“The Day of Release: When Freedom Becomes a Crime”

“The Day of Release: When Freedom Becomes a Crime”

By Devon T. White | Dropping Jewels That You Can Use | ThaWilsonBlock Magazine

I. The Law Speaks for Itself

Title 15, § 3075.2(a)(1) of the California Code of Regulations states:

“Incarcerated persons, except as otherwise provided by applicable law and regulations, shall be released on their scheduled release date. Incarcerated persons shall not be retained beyond their discharge date.”

This is not a policy preference — it is a legal mandate. Once the lawful term of imprisonment expires, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) must release that individual. Any day of confinement beyond that date transforms lawful custody into false imprisonment. The law leaves no room for interpretation: the State cannot legally hold a person whose discharge date has passed.

II. When Custody Becomes Criminal

Despite the clarity of this law, countless men and women remain unlawfully retained in CDCR custody beyond their scheduled release dates. Officials often disguise these overholds under vague labels such as “administrative review,” “pending parole board action,” or “jurisdictional overlap.” Yet no administrative excuse can erase the statute’s force: once the discharge date arrives, CDCR’s lawful authority to confine ends.

Under Penal Code § 2900.5(d), the sentencing court has a duty to determine and credit all custody time before sentencing. The resulting abstract of judgment must reflect the exact dates of admission, release, and credit days earned. Any failure to comply invalidates the custody period and voids the authority to detain. Thus, continuing to imprison an individual after their lawful term has expired amounts to state-sanctioned unlawful confinement.

III. The Separation of Jurisdictions

California law divides state authority over prisoners into two exclusive jurisdictions:

1. The Determinate Jurisdiction (Physical Custody) — controlled by Penal Code § 669, this governs fixed-term sentences served inside institutions.
2. The Indeterminate Jurisdiction (Constructive Custody or Parole Supervision) — controlled by Penal Code § 3000 et seq., which applies only after a person is released to parole supervision.

Once a determinate sentence ends, the state’s power over physical confinement ceases. To retain an individual after this point is to merge two distinct jurisdictions — a constitutional violation of the Separation of Powers Doctrine. The CDCR and the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) cannot operate as both the court and the parole authority simultaneously. Doing so creates an unlawful hybrid custody never authorized by the Legislature or the courts.

IV. The Cost of Silence

Every extra day a person is unlawfully confined translates into taxpayer theft, personal suffering, and systemic fraud. The longer CDCR retains individuals beyond their lawful terms, the more state contracts continue to profit from vocational, educational, and medical programs billed to prisoners who should already be free.

This is more than bureaucratic error — it’s fraud under color of law. Every unlawful detention generates inflated prison statistics and false financial claims to the state treasury and federal funding agencies. The California Constitution, Article I § 7, forbids deprivation of liberty without due process. Every day of overdetention is a day of unconstitutional imprisonment.

V. A Call for Accountability

Oversight bodies — from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to the California State Auditor — must immediately investigate CDCR’s violation of Title 15 § 3075.2(a)(1). The Governor, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of CDCR are under constitutional obligation to ensure compliance with statutory law — not to manipulate it for profit.

Each warden, records officer, and parole administrator swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this state. That oath binds them to release every man and woman on their lawful discharge date — not a day later. Anything else is false imprisonment and official misconduct.

VI. Conclusion: The Law Commands Freedom

The law is unambiguous:

“Incarcerated persons shall not be retained beyond their discharge date.”

Freedom delayed is freedom denied. CDCR’s continued practice of overholding people transforms the Department from a correctional institution into an illegal enterprise operating under color of law.

California cannot call itself a land of justice while it keeps people confined in defiance of its own statutes. The “Day of Release” is not a privilege — it’s a right, written in black letter law.

And where the law ends, tyranny begins.

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