Opinion ID: 1902104
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Conformance of ISP with Present Legislative Intent

Text: Having concluded that ISP's treatment of first- and second-degree offenders is inconsistent with the legislative intent at the time of the adoption of the Code, we must determine the legal effect of the Legislature's subsequent support of the Program through the appropriations process. We have in other contexts read legislative intent through appropriation actions that sometimes speak louder than words. Cf. City of Camden v. Byrne, 82 N.J. 133, 154, 411 A. 2d 462 (1980) (finding that Legislature's refusal to appropriate funds indicated intent to negate corresponding statute); see also In re Boyan, 127 N.J. 266, 268, 604 A. 2d 98 (1992) (explaining that language of Appropriations Act can express legislative intent); Schneider v. City of East Orange, 196 N.J. Super. 587, 592-93, 483 A. 2d 839 (App.Div. 1984) (noting that legislative intent can be gleaned from statement of appropriations committee), aff'd o.b., 103 N.J. 115, 510 A. 2d 1118, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 824, 107 S.Ct. 97, 93 L.Ed. 2d 48 (1986); Clark v. Degnan, 163 N.J. Super. 344, 369, 394 A. 2d 914 (Law Div. 1978) (stating that [a]n appropriation act, in addition to appropriating monies, also has some mandatory implications and reflects current policy and enactment of the Legislature with respect to preexisting statutory formulas), modified on other grounds, 83 N.J. 393, 416 A. 2d 816 (1980). Any argument that ISP as a Program violates legislative intent must confront this explicit legislative appropriations support. Executive and legislative support of ISP has been so strong, consistent, and unambiguous as to make it fair to assume present legislative approval of the Program in its entirety. Indeed, if this support had been in conventional statutory form, we would conclude that it amounted to an implied amendment of N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1d to conform that statute to ISP. The history is compelling. The Program was started by the judiciary only after it had received explicit prior executive and legislative approval. Faced with a predicted problem of overwhelming prison-overcrowding  a prediction that was more than fulfilled  the executive and legislative branches adopted numerous remedies, including ISP. The executive approval of ISP came after extensive discussions. It came in the form of a public report explicitly recommending the Program (see Prison Overcrowding, supra ), and thereafter in the form of a budget proposed by the Executive and submitted to the Legislature that recommended an appropriation to support the Program. Legislative approval of the program consisted of passage of the appropriation. These approvals and support were neither tangential or supplementary; they were of the essence, a sine qua non, for they provided all of the required funds. From its very inception, the Program explicitly allowed admission of first- and second-degree offenders. While modified in other respects from time to time, this aspect of the program concerning first- and second-degree offenders has never changed and has been mentioned in the many public reports issued by the Program over the years. See, e.g., Fact Sheet at 1. Considerable controversy has surrounded this aspect of the Program, including opposition from the Prosecutors' Association. Despite that controversy it has continued to receive executive and legislative support providing substantially all of its funding through a one line appropriation entitled Intensive supervision program. This support has come year after year, without interruption, for the past ten years. We do not conclude from this history that the Legislature in fact was aware that first- and second-degree offenders were included, although we think such a conclusion would be fair, or that the Executive and Legislature focused on the conflict between N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1d and the Program as it applies to first- and second-degree offenders. What we do conclude, and we believe the conclusion is inescapable, is that the Executive and Legislature approved of the Program as a whole, in toto, and intended to authorize its continuance as it then existed, each year, whatever its problems, whatever the controversies, just as it was then being administered. ISP from the outset received substantial public attention and considerable publicity. Not long after its implementation there was public approval that grew year after year, leading to the present situation in which not only have several counties, with Court approval, adopted their own county ISP, but the State itself has provided a substantial increase in the Program and its extension to a new juvenile ISP. See 1993 New Jersey Budget, supra. Given the public controversy and the continuation of the Program despite that controversy, given this record of success accompanied by substantial public acclaim and recognition, and given the consistent ten-year support of the Program by the Executive and the Legislature, we are led to a bottom line conclusion that is almost irresistible: the Legislature's intention reflected in the Code as amended in 1981 has evolved and changed into total approval of ISP, including those aspects of the Program that are inconsistent with the Code's provisions. Ordinarily, such a conclusion would warrant the further conclusion that those provisions of N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1d inconsistent with ISP have been impliedly repealed. We decline so to conclude for two reasons. The first reason concerns the form of the Legislature's actions: appropriations rather than conventional statutory enactments; and the second reason concerns the nature of the subject matter: mandatory imprisonment. Concerning appropriations, although we have held that an appropriations bill can have the effect of superseding a statute by implication, In re Boyan, supra, 127 N.J. at 268, 604 A. 2d 98, our conclusion there was premised on legislative language in the appropriations bill itself, language that explicitly expressed an intent that led to our conclusion. Here, despite similar clarity of intent, there is no language other than the appropriation line item itself. We are reluctant, despite this very strong evidence, to attribute to the Legislature an intent to approve each and every aspect of a program of the Executive or of the Judiciary, with the effect of an implied statutory amendment, even given the continuous appropriations supporting that program. We do not say that such a course of action will never have that effect; it will depend on the circumstances involved. The obvious risk of so holding is to impose on the Legislature the obligation, whenever it appropriates funds in support of a program of the Executive or of the Judiciary, to search every detail, every possible legal implication, to make certain that its general support of the program does not have any unintended specific consequences, especially unintended implied repeal of existing statutory enactments. These considerations are reinforced by the nature of the statutory provisions that would be affected: mandatory imprisonment. The provision involved in this case  N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1d  is central to the legislative intent of bringing uniformity and consistency to punishment and, above all, of assuring severity and deterrence. First- and second-degree crimes are the most serious crimes of all. By requiring imprisonment the Legislature has, in effect, mandated uniformity and severity. We believe that it would be both unwise and inappropriate for the judiciary to dilute so important a mandate based solely on legislative appropriations, despite the inference of changed intent. Cf. State v. Tate, supra, 102 N.J. at 68-69, 505 A. 2d 941 (explaining that New Jersey Penal Code represents a shifting of responsibility for the growth and modernization of the criminal law from the courts to the Legislature). This is a statutory provision of central importance incorporating legislative intent with unmistakable clarity at the time it was adopted. It should not be disturbed by anything other than legislation that is direct and explicit, despite the clarity of a differing present executive and legislative intent. Realistically such express legislation would be simply a confirmation or ratification of this previously indicated intent, but given the importance of the subject matter, it is essential. We conclude that the Legislature, having initially decided to mandate imprisonment for all first- and second-degree offenders, has, over the past ten years, evidenced its intention to allow a substitute: supervisory probation under ISP. We conclude that ISP and N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1d are nevertheless in conflict because that intention has been evidenced only through appropriations bills; that ISP, otherwise a valid Program within legislative authorization for sentencing, will be validated if, in addition to these appropriations bills, there is an appropriate statutory amendment that, in effect, ratifies the clear legislative intent expressed over this past decade.