I was just sentenced to custody, but I already spent time in custody before trial – will this be deducted from my sentence? Is there such a thing as enhanced credit for my pre-sentence custody?

If you were denied bail and were held in custody pre-trial, you were likely housed in a Detention Centre. Detention Centres operate a little differently than federal or provincial institutions (where you go after sentencing) in that there is usually overcrowding and a lack of availability of programming. So if you’re going into custody now, at least this should change.

In 2014 the Supreme Court released a decision that set the calculation of pre-sentence custody credit at 1.5:1. This means that for every day spent in custody at a detention sentence prior to trial you will receive the equivalent of 1.5 days credit to be removed or deducted from your sentence. So, if you spent 30 days in pre-trial custody, you will be credited 45 days now. If you spent more time than that, you can calculate the number of days and multiply by 1.5 and be sure that you will be credited that amount. However, if you are facing multiple charges you cannot “bank” time for one set of charges to apply to another (unrelated) set of charges.

In 2016, the Ontario Court of Appeal also found that in appropriate circumstances, particularly harsh pre-sentence incarceration conditions can provide mitigation apart from and beyond the 1.5 credit ratio. A high number of lockdowns can be grounds for enhanced credit as they are a regressive form of punishment.

If you feel that you faced particular hardship at the Detention Centre before your trial, give us a call and we can advise you on how it might affect your sentence.