10 U.S.C. § 858
Section 858 · Art. 58. Execution of confinement
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 55 court decisions — leading case Schick v. Reed (1974)
Most recently applied in Davis v. United States (January 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(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 same discipline and treatment as persons confined or committed by the courts of the United States or of the State, 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.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
858(b) 50:639(a).50:639(b). May 5, 1950, ch. 169, §1 (Art. 58), 64 Stat. 126. In subsection (a), the words “Secretary concerned” are substituted for the words “Department concerned”, since the “Department” as an entity, cannot issue instructions. The word “are” is substituted for the words “shall be”. The words “of Columbia” are inserted after “District” for clarity.
In subsection (b), the word “from” is substituted for the word “in”. The words “does not deprive” are substituted for the words “shall not be construed as depriving”.
Amendments
2006—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 109–163 struck out “Territory,” after “State,”.