Taking the Ax to Justice's Budget

After President Obama's belt-tightening State of the Union Address, many are asking what will be cut in an effort to downsize the federal budget.

Over at the Department of Justice, it looks like they have their answer:

So the White House Office of Management and Budget, in discussions with departments and agencies, has proposed numerous cuts that could be included in the president's final budget proposal, to be sent to Congress in February. At Justice, according to internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, OMB's proposals include:

—Increasing the amount of time deducted from prison terms for good behavior, which would immediately qualify some 4,000 federal convicts for release, and another 4,000 over the next 10 years.

Before any prisoners or their family members get too excited and think loved ones will be coming home tomorrow, let's remember how this works.  The key word here is "proposal."  That proposal may or may not ever become a reality.

Here's how this works.  Time off for good behavior -- known as "good time" -- is set by statute, at a maximum of 54 days per year.  Unfortunately, right now federal prisoners actually can only get up to 47 days per year because of some bad math (and cases) interpreting the law.  The only way to undo this interpretation of the statute and give qualifying federal prisoners the full 54 days is to -- you guessed it -- change the statute.  And only Congress can do that.  And that means going through the legislative process:  write a bill, introduce a bill, send it through committee, pass both houses of Congress, be signed by the President.  So far, there's no bill to change good time.  It's still just a proposal.

But it's a proposal FAMM is excited about, because we've been fighting for a 54-day interpretation of the good time statute for years now.

So, in other words, no one's going home tomorrow.

Which makes me irritated with the fearful tone of the Wall Street Journal as it questions whether prison sentences should be shortened.  An extra week in prison isn't cheap, people -- especially when we've got over 210,000 federal prisoners doing lots and lots of extra weeks in prison, and over half of them are drug offenders.  They're all coming home eventually.  With more good time available, they'll have bigger incentives to behave in prison and prepare for a law-abiding life after they leave.  And we'll save money.  

So the question really is, why wouldn't a person support more time off for good behavior?

-- Stowe