Opinion ID: 2561916
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: does the sentence exceed the statutory maximum?

Text: ¶ 12 Brooks argues that the sentence imposed exceeds the statutory maximum. Turning to the SRA itself, we note that while a sentencing court is required to impose a determinate sentence that does not exceed the statutory maximum, the community custody provisions of the SRA make it impossible to determine with any certainty how much community custody a defendant will actually be required to serve until well after the court imposes the sentence. RCW 9.94A.715(1) states, the court shall in addition to the other terms of the sentence, sentence the offender to community custody for the community custody range established under RCW 9.94A.850 or up to the period of earned release awarded pursuant to RCW 9.94A.728 (1) and (2), whichever is longer.  (Emphasis added.) (Reviser's note omitted.) But it cannot be determined which of these two time periods is longer until such time as the offender has or has not earned early release credits. [4] Under RCW 9.94A.715(4) the DOC determines when an offender will be discharged from community custody. When the term of community custody is imposed as a statutory range, the DOC will release the offender on a date it establishes that is within that range or at the end of the period of earned early release. Id. When the imposition of community custody would extend the sentence beyond the statutory maximum, the DOC is required by the SRA to release the offender on or before the date the offender will have served the statutory maximum. RCW 9.94A.505(5). ¶ 13 Here, Brooks's sentence can exceed the statutory maximum only if we add the community custody range to the term of confinement and presume both that Brooks will earn something less than 18 months of earned early release credits and that the DOC will ignore the mandates of the SRA. But the legislature gave discretion to the DOC to set the specific amount of community custody within the confines outlined by both the court and the SRA. Not only did the sentencing court follow the requirements and procedures set out in the SRA, but the amended sentence specifically directs the DOC to ensure that whatever release date it sets, under no circumstances may the offender serve more than the statutory maximum. Where a sentence is insufficiently specific regarding community custody, an amended sentence is the appropriate remedy. State v. Broadaway, 133 Wash.2d 118, 136, 942 P.2d 363 (1997). Here the DOC need only look to the amended judgment and sentence itself to determine when an offender must be discharged from either total confinement or community custody. We hold that the amended sentence does not impose a sentence beyond the statutory maximum.