PATRICK J. PANTUSCO v. NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

 

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-2545-07T12545-07T1

PATRICK J. PANTUSCO,

Appellant,

v.

NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT

OF CORRECTIONS,

Respondent.

________________________________________________________________

 

Submitted September 10, 2008 - Decided

Before Judges Stern and A.A. Rodr guez.

On appeal from a Final Determination of the

New Jersey Department of Corrections.

Patrick J. Pantusco, appellant pro se.

Anne Milgram, Attorney General, attorney for

respondent (Melissa H. Raksa, Deputy Attorney

General, of counsel; Christopher C. Josephson,

Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).

PER CURIAM

Patrick J. Pantusco appeals from the final administrative determination of the Department of Corrections denying his claim of entitlement to work time and commutation credits to reduce his thirty-year mandatory minimum sentence imposed for murder. See State v Pantusco, 330 N.J. Super. 424, 429 (App. Div. 2000). However, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3b and N.J.S.A. 30:4-123.51(a) make clear that these credits do not reduce the mandatory minimum or parole ineligibility term of a sentence. See Merola v. Department of Corrections, 285 N.J. Super. 501, 509-10 (App. Div. 1995), certif. denied, 143 N.J. 519 (1996).

Pantusco is entitled to Rule 3:21-8 jail time credit to reduce the minimum term, State v. Grate, 311 N.J. Super. 456, 458 (App. Div. 1998), but he received them.

The final administrative determination is affirmed.

(continued)

(continued)

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A-2545-07T1

September 25, 2008