Opinion ID: 2561916
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: is the sentence indeterminate?

Text: ¶ 4 Next we address whether the sentence is invalid because it is indeterminate. A determinate sentence is defined in the SRA as a sentence that states with exactitude the number of actual years, months, or days of total confinement, of partial confinement, [or] community supervision. RCW 9.94A.030(21). The fact that an offender through earned release can reduce the actual period of confinement shall not affect the classification of the sentence as a determinate sentence. Id. Brooks suggests that the sentence does not state with any certainty how many years, months, or days he will remain in both confinement and community custody. The Court of Appeals agreed with this argument in Linerud and held that a sentence that left to the DOC the ultimate responsibility of ensuring an offender does not serve a sentence greater than the statutory maximum was indeterminate and in violation of the SRA. Linerud, 147 Wash.App. at 950, 197 P.3d 1224. The court specifically found that the type of sentence at issue here allowed the DOC to impose the sentence rather than the court. The court stated that it was within the trial court's discretion to determine how much of [a] sentence is confinement and how much is community custody. Id. at 951, 197 P.3d 1224. It was the Linerud court's belief that a sentencing court was required to set an exact term of community custody within the range that when added to the term of confinement did not exceed the statutory maximum. [5] ¶ 5 The SRA specifically states that a sentence is not rendered indeterminate by the fact that a defendant may earn early release credits. RCW 9.94A.030(21). Under the current statutory scheme, the exact amount of time to be served can almost never be determined when the sentence is imposed by the court. The only thing that can be determined at the time of sentencing is the maximum amount of time an offender will serve in confinement and the maximum amount of time the offender may serve in totality. While the DOC was left the responsibility of ensuring Brooks did not serve more than 120 months of confinement and community custody, this responsibility stemmed from both the requirements of the SRA and the sentence that the court imposed. Here the court imposed a sentence that had both a defined range and a determinate maximum. It is the SRA itself that gave courts the power to impose sentences and the DOC the responsibility to set the amount of community custody to be served within that sentence. We hold that Brooks's sentence is not indeterminate. [6]