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Secretary, Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and Commissioner, Division of Correction v. Vincent Henderson No. 39, Sept. Term, 1998

Diminution of credits.

Circuit Court for Baltimore City Case #98128904/CH769 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF MARYLAND

No. 39 September Term, 1998 ______________________________________

SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND CORRECTIONAL SERVICES AND COMMISSIONER, DIVISION OF CORRECTION v.

VINCENT HENDERSON

______________________________________ Bell, C.J. Eldridge Rodowsky Chasanow Raker Wilner Cathell, JJ. ______________________________________ Opinion by Wilner, J. Bell, C.J.; Rodowsky and Chasanow, JJ, concur and dissent. ______________________________________ Filed: October 8, 1998

We granted certiorari to review an order of Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan, of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, directing that the State Division of Correction release Vincent Henderson from custody. We shall affirm that order, but for different reasons than those used by Judge Kaplan. This appeal requires that we revisit two earlier decisions -- Md. House of Corrections v. Fields, 348 Md. 245, 703 A.2d 167 (1997) and Beshears v. Wickes, 349 Md. 1, 706 A.2d 608 (1998). Those cases and this one involve the method of calculating diminution credits that prisoners are eligible to earn for good conduct while incarcerated, and it would be helpful to begin by reviewing that subject. Inmates in the State correctional system are generally eligible to earn four kinds of credits against their sentences -- credits for good conduct, for performing work tasks assigned to them, for satisfactory progress in vocational or other educational and training courses, and for special work projects. All of those credits are provided for in Maryland Code, Article 27,

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