Court Opinion

ID: 9688751
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:03:02.691788+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:41.848767
License: Public Domain

CRIPPEN, Judge
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
Under the statutory scheme at issue, jail credit is extended to a dangerous juvenile *190offender who is certified for adult-court prosecution and whose sentence is first stayed but later executed because of violations of stay conditions. A less dangerous juvenile of like age, who has committed an offense equally or less serious, whose circumstances are less threatening to public safety, and who is not certified, is denied the same jail credit when his stayed sentence is similarly executed.
The practice of holding a more threatening stick over the less dangerous juvenile is rational, the state asserts, because it modifies conduct of the juvenile that will spare this offender from the consequence of an adult sentence. The approach is also important, the state contends, because of the great challenge the public accepts in attempting to rehabilitate the offender who is still subject to juvenile court jurisdiction. If the size of the stick is moderated, the state suggests, the public will to help less dangerous juveniles will be eroded.
No doubt a less dangerous juvenile adversely affected by these laws would plead to be helped less diligently. And this simple reaction is constitutionally compelling. To conclude otherwise is to open the door to euphemistic approaches that with the one hand herald the rehabilitative purposes of the juvenile system and with the other enlarge the license to punish those the system is to help. See Application of Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 27, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 1443, 18 L.Ed.2d 527 (1967) (calling for “reality” in recognizing incarceration, “however euphemistic the title.”). “Tough love” may be attractive in private contexts, but it does not represent an acceptable basis for public laws that impose greater punishment for less dangerous juveniles than for more dangerous juvenile offenders who are loved less and have been certified for adult-court prosecution.
The meaning of the state’s position on jail credits can be appreciated by considering the implications of the approach where the courts are not dealing with an EJJ case or even a serious offense. If there is rationality in big threats to less dangerous children, one is led to find rationality in laws providing punitive, severe consequences for failure to immediately discontinue a pattern of minor or even petty misconduct.
Finally, the rationality of the state’s position is not enlarged, in my opinion, by failing to recognize the readiness of the helping hand to impose a severe penalty. It is true that the law is built on a hope that there will be no executed sentence, but this wish does not diminish the realistic anticipation that violations of stay conditions commonly occur and that execution of sentences is a material part of the EJJ process. And there is little merit in assuming that the big stick will not be employed carelessly from time to time, or that it will not be utilized grudgingly by the “helping” hand that waits too eagerly for the opportunity to act on the threat to punish; these mistaken approaches are most evident in the choice of stay conditions that are excessively imprecise, numerous, or otherwise difficult to honor.
Because there is too little rationality in the notion that benevolence to an offender explains treating this person more severely than another in like circumstances, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s rejection of appellant’s assertion that he has been denied equal protection of the laws. I concur in decisions of the majority on other issues of the case.