What happens when a judge says you get credit for previous time served but the Department of Corrections refuses to count said credit towards your Missouri prison sentence? You should be able to win an appeal, right? You already won the issue with a trial judge and just want the Appellate Court to enforce the trial judge’s judgment against the DOC…
The answer is no. As a general rule, the Judicial Branch (the Court) does not like to tell the Executive Branch (in this case, the DOC) how to do it’s job. This maxim of deference in the common law is codified in the statutory law here in Missouri. Our state supreme court has construed Section 558.031.1 to mean that a sentencing court has no authority to award jail time credit; Donaldson v. Crawford, 230 S.W. 3d 340, 343 (2007) (statute “contemplates an administrative and not a judicial determination of the jail time to be credited, with no sharing between the two branches of government…”).
To the extent that a trial judge’s ruling “is inconsistent with section 558.031.1, that portion of the judgment is of no effect” and thus, not binding on the DOC. Farish v. Missouri DOC, No. SC93366 (Mo. banc, December 24, 2013).
Conclusion: the Court is what sentences you, but for the most part the DOC will determine when you are released…