SUBCHAPTER VIII. SENTENCES

855. 55. Cruel and unusual punishments prohibited.
856. 56. Maximum limits.
857. 57. Effective date of sentences.
858. 58. Execution of confinement.
858a. 58a. Sentences: reduction in enlisted grade upon approval.

855. ARTICLE 55. CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS PROHIBITED.

Punishment by flogging, or by branding, marking, or tattooing on the body, or any other cruel or unusual punishment, may not be adjudged by a court-martial or inflicted upon any person subject to this chapter. The use of irons, single or double, except for the purpose of safe custody, is prohibited.

856. ARTICLE 56. MAXIMUM LIMITS

The punishment which a court-martial may direct for an offense may not exceed such limits as the President may prescribe for that offense.

857. ARTICLE 57. EFFECTIVE DATE OF SENTENCES

(a) No forfeiture may extend to any pay or allowances accrued before the date on which the sentence is approved by the person acting under section 860(c) of this title (article 60(c)).

(b) Any period of confinement included in a sentence of a court-martial begins to run from the date the sentence is adjudged by the court-martial, but periods during which the sentence to confinement is suspended or deferred shall be excluded in computing the service of the term of confinement.

(c) All other sentences of courts-martial are effective on the date ordered executed.

(d) On application by an accused who is under sentence to confinement that has not been ordered executed, the convening authority, or, if the accused is no longer under his jurisdiction, the officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction over the command to which the accused is currently assigned, may in his sole discretion defer service of the sentence to confinement. The deferment shall terminate when the sentence is ordered executed. The deferment may be rescinded at any time by the officer who granted it or, if the accused is no longer under his jurisdiction, by the officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction over the command to which the accused is currently assigned.

858. ARTICLE 58. EXECUTION OF CONFINEMENT.

(a) Under such instructions as the Secretary concerned may prescribe, a sentence of confinement adjudged by a court-martial or other military tribunal, whether or not the sentence includes discharge or dismissal, and whether or not the discharge or dismissal has been executed, may be carried into execution by confinement in any place of confinement under the control of any of the armed forces or in any penal or correctional institution under the control of the United States, or which the United States may be allowed to use. Persons so confined in a penal or correctional institution not under the control of one of the armed forces are subject to the dame discipline and treatment as persons confined or committed by the courts of the United States or of the State, Territory, District of Columbia, or place in which the institution is situated.

(b) The omission of the words "hard labor" from any sentence of a court- martial adjudging confinement does not deprive the authority executing that sentence of the power to require hard labor as a part of the punishment.

858a. ARTICLE 58a. SENTENCES: REDUCTION IN ENLISTED GRADE UPON APPROVAL

(a) Unless otherwise provided in regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary concerned, a court-martial sentence of an enlisted member in pay grade above E-1, as approved by the convening authority, that includes--

(1) a dishonorable or bad-conduct discharge;

(2) confinement; or

(3) hard labor without confinement; reduces that member to pay grade E1, effective on the date of that approval.

(b) If the sentence of a member who is reduced in pay grade under subsection (a) is set aside or disapproved, or, as finally approved does not include any punishment named in subsection (a)(1), (2), or (3), the rights and privileges of which he was deprived because of that reduction shall be restored to him and he is entitled to the pay and allowances to which he would have been entitled for the period the reduction was in effect, had he not been so reduced.