By C1 Staff
PORTLAND — An inmate is challenging the rules of a Maine ‘good time’ program, saying it’s unconstitutional to deny him credit he believes he is owed.
According to the Press Herald, inmate Glen C. Harrington III believed he would be eligible to take classes at the Maine State Prison to reduce his sentence.
When he was told that the program is not offered to inmates until they are within 18 months of their release, he fought back by saying he wouldn’t have plead guilty to eluding an officer in Kennebec County in 2012 if he had known he wouldn’t get the extra sentence reduction.
He believes he should be getting an extra “good time” credit of two days a month during his entire sentence; without it, his attorney calculates that he will serve “72 days over that intended by the Legislature.”
A Superior Court judge dismissed Harrington’s attempt to file a post-conviction review petition to get the good time credit, so he took his case to the Supreme Court.
Six justices heard Harrington’s attorney argue the unconstitutionality of denying Harrington the credit and pushed for the post-conviction review petition, saying it was the right way to handle the situation.
The state maintains that Harrington should have used a different appeal process to file his dispute over the calculation of his good time credits. An 80-C was preferable due to being more streamlined and can be handled in the jurisdiction where the inmate is serving their sentence.
Harrington is currently serving concurrent 48-month terms on a robbery conviction and the eluding an officer charge. According to the DOC, his earliest release date is December 7, 2015.