(a) All adult inmates placed in the custody of the Commissioner of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation pursuant to a term of court-ordered incarceration for a misdemeanor or felony, except those committed pursuant to 25-4-1 et seq. and 62-12-26 of this code, shall be granted commutation from their sentences for good conduct in accordance with this section: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be considered to recalculate the “good time” of inmates currently serving a sentence or of giving back good time to inmates who have previously lost good time earned for a disciplinary violation: Provided, however, That as of the effective date of the amendments to this section enacted during the regular session of the Legislature, 2021, an inmate who had good time calculated into his or her release date prior to October 21, 2020, is entitled to the benefit of the good time awarded or earned before that date, unless the good time was lost due to a disciplinary violation.
(b) The commutation of sentence, known as “good time”, shall be deducted from the maximum term of indeterminate sentences or from the fixed term of determinate sentences.
(c) Each eligible inmate committed to the custody of the commissioner and incarcerated in a facility pursuant to that commitment shall be granted one day good time for each day he or she is incarcerated, including any and all days in jail awaiting sentence which are credited by the sentencing court to his or her sentence pursuant to 61-11-24 of this code, or for any other reason relating to the commitment. An inmate may not be granted any good time for time served either on parole or bond or in any other status when he or she is not physically incarcerated.
(d) An inmate sentenced to serve a life sentence is not eligible to earn or receive any good time pursuant to this section.
(e) An eligible inmate under two or more consecutive sentences shall be allowed good time as if the several sentences, when the maximum terms of the consecutive sentences are added together, were all one sentence.
(f) The commissioner shall promulgate disciplinary rules and policies. The rules and policies shall describe acts that inmates are prohibited from committing, procedures for charging individual inmates for violation of the rules, and for determining the guilt or innocence of inmates charged with the violations, and the sanctions which may be imposed for the violations. A copy of the rules shall be given to each inmate. For each violation any part or all of the good time which has been granted to the inmate pursuant to this section may be forfeited and revoked by the superintendent of the institution in which the violation occurred. The superintendent, when appropriate and with approval of the commissioner, may restore any forfeited good time.
(g) Each inmate, upon his or her commitment to, and being placed into the custody of, the commissioner, or upon his or her return to custody as the result of violation of parole under 62-12-19 of this code, or supervised release under 62-12-26 of this code shall be given a statement setting forth the term or length of his or her sentence or sentences and the time of his or her minimum discharge computed according to this section.
(h) Each inmate shall be given a revision of the statement described in subsection (g) of this section when any part or all of the good time has been forfeited and revoked or restored pursuant to subsection (f) of this section, by which the time of his or her earliest discharge is changed.
(i)(1) An eligible inmate may receive extra good time in the sole discretion of the commissioner for meritorious service or performing extra assigned duties during emergencies; and
(2) In addition to the good time granted under subsection (c) of this section and that authorized by subdivision (1) of this subsection, an eligible inmate serving a felony sentence may receive up to 90 days good time per program for successfully completing an approved, but not required, academic or vocational program, which is not part of the inmates required individualized reentry programing plan. The commissioner shall adopt a written policy to effectuate the purposes of this subsection.