Valle v. Commissioner of Correction

In Valle v. Commissioner of Correction, 45 Conn. App. 566, 696 A.2d 1280 (1997), rev'd on other grounds, 244 Conn. 634, 711 A.2d 722 (1998), the petitioner was held in presentence confinement in Docket No. CR92-133946 for a period of 253 days, from June 16, 1992, to February 24, 1993. Id., 567. On February 24, 1993, he was sentenced to a prison term of four years. Id. The petitioner came into custody for a second offense on June 30, 1992. Id. From June 30, 1992, to February 24, 1993, the date he was sentenced for the first offense, the petitioner was held in presentence confinement for a period of 239 days in Docket No. CR14-368284. Id., 567-68. The petitioner therefore accrued 239 days of presentence confinement credit while being held in custody in two separate cases. Id. He then was sentenced to a term of four years for the second offense on March 3, 1993, to run concurrently with the sentence that he already had been serving for one week. Id., 567-69. In determining how to apply the earned presentence confinement credit in Valle, specifically 253 days for the first offense and 239 days for the second, the Court held that the respondent commissioner of correction "should have examined the pretrial confinement time under each docket pursuant to 18-98d and then chosen as the effective release date the longer of the two sentences pursuant to General Statutes 53a-38 ." Valle v. Commissioner of Correction, supra, 45 Conn. App. 570. In other words, to determine the longer concurrent sentence, 253 days properly were subtracted from the four year sentence imposed on February 24, 1993, and 239 days properly were subtracted from the concurrent four year sentence imposed on March 3, 1993. Id. After those reductions were made, along with a proper application of good time credit to each sentence, the longer resulting sentence established the petitioner's effective release date. Id. General Statutes 53a-38 (b) provides in relevant part: "A definite sentence of imprisonment commences when the prisoner is received in the custody to which he was sentenced. Where a person is under more than one definite sentence, the sentences shall be calculated as follows: (1) If the sentences run concurrently, the terms merge in and are satisfied by discharge of the term which has the longest term to run . . . ."