# Gardiner v. Commissioner of Correction

> Massachusetts Appeals Court · June 21, 1977 · 5 Mass. App. Ct. 425

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6455827

## Case

- **Full name:** John C. Gardiner v. Commissioner of Correction & another
- **Court:** Massachusetts Appeals Court
- **Decided:** June 21, 1977
- **Citations:** 5 Mass. App. Ct. 425; 363 N.E.2d 1323; 1977 Mass. App. LEXIS 658
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Brown
- **Judges:** Armstrong, Brown, Goodman
- **Cited by:** 3 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6455827

## Opinion text

Brown, J.
(dissenting, with whom Goodman, J., joins). I concur in my brother’s dissent for the reasons given therein. The 1955 amendment to G. L. c. 127, § 129, St. 1955, c. 770, § 66, was intended by the Legislature to give prison officials more flexibility in disciplining prisoners. Construing G. L. c. 127, § 83B, in harmony with G. L. c. 127, § 129 (Gregoire, petitioner, 355 Mass. 399, 400 [1969]), it is our view that whether the prisoner had his good time taken away under either § 83B or § 129, the Commissioner must have the same discretion to partially or fully restore the good time. This more humane approach (see Brown v. Commissioner of Correction, 336 Mass. 718, 721 [1958]) would have the salubrious effect of providing greater incentive for good behavior on the prisoner’s part while still providing á sufficient deterrent for escape. See Wood v. Commissioner of Correction, 363 Mass. 79, 83 (1973).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6455827. Public record. Not legal advice.