Jail Credit Basics

I get at least one jail credit question almost every day. How jail credit is tabulated and applied can be as important as the sentence itself in determining how long a person will be behind bars. Today’s post covers the basics, which are sometimes misunderstood. A defendant must receive his or her jail credit. The sentence “shall be credited with and diminished by the total amount of time a defendant has spent, committed to or in confinement in any State or local correctional, mental or other institution as a result of the charge that culminated in the sentence or the incident from which the charge arose.” G.S. 15-196.1. If applicable credit is not awarded the first time around, the defendant could pursue it under G.S. 15-196.4 through a petition for credit not previously allowed. Use form AOC-CR-906M. The judge presiding determines the credit. “Upon sentencing or activating a sentence, the judge presiding shall determine the credits to which the defendant is entitled.” G.S. 15-196.4. Jail credit is subtracted from both the minimum and maximum sentence. That is true by statute, G.S. 15-196.1 (“The minimum and maximum term of a sentence shall be credited . . . .”), and also makes conceptual sense. If you have a 6–17 month sentence and you’ve served two months of it in jail, then you have a 4–15 month sentence left to serve. You are two months closer to both benchmarks by virtue of your pretrial credit, and so they are both reduced. How do you tabulate [...]