Independence Day

Yes, July 4th has come and gone for this year. For me, I had a nice day. I spent it with Sporty, we mostly organized things around my home and then went and found a random place to eat tacos from a mobile truck and watch the city fireworks overhead. It was actually quite perfect. I haven't really been in much of a festive mood but that night just kind of fell together the right way.

In this blog, though, I'm not talking about that Independence Day, I'm talking about the other one, the day of freedom, the day we are released from prison. I was curious exactly how "good time" was calculated. I was told that my sentence of one year and a day made me eligible for good time resulting in 10 months. I was curious how that was calculated.

Turns out that it actually has some controversy, as the DOP calculates it as less time off than the statute originally intended. What it turns out to calculate to is the following days of imprisonment for every 356 days sentenced:

319 days

It is 319 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date

Or 10 months, 15 days excluding the end date

Alternative time units

319 days can be converted to one of these units:

27,561,600 seconds

459,360 minutes

7656 hours

319 days

45 weeks (rounded down)

I was thinking I might have difficulty tracking days of the week inside, I promise I will not be tracking hours, minutes, or seconds! It is interesting to know that given my sentence, those are my exact number of days though - 319!

So, I decided to use a date calendar and see what my proposed day of independence would be. There are a lot of free websites that allow you to put in dates and calculate the number of days between. So, I put the start at 8/19 and kept moving around the end date. I thought that my 10 months would end in June, but 45 weeks is actually longer than 10 months. It is 10 months 15 days.

Wouldn't you know it... 319 days from the day I self surrender - July 4, 2014. I suppose next years Independence Day and each one after "may" have an extra special meaning! I'm not sure if they will actually release someone on a federal holiday, but that's the date, I kid you not.