v.
Al COOK, etc., et al., Appellees.
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Henry Prettyman, Special Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Harry M. Hipler, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellees.
BOYD, Justice.
In February of 1973, while in state custody on a robbery conviction, William R. Morgan, Jr. escaped. Approximately ten months later he was arrested. Under the authority of Section 944.28(1), Florida Statutes (1973),[1] the Department of Offender Rehabilitation declared all Morgan's earned gain time and any extra gain time allowed him to be forfeited. Morgan petitioned the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit for a writ of habeas corpus, attacking the constitutionality of Section 944.28(1), Florida Statutes (1973). The Circuit Court denied the petition. Morgan's appeal to the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, was transferred here. We have jurisdiction.[2]
For the reasons stated in Rankin v. Wainwright, 351 F. Supp. 1306 (M.D.Fla. 1972), the statute is constitutional. The Circuit[*578] Court's denial of the petition for a writ of habeas corpus is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
OVERTON, C.J., and ADKINS, ENGLAND, SUNDBERG, HATCHETT and KARL, JJ., concur.