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Flat Time

Flat time refers to the actual portion of a sentence that a defendant must serve, regardless of the administrative determination. The term was coined to reflect actual time that must be served in response to swings in sentencing philosophies. Throughout the history of U.S. criminal sentencing, time served has been affected by shifts between judicial determination and administrative determination based on guidelines.

While serving a flat-time sentence, the prisoner must serve each day of the sentence without the possibility of suspension, commutation of sentence, probation, pardon, parole, work furlough, or release on any basis.

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In the early and mid-20th century, when a defendant was sentenced to a fixed term of incarceration, that defendant served that exact amount of time. For example, if a defendant was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the defendant would serve 15 actual years and was released after the completion of the sentence to rejoin the community. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, there was a movement in state corrections toward administrative sentencing involving good-time credits, parole, pardons, and clemency. Consequently, the association between the judge's sentence and the actual time the defendant served diminished. Over time there has been a failure to address the problems of increasing prison overpopulation that is now resulting in administrative release compelled by this very prison overcrowding. The push of legislative bodies to enhance drug-related crime is one reason for this overcrowding. This problem, combined with state budget shortfalls, has led state legislatures to reexamine flat time and determinate sentencing.

Determinate Sentencing

A determinate sentence restricts parole boards from releasing inmates before their sentences have expired (minus good-time credits). These prison commitments cannot be modified to recognize a prisoner's development while in custody. Under the determinate sentencing philosophy, the term of imprisonment is determined at the actual sentencing of the defendant and not based on the conduct of the prisoner throughout the term of the sentence. Once the judgment is issued, the sentence then is absolute, with the primary exception being the loss of good-time credits for failure to follow the prison rules.

Flat-time sentencing would fall under this type of sentencing philosophy. The RAND Corporation studied flat-time sentencing in the late 1970s and concluded that a small number of felons committed a large percentage of crimes. Consequently, flat-time sentencing would incapacitate these criminals thus reducing the crime rate. This type of sentencing would be particularly favorable for repeat offenders. However, critics of flat time would argue that with flat-time sentencing the prison population does not respond well to correctional management techniques, since prisoners have no hope of early parole. Hence, flat-time prisoners could become a management problem.

The federal government established federal sentencing guidelines in the 1980s. These guidelines eliminated federal parole. The guideline system seeks to remedy the past problems of sentencing by generally requiring judges to sentence according to the guidelines and by eliminating parole so that offenders will serve real time sentences. The idea is to eliminate the deception that parole plays in a sentence. In addition, sentencing decisions based on calculated formulas on which judges could rely were thought to create uniformity in punishment. This sentencing formula takes into account the offense level and the criminal history category. These two factors are utilized to develop a sentencing table or matrix showing months of imprisonment to be applied to the sentence.

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