Opinion ID: 806132
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: civil detention under the adam walsh act does

Text: NOT TOLL SUPERVISED RELEASE [3] The issue in this appeal, although one of first impression, is a narrow one. The chronology of events is telling as to Turner’s status and how his situation fits within the statu8888 UNITED STATES v. TURNER tory schemes. There is no dispute that prior to 12:00 p.m. on September 7, 2007, Turner was “imprisoned in connection with a conviction,” and that his term of supervised release was tolled during this period of imprisonment. See § 3624(e). Further the government states that civil commitment under the Act is not imprisonment and, therefore, does not operate to toll a term of supervised release. Had Turner been civilly committed, his supervised release term would have proceeded to run, according to the government’s logic. However, because the government did not meet its burden to show that Turner was a “sexually dangerous person,” he was never civilly committed under the Act. Thus, the dispute focuses solely on whether Turner’s term of supervised release was tolled during the interim period between the end of his imprisonment “in connection with a conviction” on September 7, 2007, and the positive resolution of his civil commitment hearing on February 27, 2012. [4] We conclude that, during the almost five years Turner was kept in limbo awaiting his civil commitment hearing, he was not “imprisoned in connection with a conviction for a . . . crime,” which is required to toll the commencement of supervised release under § 3624(e). See Morales-Alejo, 193 F.3d at 1104-05. The dissent’s mantra that “[w]hat never begins cannot end” simply begs the question. Dissent at 8898. Here, the commencement of supervised release and the stay were virtually simultaneous. And under the facts, Turner completed his imprisonment but his release was stayed. The dissent acknowledges that the outcome it supports “does not seem fair.” Dissent at 8900. We agree. We also acknowledge that it may seem odd to conclude that Turner’s supervised release could run while civilly detained, but the government concedes as much under at least one scenario and the statutes support our reading. The government’s position on tolling is instructive. According to the government’s brief, UNITED STATES v. TURNER 8889 Civil commitment is not imprisonment, therefore Section 4248 civil commitment does not toll supervised release; during the period of civil commitment (i.e., once the defendant is released from imprisonment), supervised release does run. A different analysis applies, however, if the defendant’s release is stayed pending resolution of his civil commitment hearing. The government acknowledges that a civil commitment under the Act does not toll the start of supervised release. Under this approach, had the system expeditiously provided Turner a hearing and then ordered civil commitment, his supervised release would have run during the commitment period. But the government now takes the anomalous posture that during the almost five years it took to determine that Turner should not be civilly committed, his supervised release term was, in effect, stayed. [5] Neither the statutory text nor common sense supports this bifurcated approach. The statute makes no distinction between pre- and post-civil commitment hearing detainees. The stay-of-release provision relates to all of the procedures and proceedings in a comprehensive civil commitment statute. The provision states, “A certificate filed under this subsection shall stay the release of the person pending completion of procedures contained in this section.” 18 U.S.C. § 4248(a) (emphasis added). Notably, the “procedures” referenced by the stay provision are not limited to the ultimate determination that further commitment is warranted. Instead, the civil commitment procedures commence with the government’s initial certification but continue through the civil commitment hearing and, for a committed individual, are not completed until a court determines by a preponderance of evidence that the individual is no longer a “sexually dangerous person” and may be discharged. See § 4248(a), (c), (e). A review of the procedural steps illustrates how the stay provision takes effect throughout § 4248 and does not dis8890 UNITED STATES v. TURNER solve after the commitment hearing. The path between issuance of the certification and release is paved with multiple procedural and substantive determinations. Following filing of the certification, the section states that “[t]he court shall order a hearing to determine whether the person is a sexually dangerous person.” § 4248(a). The hearing is governed by the procedures set out in § 4247(d). See § 4248(c). The next benchmark is whether “the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the person is a sexually dangerous person.” § 4248(d). If not, then the person is released, as was the case with Turner. If the finding is made, the individual is released to a state for “custody, care, and treatment,” or if a state does not accept responsibility, then the Attorney General places the person in a suitable facility. Id. Ultimately, if the director of the facility where the individual is placed determines that the individual will not be sexually dangerous to others if released, then there may be another hearing “to determine whether he should be released.” § 4248(e). Each of these steps is part of the referenced “procedures.” [6] The stay of release equally applies to persons awaiting an initial commitment hearing as to persons committed and hoping for a positive discharge hearing. The false dichotomy offered by the government belies textual and practical sense. Preliminary to civil commitment, the defendant is held only because of the Adam Walsh Act—a civil statute. The tolling effect on a supervised release term should be no different. The only common sense interpretation of § 4248(a) is that the Adam Walsh Act precludes the release of a person deemed “sexually dangerous” into society until a court has ultimately resolved that he is not or is no longer a danger to others. Had Congress intended the stay-of-release provision to include only persons awaiting a hearing, the reading the government advances, it would have said “pending the first commitment hearing” instead of making the stay applicable to all of the “procedures” in § 4248.2 2 An alternate reading would also ignore the broad reach of the statute. Subsection (a) applies to “a person who is in the custody of the Bureau UNITED STATES v. TURNER 8891 Apart from the plain meaning of the statute, a contrary interpretation of § 4248 would also contradict the express language of § 3624(e). “Section 3624(e) focuses our analysis on the words ‘imprisonment’ and ‘imprisoned’ to describe the type of confinement that controls commencement and tolling of supervised release time.” United States v. Sullivan, 504 F.3d 969, 971 (9th Cir. 2007). The plain language of the statute “suggests that there must be an imprisonment resulting from or otherwise triggered by a criminal conviction.” Morales-Alejo, 193 F.3d at 1105. In this regard, the civil nature of Turner’s detention is determinative. See Comstock, 130 S. Ct. at 1954 (characterizing § 4248 as a “civilcommitment statute”); cf. Jones v. Blanas, 393 F.3d 918, 932 (9th Cir. 2004) (“an individual detained under civil process— like an individual accused but not convicted of a crime— cannot be subjected to conditions that ‘amount to punishment.’ ” (quoting Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 536 (1979))). Turner’s continued confinement was not the result of any criminal sentence imposed by a court and exceeded, by many years, what would have been permissible at the time he was sentenced. See § 3583(e)(3) (stating that a defendant whose term of supervised release is revoked “may not be required to serve on any such revocation more than . . . 2 years in prison if such offense is a class C or D felony . . . .”). The Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Johnson, 529 U.S. 53 (2000), does not resolve the issue we now face— of Prisons, or who has been committed to the custody of the Attorney General pursuant to section 4241(d), or against whom all criminal charges have been dismissed solely for reasons relating to the mental condition of the person.” § 4248(a). All of these individuals are subject to the subsection’s stay-of-release provision even though they cannot all be classified as serving a “term of imprisonment.” In fact, individuals “against whom all criminal charges have been dismissed solely for reasons relating to the mental condition of the person” have not been convicted of a crime. Id. The broad applicability of the statute belies the argument that Congress intended the stay-of-release provision to extend a “term of imprisonment” and somehow toll the commencement of supervised release. 8892 UNITED STATES v. TURNER whether supervised release may be tolled when an individual is detained only in a civil capacity. Johnson dealt with a defendant who, at all times during his incarceration, was “imprisoned in connection with a conviction for a . . . crime.” See id. at 54-55. Johnson initially received a prison sentence of 171 months’ imprisonment, consisting of three concurrent 51month sentences for his convictions for possession with intent to distribute and felon possession of a firearm, to be followed by two consecutive 60-month terms for his convictions for use of a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking crime. Id. Later, Johnson’s convictions for use of a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking crime were vacated and the district judge modified his sentence to 51 months. Id. at 55. Because Johnson had already served more than 51 months by the time the convictions were vacated, he argued that he was entitled to a reduction in his term of supervised release because “the excess prison time should be credited to the supervised release term, reducing its length.” Id. at 54. The Court in Johnson rejected this argument, holding that § 3624(e) “does not reduce the length of a supervised release term by reason of excess time served in prison” because it “directs that a supervised release term does not commence until an individual ‘is released from imprisonment.’ ” Id. at 60, 57. Although there is language in Johnson suggesting that supervised release can never begin when an individual remains in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, this language must be read against the backdrop of the facts of that case. See id. at 57 (“Supervised release does not run while an individual remains in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.”); id. (“the ordinary, commonsense meaning of release is to be freed from confinement”). Unlike Turner, Johnson had not yet completed his prison sentence. Rather, during the entire duration of Johnson’s incarceration, he was “imprisoned in connection with a conviction” for a crime. See § 3624(e). Johnson remained in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons solely because of a criminal sentence. UNITED STATES v. TURNER 8893 [7] That is not the case with Turner. Johnson does not address the situation in which a person who has completed a prison sentence is then placed in civil detention, even if the civil detention happens to be overseen by the Bureau of Prisons. As demonstrated by the Bureau of Prisons’ inmate history log, Turner was released from criminal custody at noon on September 7, 2007. Upon release from criminal custody, Turner received a completely different inmate classification— a civil detainee classification based on his Walsh Act detention. Notably, the government agrees that “[Turner’s] postsentence detention does not constitute any part of his criminal sentence.” Thus, any detention following the expiration of Turner’s criminal sentence was civil in nature. “Civil status means civil status . . . .” Jones, 393 F.3d at 933. By definition, civil status does not mean “imprisoned in connection with a conviction.”3 [8] In determining whether a particular detention constitutes “imprisonment” for the purposes of § 3624(e), our cases have made it clear that custody of the Bureau of Prisons does not determine whether someone is imprisoned; instead, we 3 As a policy consideration, the dissent focuses on the goals of supervised release and concludes that post-sentence civil detention does not toll a supervised release term. However, the government had every opportunity to ensure Turner received treatment and rehabilitative services during the four and a half years it delayed in providing him with a civil commitment hearing. FCI Butner, where Turner has been continuously held, “operates the [Bureau of Prisons’] Commitment and Treatment Program, which holds certified, post-sentence persons and civilly committed sex offenders who are transferred to Butner for treatment.” U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS, STATE OF THE BUREAU 2009, at 30, available at http://www.bop.gov/news/PDFs/sob09.pdf. Any failure to provide Turner with the appropriate treatment lays at the feet of the government and is hardly a basis to convert a civil statute into one that extends a prisoner’s criminal term of imprisonment. The realities of confinement —Turner was at FCI Butner pending potential commitment and might well have been placed there had he been committed—underscores why the government’s position is internally inconsistent. In either case, Turner would not be serving a criminal sentence. 8894 UNITED STATES v. TURNER have focused on the nature of the custody. In Morales-Alejo, we clarified that pretrial detention does not constitute “imprisonment” within the meaning of § 3624(e) and thus does not operate to toll a term of supervised release. 193 F.3d at 1106. Like Turner, a pretrial detainee is in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, but is not “imprisoned in connection with a conviction.”4 Later, in Sullivan, we reaffirmed our holding in Morales-Alejo, concluding that detention at a community treatment center not subject to Bureau of Prisons control does not toll supervised release. 504 F.3d at 970. But see United States v. Miller, 547 F.3d 1207, 1208 (9th Cir. 2008) (distinguishing Sullivan by clarifying that detention at a work release program tolls supervised release when the detention is part of the term of imprisonment). Detention pursuant to § 4248 pending a civil commitment hearing after a defendant’s term of imprisonment has expired does not fit the definition of a person “imprisoned in connection with a conviction.” Johnson does not command a different analysis, as the entirety of the custody at issue in that case was criminal in nature. To hold otherwise and consider § 4248’s “stay-of-release” provision as extending Turner’s term of imprisonment raises serious constitutional questions. See Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 237 (1998) (“A statute must be construed, if fairly possible, so as to avoid not only the conclusion that it is unconstitutional but also grave doubts upon 4 Under the dissent’s reading, all custody is equivalent, whether it is civil or criminal. This analysis fails to take account that “imprisoned” and “in custody” are not equivalent. For example, the Bureau of Prisons considers individuals committed under § 4241(d)—who are also subject to the Walsh Act stay-of-release provision—to be pretrial inmates. See U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS, PROGRAM STATEMENT 7331.04, § 551.101(a)(2) (Jan. 31, 2003) (“An inmate committed under Title 18 U.S.C. Sections 4241(b) and (d) . . . is considered to be a pretrial inmate . . . .”); see also id. § 551.101(a) (“For purposes of this rule, ‘pretrial inmate’ means a person who is legally detained but for whom the Bureau of Prisons has not received notification of conviction.”). UNITED STATES v. TURNER 8895 that score.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Section 4248 requires no hearing prior to the government’s certification— on its belief—that a prisoner is a “sexually dangerous person” and provides no time limit in which a civil commitment hearing must be held after a certification has been issued. If this pre-commitment detention, which requires no judicial determination and minimal procedural safeguards, constitutes imprisonment, then the constitutionality of the Act is open to question. See Stogner v. California, 539 U.S. 607, 612 (2003) (including among ex post facto laws “[e]very law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed” (quoting Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. 386, 390 (1798))); Foucha v. Louisiana, 504 U.S. 71, 86 (1992) (holding that “the State must establish insanity and dangerousness by clear and convincing evidence in order to confine an insane convict beyond his criminal sentence, when the basis for his original confinement no longer exists”); Hill v. United States ex rel. Wampler, 298 U.S. 460, 464 (1936) (“The only sentence known to the law is the sentence of judgement entered upon the records of the court.”). In essence, though the district court imposed a term of imprisonment of eight months and could not have imposed a term longer than two years, adopting the government’s position would mean that an extension of Turner’s term of imprisonment by four and a half years beyond that imposed by the district court is within the bounds of congressional authority in passing a civil confinement statute. Congress certainly did not express any intention to reach such a result. [9] Finally, the rule of lenity cuts in Turner’s favor. We recognize that the rule does not generally apply to a civil statute. However, the stay provision of the Act directly implicates Turner’s supervised release, which is part and parcel of his criminal sentence. Implementation of the civil statute requires, in the case of a prisoner whose sentence includes supervised release, interpretation and application of the criminal statutes. The intertwining of the Act with the criminal provisions at issue is sufficient to invoke the rule of lenity. Cf. 8896 UNITED STATES v. TURNER Leslie Salt Co. v. United States, 55 F.3d 1388, 1398 (9th Cir. 1995) (“The rule of lenity has not been limited to criminal statutes, particularly when the civil sanctions in question are punitive in character.” (citing United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Co., 504 U.S. 505, 518 n.10 (1992))); Sash v. Zenk, 439 F.3d 61, 63-64 (2d Cir. 2006) (noting that statutes may be “criminal” for some purposes but not for others). To the extent that this constellation of statutes “fail[s] to establish that the Government’s position is unambiguously correct—we . . . resolve the ambiguity in [Turner’s] favor.” Cabaccang, 332 F.3d at 635 (quotation marks omitted). After considering the text, structure, history and purpose of the statute, we are left with “a grievous ambiguity or uncertainty in the statute.” Barber, 130 S. Ct. at 2508-09 (internal quotation marks omitted). [10] The ambiguity in the statute is particularly highlighted when contrasting the two separate interpretations offered by the government and the dissent. The dissent claims that supervised released never commenced so there is nothing to stay while the government claims the stay kicks in upon certification but is somehow lifted once commitment is ordered. Both of these approaches cannot be correct nor can they be squared with our interpretation which endeavors to reconcile all three of the relevant statutes. See id. (recognizing that “the rule of lenity only applies if, after considering text, structure, history, and purpose, there remains a grievous ambiguity or uncertainty in the statute such that the Court must simply guess as to what Congress intended.” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In passing the Adam Walsh Act, Congress apparently did not affirmatively consider the effect of § 3624(e), the supervised release statute. In the same vein, Congress made no effort to amend that provision. Rewriting the statute is beyond our province; to the extent Congress intended to treat the limbo period between expiration of a sentence and imposition of a civil commitment as a “sexually dangerous person” as tolling supervised release, the fix is a legislative one. UNITED STATES v. TURNER 8897 For the above reasons, Turner’s detention under § 4248 after his sentence expired does not amount to imprisonment “in connection with a conviction” within the meaning of § 3624(e). Accordingly, Turner’s term of supervised release was not tolled while he remained in custody after his sentence expired, and his term of supervised release ended on July 7, 2009. REVERSED.