Filed: Mar. 21, 2014
Latest Update: Mar. 21, 2014
Summary: NOT TO BE PUBLISHED OPINION DIXON, Judge. Darrell Everman, pro se, appeals from an order entered by the Franklin Circuit Court that dismissed his petition for declaration of rights. We affirm. Everman, an inmate at the Kentucky State Reformatory, completed the Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) in January 2008. In July 2012, he sought an administrative review of his sentence calculation, contending he was entitled to ninety days of educational good time credit for completing SOTP. After h
Summary: NOT TO BE PUBLISHED OPINION DIXON, Judge. Darrell Everman, pro se, appeals from an order entered by the Franklin Circuit Court that dismissed his petition for declaration of rights. We affirm. Everman, an inmate at the Kentucky State Reformatory, completed the Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) in January 2008. In July 2012, he sought an administrative review of his sentence calculation, contending he was entitled to ninety days of educational good time credit for completing SOTP. After hi..
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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
OPINION
DIXON, Judge.
Darrell Everman, pro se, appeals from an order entered by the Franklin Circuit Court that dismissed his petition for declaration of rights. We affirm.
Everman, an inmate at the Kentucky State Reformatory, completed the Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) in January 2008. In July 2012, he sought an administrative review of his sentence calculation, contending he was entitled to ninety days of educational good time credit for completing SOTP. After his request for credit was denied, Everman filed a petition for declaration of rights in Franklin Circuit Court. In response, the Department of Corrections (DOC), moved to dismiss the petition for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. CR 12.02(f). The circuit court ultimately granted the DOC's motion and dismissed the petition. This appeal followed.
A dismissal for failure to state a claim presents only questions of law; accordingly, our review is de novo. Morgan v. Bird, 289 S.W.3d 222, 226 (Ky. App. 2009).
Everman asserts his completion of SOTP entitled him to educational good time credit pursuant to KRS 197.045(1)(a)(3). The current version of the statute states that an inmate shall receive a sentence credit for "[s]uccessfully completing a drug treatment program or other evidence-based program approved by the department, in the amount of ninety (90) days for each program completed[.]" KRS 197.045(1)(a)(3).
The statutory provision cited by Everman was not in effect at the time he completed SOTP in January 2008. In 2010, the legislature amended KRS 197.045(1) by enacting a new provision that awarded a sentence credit based upon the completion of a treatment program.1 "Kentucky law prohibits the amended version of a statute from being applied retroactively to events which occurred prior to the effective date of the amendment unless the amendment expressly provides for retroactive application." Commonwealth Dep't. of Agric. v. Vinson, 30 S.W.3d 162, 168 (Ky. 2000). The 2010 amendment did not expressly state that it applied retroactively; further, the amendment to KRS 197.045(1) created an entirely new category of eligible programs that prisoners could complete to qualify for sentence credit.2 "Amendments which change and redefine the out-of-court rights, obligations and duties of persons in their transactions with others are considered to be changes in substantive law and come within the rule that statutory amendments cannot be applied retroactively to events which occurred prior to the effective date of the amendment." Id.
We conclude the 2010 statutory amendment was not retroactive; consequently, Everman was not entitled to a sentence credit for completing SOTP in January 2008. After careful review, we conclude the circuit court properly dismissed Everman's petition because he was not entitled to relief as a matter of law.
For the reasons stated herein, we affirm the Franklin Circuit Court.
ALL CONCUR.
