When does my sentence end?
Question: Recently I was sentenced to 30 days work
release as opposed to jail. ...When my
30 days were up, they told me I could not leave till the 31st day because the
first day didn't count. When I asked why,
they had no answer. Thank you.
Signed "Peter," Colorado,
June 1999**
Answer: Because I am not admitted to practice
law in your jurisdiction it would be inappropriate to give you legal
advice. However, your question raises an
interesting issue and perhaps this response will be of some help.
Your question involves the meaning of the word
"day." To find the answer to
this, you would first look at legislation in the state of Colorado. Statutes often have definition sections and
perhaps the definition of 'day' is in the statute under which you were
sentenced. If not, the definition might
be found in the statute that covers general interpretations.
If the state has no statutory definition, you would have to ask if
the ordinary meaning of the word "day" means 'calendar day' or a
period of 24 hours.
Let us say your sentence were a year in jail or a month in
jail. The ordinary meaning of year or
month in those circumstances would not be calendar year or calendar month. If you were sentenced on December 31st, you
wouldn't expect to get out the next day.
One reason of course, is that it would not be fair to the person getting
the same sentence on January 1st.
Even in sentences measured in years or months, the meaning of
"day" is still a matter of importance. You would still need to determine, for
instance, if the release date for a one-year sentence is the anniversary date
or the day before. For a one-month
sentence, is the release date the same day of the month following the month of
sentence or is it the day before?
Of course a credible argument could prevail for a contrary view,
but I think the rules of interpretation would require a definition that favors
a shorter sentence rather than a longer one.
Therefore, 'day' means calendar day, not 24 hours.
Basic mathematics is what matters:
If you were sentenced to either one month or 30 days jail on June 1, you
should be released on June 30. Notice
the difference between 1 and 30 is 29, but here obviously you must count the
start date and the end date. Also note
that if you were sentenced to a month in jail on July 1, that’s a 31-day
sentence. In your case, it might be that
you didn’t start the ‘work’ on the day you were sentenced and therefore that
day doesn’t count.
If you served more than your sentence, you might have a claim for
damages, but you would have to ask for an opinion from a qualified lawyer in
Colorado.