Averett

The inmate petitioners filed petitions for writs of habeas corpus under G. L. c. 248 (1986 ed.), in the Superior Court, claiming that they had served in full their sentences, but that the Commissioner of Correction (commissioner)2 had wrongly ordered the forfeiture of their statutory *29good time credits. A Superior Court judge allowed the petitions, issued the writs, and denied the commissioner’s requests to stay the final orders pending an appeal. The commissioner then sought stays from a single justice of the Appeals Court who denied the requests and ordered that the matters be consolidated…