Opinion ID: 549760
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appropriate Grounds for Departure from the Guidelines

Text: 12 While Pharr's efforts to overcome his heroin addiction are certainly commendable, we hold that post-arrest drug rehabilitation efforts and the potential effect of incarceration on these efforts are not appropriate grounds for discretionary departure from the sentencing guidelines under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(b). In doing so we part company from the Sixth Circuit in United States v. Maddalena, 893 F.2d 815 (6th Cir.1989), as well as several district courts. 5 We base our holding on the underlying objectives of the sentencing guidelines and the policy statements articulated by the Sentencing Commission. 13 In authorizing the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Congress shifted toward a system of penology that imposes fair punishment and away from a system that attempts to rehabilitate the individual. See United States v. Mejia-Orosco, 867 F.2d 216, 218 (5th Cir.1989), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 3257, 106 L.Ed.2d 602 (1989). Congress explicitly mandated that personal characteristics should not ordinarily affect sentencing on an individualized basis. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 994(e) (Supp.1990) (The Commission shall assure that the guidelines and policy statements ... reflect the general inappropriateness of considering the education, vocational skills, employment record, family ties and responsibilities, and community ties of the defendant.). This shift entailed a limitation on the discretion that individual district courts can exercise in the sentencing process. Mejia-Orosco, 867 F.2d at 218-19. A district court is obliged to adhere to Congress' mandate, whether or not it agrees with the theory of penology that Congress has adopted. United States v. Lopez, 875 F.2d 1124, 1126 (5th Cir.1989) (disagreement with guidelines not a valid basis for departure). 14 Congress has not completely foreclosed consideration of defendants' individual characteristics in mandating a more uniform sentencing scheme. In the Sentencing Reform Act, Congress provided that the sentencing court shall consider the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(a)(1). However, Congress also restricted the role of the district court in determining which personal characteristics are to be considered in sentencing. It instructed the Sentencing Commission, not the courts, to determine whether various personal characteristics should be considered in sentencing. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 994(d). In keeping with the guidelines' goal of tailoring sentences to the crime committed, the Commission included in the guidelines characteristics that relate to the defendant as a criminal, such as his criminal history, but rejected purely personal characteristics, such as his mental and emotional conditions. U.S.S.G. Ch. 4; U.S.S.G. Sec. 5H1.3 (policy statement). 15 Policy statement 5H1.4 provides that [d]rug dependence or alcohol abuse is not a reason for imposing a sentence below the guidelines. We read policy statement 5H1.4 to mean that dependence upon drugs, or separation from such a dependency, is not a proper basis for a downward departure from the guidelines. 6 If separation from addiction were grounds for departure from the guidelines, only those who were addicted to drugs at the time that they committed a crime could benefit from this departure. Along with being rewarded for overcoming their drug dependency, defendants would be rewarded, in a sense, for being addicted. 16 The Sentencing Commission recognized that it could not consider all potential grounds for departure from the guidelines. U.S.S.G. Sec. 5K2.0 (policy statement). However, the policy statements of the Sentencing Commission demonstrate that the Commission rejected factors such as the defendant's efforts to improve himself through education or his ability to maintain steady employment. U.S.S.G. Secs. 5H1.2, H1.5 (policy statements). We find that in the circumstances of this case, the defendant's efforts to improve himself through drug rehabilitation are analogous to these factors, and conclude that the district court should not have departed from the guidelines. 17 Similarly, we hold that the district court's finding that incarceration could interrupt the defendant's drug rehabilitation efforts is an inappropriate basis for departure. The guidelines represent a shift away from a rehabilitative system of penology. Mejia-Orosco, 867 F.2d at 218-19. Allowing the district court to consider the effect of incarceration on a defendant's drug rehabilitation efforts would undermine the purpose of the guidelines. Potential harmful effects on a defendant's drug rehabilitation program are unacceptable grounds for departure from the guidelines.