September 23, 2014
Not too long ago I received my first good day. Good days are essentially days taken off of ones' prison sentence, moving the release date up a day ahead of time, in some cases five days ahead of time depending on how long ago the inmate committed the crime or crimes sentenced for. I committed my crime just a few months before the new law was set in place, allowing me to be eligible for only one good day a month. Good days are only awarded to inmates in school, or other specific programs provided by the prison. This is different in other states and federal penitentiaries. Many states have been awarding good days to inmates for years, other states only require inmates to serve a percentage of the time served, much like federal prisons do, not being a federal inmate or ward of any other state I can't comment on this topic, being personally unclear of the specifics. Chasing after good days has never been at the top of my priority list for various reasons; I truly believe I deserve to serve every day of the five years that I was sentenced to. Of course I would jump at the opportunity for an early release, but my main goal coming into prison became that of utilizing my time to make some drastic changes in my life, for my future, the future of my children and the rest of my family as well. All the programs that I've taken so far hasn't had good days as an option or incentive, as I said, my goals has been personal improvement opposed to looking good on paper for the eyes of some parole board in hopes of an early release. Parole isn't an option for me, I have a mandatory sentence, getting into any kind of trouble wouldn't affect my release date, even if I am to be released six month early to a halfway house, I would still have to serve the remainder of my sentence in said halfway house. But for now I gratefully accept my first earned good day as a result of my enrollment and participation in horticulture. So now my projected release date has changed from 3/25/16 to 3/24/16. I'll take it!
