Virginia Code 53.1-187: Credit for time spent in confinement while awaiting trial.
Any person who is sentenced to a term of confinement in a correctional facility shall have deducted from any such term all time actually spent by the person in a state hospital for examination purposes or treatment prior to trial, in a state or local correctional facility awaiting trial or pending an appeal, or in a juvenile detention facility awaiting trial for an offense for which, upon conviction, such juvenile is sentenced to an adult correctional facility. Such credit for time shall include any time spent in pretrial confinement or detention on separate, dismissed, or nolle prosequi charges that are from the same act as the violation for which the person is convicted and sentenced to a term of confinement. When entering the final order in any such case, the court shall provide that the person so convicted be given credit for the time so spent.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 53.1-187
- Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Local correctional facility: means any jail, jail farm or other place used for the detention or incarceration of adult offenders, excluding a lock-up, which is owned, maintained, or operated by any political subdivision or combination of political subdivisions of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 53.1-1
- Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
- Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
In no case shall a person be allowed credit for time not actually spent in confinement or in detention. In no case is a person on bail to be regarded as in confinement for the purposes of this statute. No such credit shall be given to any person who escapes from a state or local correctional facility or is absent without leave from a juvenile detention facility.
Any person sentenced to confinement in a correctional facility, in whose case the final order entered by the court in which he was convicted fails to provide for the credit authorized by this section, shall nevertheless receive credit for the time so spent in a correctional facility. Such allowance of credit shall be in addition to the good conduct allowance provided for in §§ 53.1-116 and 53.1-129, Articles 2 (§ 53.1-192 et seq.) and 3 (§ 53.1-198 et seq.) or the earned sentence credits provided for in Article 4 (§ 53.1-202.2 et seq.).
Code 1950, § 53-208; 1968, c. 105; 1970, c. 648; 1982, c. 636; 1984, c. 313; 1994, 2nd Sp. Sess., cc. 1, 2; 2022, c. 399.