Self-reducement of prison term system for good-time prisoners has not been seriously studied except for the discussion in sentence execution practice area with the topic of good time for an alternative system of parole. In Korea, there remains a brief record in which the United States Military Government authorities tried to implement a good time system but no detailed of how they run it and what was the real effect. Instead, Korean legal system has adopted the parole system with various measures for better treatment of prisoners.

A self-reducement of prison term system for good-time prisoner can resolve the problem of long-lasting prison overcrowding and encourage prisoners to follow rules and regulations and thus enhance their rehabilitation. To introduce good time system into Korea, what is a better form of enforcing a system should be taken into consideration based on the perspectives of criminology, criminal justice, execution of sentence, administrative laws, etc.

The leading countries including the United Nations tries to implement various types of treatments, such as weekend’s detention, night’s detention, layoff period, etc to support rehabilitation of prisoners in the perspective of human dignity. South Korea is now trying to propose a more frequent use of parole. However, South Korea still have never introduced and implemented a good time system that looks to have enormous virtues, while many other countries, esp. the United States, actively rely on good time systems.

Especially, parole should be used side by side with good time based on the viewpoint of human dignity. In fact, a parole system is run based on the considerations of recidivism to enhance a possibility of future law-abiding life-style. Therefore, based on a parole system, a prisoner is placed from imprisonment to inner social treatment. In contrast, a good time system has a different approach about a factor of recidivism, because a prison himself or herself can try to reduce prison terms with his or her own efforts and thus voluntarily enhance rehabilitation.

After analyzing a good time system, the United States and France is running good time system by giving good time credits to a prisoner. China also adopts good time system with his own style. Japan also has run a system of parole which is similar to Korea but has discussed a lot about good time system.

Based on our empirical research, prisoners, prisoner officer, and many experts positively agree with the introduction and implementation of good time system.

This paper is proposing the introduction of good time system into Korea, by analyzing theoretical aspect of good time system, comparative studies of leading countries’s system and the outcomes of empirical researches. In addition, this paper tries to suggest a better form of good time system, with respect to acceptable and objective standards of calculating actual prison term, a scope of beneficiary, policies to effective rehabilitate a prisoner, a discretion of a correction office.

In addition, a good time system should be introduced with the connection to a probation system for rehabilitation of a prisoner and protection of a victim, a progressive treatment system and a parole system, protective policies of human dignity of koreans who are imprisoned abroad and expected to be transferred, a resolution of prison overcrowding, a reduction of correction costs.

Moreover, to achieve a better system of good time, rehabilitative systems of community and educational systems for released prisoners are also reconstructed. Recently, in the United States, the First Step Act was enacted, which implements programs of community service for prisoners and provides educational and vocational programs. This legislative action shed a light on Korean policies of correction.

To be careful for the introduction of a good time system into Korea, the indiscriminate releasement of serious criminals or prisoners in need of treatment may violate a common sense of Korean people and thus cannot be acceptable as proper policies. Just as the current system of parole is closely linked with probation system, a good time system should be adopted in connection with probation system.