Opinion ID: 1969314
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: conclusion

Text: In its brief as amicus curiae, the District of Columbia informs us that during the period from 1987 to 1995, the BOP revoked the parole of an average of approximately one thousand offenders per year. There have thus been about ten thousand parole revocations since the GTCA came into effect. We have no information as to how many of the defendants whose parole was revoked have been released from the custody of the DOC, but the number is obviously quite substantial. Each defendant so released has received credit for street time spent on parole since the effective date of the Act. Under the majority's construction of the GTCA, all of these defendants should have been required to serve additional time in custody. Some of them should doubtless still be in prison. The potential impact of the majority's ruling should not be underestimated. I quote from the brief filed by the District of Columbia: If the United States' interpretation prevails in this case and the [c]ourt rules that D.C. offenders have no entitlement to street time credit, the ruling would have a significant effect on the administration of the District's prisons, and could create chaos in the retroactive adjustment of the sentences of parole-violators. Many such offenders have already been released from their sentences with credit for time spent on parole. The possibility that the District might have to search for and reincarcerate ex-offenders who have been told that their sentences have lapsed would create confusion and ill-will in the District's prison system, and would aggravate over-crowding in the system. (Footnote omitted.) The court's decision today is being delivered by a house divided. The construction of the GTCA which I have urged in this dissenting opinion has also been adopted by the United States District Judge who initially heard this case, see Noble v. United States Parole Comm'n, 887 F.Supp. 11, 12-14 (D.D.C.1995) ( Noble I ), by Judge Alprin of the Superior Court, see Beaty, supra, [19] and by the Corporation Counsel, the BOP, and the DOC. The USPC and one federal appellate court, however, have taken a different position, see Tyler v. United States, 929 F.2d 451 (9th Cir.1991), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 845, 112 S.Ct. 142, 116 L.Ed.2d 108 (1991), [20] and District of Columbia prisoners in federal custody whose parole has been revoked have not received credit for street time and have spent more time behind prison walls than their otherwise similarly situated counterparts at Lorton. The liberty interests of many citizens are at issue in this case. The District of Columbia advises us that the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has stayed proceedings in a case raising the same issue pending this court's ruling in the present case. Johnson v. Kindt, No. 96-6154 (10th Cir.). [21] The question certified to us is undoubtedly one of exceptional public importance. I therefore believe that our federal appellate colleagues should receive an answer to the certified question from our full court, sitting en banc. I respectfully dissent.