Check the prison's math in Massachusetts

1. Get the official document

Official name: unknown. We did not find the document's name in an official source. Ask the records office for "the official time computation" or "time sheet."

Usually the incarcerated person can ask the records office or their counselor for it with a written request. Families often cannot get it directly; the person can share their copy.

Official online lookup (some dates appear here): [Massachusetts DOC (VINELink offender lookup)] (opens in new tab)

2. Which credits should appear

• State prison: up to 7.5 days per program or activity each month, no more than 15 days a month total. [Mass. Gen. Laws c.127 §129D (earned good conduct deductions)] (opens in new tab)
• House of correction: up to 5 days per program per month, no more than 10 days a month. [Mass. Gen. Laws c.127 §129D (earned good conduct deductions)] (opens in new tab)
• Completion bonus: up to 10 more days in the month a designated program is completed. [Mass. Gen. Laws c.127 §129D (earned good conduct deductions)] (opens in new tab)
• Completion credits (state prison): up to 80 days per designated program, capped at 17.5% of the maximum term. [Mass. Gen. Laws c.127 §129D (earned good conduct deductions)] (opens in new tab)

Full credit rules

3. Common-errors checklist

• Jail (pretrial) credit: days spent in county jail before sentencing are missing or miscounted. Compare with the jail booking record and the judgment.
• Sentence start date: the computation begins on the wrong day.
• Concurrent vs. consecutive: the judgment says one thing and the computation does the other.
• Multiple cases: credit applied to the wrong case, or a case missing. Rules on splitting credit between cases vary by state.
• Earned credits not posted: months of work, school or programs, or completed certificates, do not appear.
• Losses and restorations: credits taken without a finished disciplinary hearing, or restored credits never added back.
• Wrong law version: credit rules applied from a different date than the offense date.
• Revocation time: time on parole or supervision handled differently than the rules say.
• Detainers or holds: another case or agency may keep the person past the computed date (see detainers).
• Typos: sentence length, number of counts, or dates copied wrong from the judgment.

Have ready: the judgment, jail booking records, program certificates and disciplinary decisions.

4. If you find an error

• Write to the records office naming the exact error, with copies (never originals).
• If it is not fixed, use the agency's official grievance or dispute process.
• If the error is in the judgment itself (for example jail credit), the court may need to correct it. Talk to a lawyer or the public defender.

OutSooner explains the process; it does not prepare legal filings.

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