Oftentimes, individuals are arrested when charges are filed, and spend some amount of time in custody prior to their criminal case being resolved.  Some spend as little as one day in custody, others spend months if not years, depending upon their ability to post a bond.  Some are unable to bond out due to either a parole hold or an ICE (or Immigration and Customs Enforcement) hold.

In felony cases, the law requires a judge to make note of the defendant’s presentence confinement on the mittimus (the official court record of the sentence imposed), and requires the department of corrections to deduct whatever that period is from the defendant’s sentence.  It is not, therefore, the judge’s job to deduct the presentence confinement from the sentence imposed, but DOC’s. The judge does not have discretion to deny such credit.

In contrast, when a defendant is sentenced to jail as a condition of probation, the court is not so restricted.  Someone sentenced to county jail as a condition of probation has no entitlement to credit for presentence confinement, and while the judge may issue such credit, no judge is required to do so.

If you are incarcerated based on a new offense, but already on parole for another offense, you are not entitled to any presentence confinement credit against any sentence imposed on the new case for the time you spent incarcerated while also on parole.

Recognizing what sort of sentence is likely in your case may therefore influence whether or not you should post a bond pending resolution of the matter, should there be no holds otherwise preventing you from doing so.