[Text of section applicable as provided by 2018, 72, Sec. 20.]

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Terms Used In Massachusetts General Laws ch. 276 sec. 87B

• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.

Section 87B. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:—

”Compliance”, the absence of a judicial finding of a violation of court-ordered conditions of post-disposition probation supervision.

”Compliance credits”, credits that an eligible offender earns through compliance with court-ordered terms of post-disposition probation supervision; provided, however, that such credits shall operate to reduce the length of post-disposition probation supervision.

”Eligible offender”, an offender whose sentence includes incarceration followed by a term of probation supervision upon conviction of one or more criminal offenses who has been released to probation after serving the incarcerated sentence or incarcerated portion of the sentence, except any such person who is under post-disposition supervision for a sex offense as defined in section 178C of chapter 6.

(b) An eligible offender shall earn compliance credits as follows:

(i) an eligible offender shall begin to accrue compliance credits on the first day of the calendar month following 1 year of supervision on probation;

(ii) after completing 1 year of supervision on probation up to and including completion of 2 years of supervision on probation, on the first day of each calendar month, an eligible offender shall earn 5 days of compliance credits if the eligible offender was in compliance for the prior calendar month; and

(iii) after completing 2 years of supervision, on the first day of each calendar month, an eligible offender shall earn 10 days of compliance credits if the eligible offender was in compliance for the previous calendar month.

(c) Compliance credits shall not accrue during any calendar month in which a violation of probation is pending. Once a violation of probation hearing is held, if the court does not find a violation, compliance credits shall be awarded retroactive to the filing of the violation.

(d) If the court finds a violation of court-ordered conditions of post-disposition probation supervision, then (i) the eligible offender may not be awarded compliance credits for the time during which the violation was pending and (ii) the court may also revoke any earned compliance credits. If the court places the eligible offender in a correctional institution upon revocation, any compliance credits previously earned by the eligible offender shall be revoked.

(e) The probation service shall calculate an eligible offender’s supervision termination date, taking into consideration any earned compliance credits at the end of each calendar quarter. Upon such calculation, the probation service shall inform the eligible offender of the termination date.

(f) At sentencing, the court shall notify an eligible offender that compliance with post-disposition supervision conditions shall result in earning compliance credits.