57 A.D.2d 876 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1977
In habeas corpus proceedings, the appeals are from (1) so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Dutchess County, dated June 30, 1976, as, in the first above-captioned proceeding, held subdivision 5 of section 803 of the Correction Law to be unconstitutional as violative of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and (2) a further judgment of the same court, dated July 15, 1976, which, in the second above-captioned proceeding, inter alia, reached a similar conclusion as to the constitutionality of the aforesaid statute. Judgment dated June 30, 1976 reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, without costs or disbursements, and the provision directing that petitioner be allowed "good behavior credits” is deleted therefrom. Judgment dated July 15, 1976 reversed, on the law, without costs or disbursements, and proceeding dismissed. The petitioner in the first above-captioned proceeding was released on parole from the Wallkill Correctional Facility on November 25, 1974. On January 15, 1976, following a parole revocation hearing, he was confined to the Greenhaven Correctional Facility as a parole violator and was ordered to be held for the 8 months and 18 days which were remaining on his sentence. The petitioner in the second above-captioned proceeding was conditionally released from the Elmira Correctional Facility on August 27, 1975. Subsequently, he was held to have been in violation of the terms of his release by the Parole Board and was ordered incarcerated until his maximum release date, in nine months and nine days. The State, in each instance relying upon subdivision 5 of section 803 of the Correction Law, refused to permit petitioners to earn good time credits (up to one third of their sentences) against the remainder of their respective maximum terms. In separate proceedings, each petitioner sought his release and attacked the statutory provision in question as being unconstitutional as violative of his right to equal protection of the laws. In each proceeding, a judgment was entered holding the statute to be unconstitutional on this ground and