Matter of Application of Stanton

The petitioner was committed to the state prison at San Quentin on February 5, 1896, under a sentence of twenty-five years for murder of the second degree. Under the statute providing for credits to prisoners upon the time of their sentence, allowed for good behavior, the petitioner, if allowed the statutory credits, would have been entitled to his release on May 5,1911. The prison authorities are holding him in custody upon ttie claim that by reason of his misconduct he has forfeited his credits, and that such forfeiture has been declared by the., order of the board duly and regularly made.

The statute relating to prisoners ’ credits was first enacted in 1889 (Stats. 1889, p. 410) and has since been incorporated in the Penal Code as section 1588. Its provisions, material here, are as follows:

The law authorizing the parole of convicts was enacted in 1893 and amended in 1901 (Stats. 1901, p. 82). This amendment was the law in force when the credits in controversy were forfeited. It empowered the state board of prison directors “to establish rules and regulations” under which the board could allow a prisoner “to go upon parole outside of the buildings and inelosures, but to…