If you have been arrested in Indiana and spent any number of days incarcerated, it can impact your eventual sentencing. The Indiana good time credit law examines many factors to determine if your time served in jail before trial could reduce your overall sentence.

To avoid serving extra days, pretrial incarceration should always be assessed by an Indianapolis criminal defense attorney. Here, an Indianapolis criminal attorney explains how to get credit time for time served in jail for the offense before your sentencing.

How Time Served in Jail Before Trial Impacts Your Sentence

According to Indiana good time credit law, individuals can accumulate time served for an offense and have it credited against the time imposed for the sentence for the same offense. In certain cases, that means time served in jail before trial could reduce the number of days in an eventual sentence if you are convicted of the crime. How your sentence is affected depends on the level of offense committed, application of the Indiana sentencing guidelines, and your specific sentence.

Felony levels in Indiana range from Level 1 to Level 6, with Level 1 carrying the greatest advisory sentence. All of these factors should be assessed by an Indiana criminal defense attorney to ensure you receive all the credit you deserve for the time you have served, whether it was in jail, or home detention.

How Time Served in Jail before Trial, Electronic Monitoring, or Home Detention Could Affect Time Served on Your Sentence

Imagine you were arrested for a DUI, also known as operating a vehicle while intoxicated. You could sit in jail or be placed on home detention until you post bond or go to trial. If you win your trial, you lose these days—you don’t get credit for pretrial incarceration if you’re never sentenced. That’s a good thing; you aren’t serving a sentence because you are innocent.

Depending on factors discussed below, if you sit ten days in a jail, like Marion County Jail or Hamilton County Jail, before you can post bond, you could be earning credit time that can be applied to your sentence if you are found or plead guilty. If you hire Indiana DUI defense attorney Josiah Swinney, a criminal defense attorney selected to , and he wins your case, then you do not get, or need, credit for those ten days. Also depending on the facts of your case, you may have a

An Introduction to Indiana Good Time Credit

If you are convicted and have spent time incarcerated, how does credit time work? Sometimes, you can figure this out through Indiana’s credit time calculator. This calculator computes credit time as defined by Indiana Code § 35-50-6-3.1, which applies to anyone who commits an offense after June 30, 2014. This code assigns a class to different types of offenses and is best interpreted by an experienced Indiana DUI defense attorney. Here are the Indiana good time credit classes, explained:

• For a Class A offense, a person earns one day of good time credit for each day the person is incarcerated for a crime or while awaiting trial or sentencing.
• For a Class B offense, a person earns one day of good time credit for every three days the person is incarcerated for a crime or while awaiting trial or sentencing.
• For a Class C offense, a person earns one day of good time credit for every six days the person is incarcerated for a crime or while awaiting trial or sentencing.
• For a Class D offense, a person earns no good time credit.
• For a Class P offense, a person earns one day of good time credit for every four days the person serves on pretrial home detention awaiting trial but does not earn accrued time for time served on pretrial home detention awaiting trial.

To figure out your situation, reach out to Indianapolis criminal attorney Josiah Swinney today. Josiah Swinney understands how time served in jail before trial affects sentencing and is here to help you navigate your current situation. You can reach him by calling Camden and Meridew, P.C. at 317-770-0000 or completing our Contact Form.

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