence is fully served, with the release date itself not counted as part of the sentence.) Great! Sounds like the jail credit calculation rule should be count the first day of pretrial confinement and exclude the last. Enter [...]