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. ART. 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. ART. 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. ART. 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 The deferment may be rescinded at any time by the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. ART. 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. ART. 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.
