150
Opinion of the Court
the problems that led to the Agreement's creation, namely, that
"charges outstanding against a prisoner, detainers based on untried indictments, informations, or complaints and difficulties in securing speedy trial of persons already incarcerated in other jurisdictions, produce uncertainties which obstruct programs of prisoner treatment and rehabilitation."
Article I then adds that "it is the . . . purpose of this agreement to encourage the expeditious and orderly disposition of such charges and determination of the proper status of . . . detainers . . . ."
Article II sets forth definitions. Article III gives a prisoner against whom a detainer has been lodged the right to "request" a "final disposition" of the relevant charges, in which case "he shall be brought to trial within one hundred and eighty days" (unless extended by the trial court for "good cause"); otherwise, the relevant "indictment, information, or complaint shall not be of any further force or effect, and the court shall enter an order dismissing the same with prejudice." Art. III(a), (d).
Article IV gives "the jurisdiction in which an untried indictment, information, or complaint is pending," i. e., the receiving State, the right "to have a prisoner against whom" it "has lodged a detainer . . . made available" for trial. Art. IV(a). It says further that, once the prisoner arrives in the receiving State, the "trial" must begin "within one hundred and twenty days" unless extended for "good cause." Art. IV(c). Article IV also sets forth the "antishuttling" provision at issue here. To repeat: that provision says that trial must be "had . . . prior to the prisoner's being returned to the original place of imprisonment"; otherwise, the charges "shall" be dismissed with prejudice. Art. IV(e). Article V sets forth conditions on the receiving State obtaining temporary custody of the prisoner. The remaining arti-
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