ABSTRACT
The practice of credit-based early release from prison or jail–also known as “good time,” “gain time,” “sentence remission,” or “time off for good behavior”–is an area of increasing importance for criminal justice policy. Contemporary corrections administrators and decision makers, coping with ever-larger numbers of offenders committed or returned to prisons, are recognizing that a judicious use of good time–a long-standing “back-door” response to prison crowding-may be the most immediate and promising tool available to accelerate the release of incarcerated offenders and alleviate population pressures
