This article was written by the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Jim Hannah. The original article can be found here.
FORT THOMAS — The Kentucky Department
of Corrections has reversed its decision, after being contacted by The
Enquirer, not to shave time off Cheryl McCafferty’s sentence in exchange for
work she has performed in prison.
“Upon researching this issue,
it has come to our attention that Cheryl McCafferty is eligible to receive Work
for Time credit,” corrections spokesman Todd Henson wrote in an email. “The
Department of Corrections is in the process of correcting this oversight and
applying the time credits that she has earned.”
The email was in response
to The Enquirer’s request for comment on a lawsuit filed Jan. 13 on
McCafferty’s behalf by the state’s public defenders in Campbell Circuit Court.
The suit sought to force the corrections department to reduce her sentence for
the work.
Henson wrote in his email
that it was not common for an inmate to file a lawsuit against the corrections
department for denying an inmate’s request for their sentence to be shortened
for work completed behind bars.
McCafferty works for Safe
Haven, a nonprofit that rescues dogs who are about to be euthanized. The group
gets female prisoners to train the dogs in hopes the animals will be adopted.
The reversal by the
corrections department means McCafferty, who is serving an 18-year sentence
after shooting her husband in bed, will retroactively get 220 days taken off
her sentence. And for every 40 hours she works in the future, she will get one
day off her sentence.
McCafferty, 49, was denied
parole in January 2011 after serving 20 percent of her sentence. She will be
eligible for parole a second time in January 2016.
She has been locked up
since her arrest on June 25, 2007. The corrections department’s website states
McCafferty will serve out her sentence on March 27, 2019, but it was unclear if
the work credit had been calculated into that estimate.
Even if a prisoner in Kentucky is never granted parole, they
generally are released early. That’s because prisoners get time shaved off
their sentences for everything from continuing their education to not
misbehaving.
McCafferty has only been
reprimanded once in prison, for an unspecified infraction in April 2011,
according to court records. That reprimand resulted in her losing 60 days that
were taken off her sentence for good behavior. Those days were reinstated in
December 2011 after McCafferty did not get in any additional trouble.
Corrections department
officials notified the Enquirer of the reversal before contacting McCafferty’s
family, public defenders or responding to McCafferty’s lawsuit.
McCafferty asked
corrections officials in October to recalculate the time she had left to serve
based on the work she had completed in prison. Corrections department officials
declined in December to give her credit for the work. The officials said that
prisoners convicted of a violent offense were not eligible under the law to
receive time off their sentences.
That prompted McCafferty’s
suit against the department. The suit cited another law that says prisoners
convicted of a violent offense, but found to be a victim of domestic violence,
are eligible to a sentence reduction for working in prison.
McCafferty, a former
saleswoman for The Enquirer, has consistently maintained she shot her husband,
44-year-old Robert McCafferty, in self defense. She was indicted on one count
of murder but a jury found her guilty in March 2009 of the lesser charge of
first-degree manslaughter. It is a charge punishable by 10 years to 20 years in
prison.
While the jury was deliberating on what sentence to recommend,
McCafferty reached a plea agreement in which she accepted an 18-year sentence.
In exchange, the judge agreed to find that McCafferty was a victim of domestic
violence which reduced the time she had to serve before being eligible for
parole to 20 percent from 85 percent.
