AB 1597: County jails: performance milestone credits.

Under existing law, when a prisoner is confined to a county or city jail, an industrial farm, or a road camp, for each 4-day period in which he or she is confined, he or she may have one day deducted from his or her period of confinement, as specified. Existing law also authorizes a sheriff or county director of corrections, in addition to the credits otherwise earned, to award an inmate who is sentenced to county jail for a felony, program credit reductions from his or her term of confinement for successful completion of specific program performance objectives for rehabilitative programming, including academic programs, vocational programs, vocational training, substance abuse programs, and core programs such as anger management and social life skills. These program credit reductions may be for one to 6 weeks and may be forfeited in the same manner as other program credit reductions.

This bill would make the provisions applicable to sentenced and unsentenced inmates who are confined in a county jail. The bill would require credits awarded prior to sentencing to be applied to the sentence for the offense for which the inmate was awaiting sentence when the credits were awarded. The bill would prohibit evidence of an inmates participation, or attempted participation, in this program from being admitted as an admission of guilt in any proceeding.