Court Opinion

ID: 9761856
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:57:07.289792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:27.152531
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Judge Palladino:
I respectfully dissent. The issue in this case is both simple and important: whether a trial judge, who has absolute discretion to parole an individual pursuant to section 314 of the Act of June 19, 1911, P.L. 1059, as amended, 61 P.S. §314 (Act),1 may impose a sentence which includes a retroactive parole order. Because the statute is silent on the issue, and because I believe that the presiding judge at a criminal trial has the discretion to impose such a sentence, I would affirm the retroactive parole order in this case.
The majority concludes that the imposition of a retroactive parole order as part of the sentence conflicts with section 9760 of the Sentencing Code, 42 Pa. C. S. §9760(1), because a parolee, should he commit a parole vioaltion after release warranting recommitment, would lose time for which the statute provides he receive credit. I believe that this analysis avoids the simple feet that the trial courts retroactive parole order, at the time of imposition, complies entirely with the requirements of the Sentencing Code.
Section 9760 of the Code requires a sentencing judge to credit the defendants new sentence with time *134served while incarcerated and pending sentencing. The trial court order does precisely that. The order dictates that Petitioner be sentenced to concurring terms of 9-18 months on his new convictions and that he be retroactively paroled as of October 15, 1985 from these sentences. In order to appreciate the legal effect of this order, we must bear in mind that parole is not a release from the terms of the sentence:
The exercise of the power of parole . . . does not impinge upon the judicial power of sentencing the accused in conformity with the law. . . . The sentence is in no wise interfered with. . . . The parolee is not discharged, but merely serves the remainder of his sentence by having his liberty restrained in a manner analogous to that employed in the ‘trusty’ or ‘honor system of prison discipline. ‘The parole authorized by statute does not suspend service or operate to shorten . the term. While on parole the convict is bound to remain in the legal custody and under the control of the warden until the expiration of the term. . . . While this is an amelioration of punishment, it is in legal effect imprisonment.’
Commonwealth ex rel. Banks v. Cain, 345 Pa. 581, 588-89, 28 A.2d 897, 901 (1942) (quoting Anderson v. Corall, 263 U.S. 193, 196 (1923)) (emphasis in original).
Thus, when the trial judge ordered the 9-18 month concurring sentences, he properly credited towards these sentences the entire time Petitioner had served in jail for failure to post bail since his arrest. The feet that he ordered Petitioner paroled retroactively from October 15, 1985 in no way alters the feet that Petitioner was credited with the 12Vz months time served on the new sentences (March 1, 1985 to March 14, 1986), the first IVz months in incarceration, and the latter five months on constructive parole. What the parole order does per*135mit is for Petitioner to begin serv ing his recommitment time from the effective date of that parole.2 This, however, does not alter the fact that as of the date the order was issued, Petitioner was immediately credited with the time he had served pending sentencing. He may in the future lose credit for his time on constructive parole from the new sentence, but he has already received credit at the time of sentencing.
The majority maintains that section 314 of the Act must be construed as precluding any legislative intent that retroactive parole orders are permissible. I believe that this conclusion misconceives the essential nature of section 314.
Section 314 of the Act states that trial courts with jurisdiction “are authorized, after due hearing, to release on parole any convict confined in the county jail, house of correction, or workhouse of their respective district. . . . After such hearing, the court shall make such order as to it may seem just and proper .” (Emphasis added.) These words are plain and unambiguous. They authorize a trial court to exercise discretion to grant or refuse parole in any manner which the court deems “just and proper.” See Commonwealth v. Fair, 345 Pa. Superior Ct. 61, 497 A.2d 643 (1985). The legislative intent to grant this complete discretionary role to a sentencing judge can be more fully perceived by review of the Sentencing Code, 42 Pa. C. S. §§9701-9781. Under the Code, a sentencing judge may, except where a mandatory minimum sentence is required by law, exercise discretion to “consider and select one or more of *136the following alternatives, and may impose them consecutively or concurrently: (1) An order of probation. (2) A determination of guilt without further penalty. (3) Partial confinement. (4) Total confinement. (5) A fine.” 42 Pa. C. S. §9721(a). Thus, at sentencing, the sentencing judge
seeks to vindicate society’s interest in imposing appropriate sanctions against those individuals determined to be criminally culpable. At the same time, however, the court must give fair and full consideration to the particular circumstances of individual defendants. . . . Fully recognizing the gravity of the sentencing decision, the Sentencing Code and the Rules of Criminal Procedure clearly contemplate that the ‘sentencing judge’ be the ultimate adjudicator of criminal sentences.
Commonwealth v. Knighton, 490 Pa. 16, 21-22, 415 A.2d 9, 12 (1980).
I believe that this “ultimate adjudicator of criminal sentences” role applies equally in parole matters. To deny a sentencing judge the authority to impose parole retroactively and thereby pronounce sentence as he deems just and proper unduly infringes upon the legislative intent to grant this role to the judge. This is especially so in a constructive parole matter where, for instance, the requirements of the court to place the prisoner under a probation officer’s supervision are obviously inapplicable.
It is asserted that by issuing a retroactive parole order, the trial court is circumventing the Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Dorian, 503 Pa. 116, 468 A.2d 1091 (1983), which mandates that a parolee’s new sentence and his recommitment time be served in consecutive order.
*137Initially, I note that the trial court could have pronounced the identical sentence on October 15, 1985 and ordered parole immediately. The trial court’s authority to issue such an order is undisputed. Thus, the judge could have imposed the sentence and parole order at issue directly. Moreover, the order clearly distinguishes, in consecutive order, which portion of the time Petitioner had served constitutes the penalty of incarceration on the new sentences and which portion constitutes parole time, during which the Petitioner would begin serving recommitment time. Applying Petitioner’s backtime to the October 15, 1985 parole date therefore does not amount to concurrent terms.
In conclusion, I am of the opinion that section 314 of the Act grants the sentencing judge the discretion and flexibility to issue parole orders as the judge deems just and proper. In this case, the trial court deemed that Petitioner serve TVz months of his sentence and that he then be paroled from it. The fact that sentence was imposed on March 14, 1986 necessitated a retroactive parole order. This is the type of flexibility I believe the legislature intended to grant a sentencing judge. To declare such an order illegal would be to interfere with the trial court’s discretion in such matters pursuant to section 314. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

 Repealed in part by the Act of August 6, 1941, P.L. 861 (Parole Act), as amended, 61 P.S. §§331.1-331.34.

 I note that the Boards recommitment order and paroling jurisdiction are in no way affected by the trial courts order. The Boards recommitment penalty of eighteen months is locked in concrete and unaltered by the trial court order. The only issue with regard to the Board is when that recommitment penalty was to commence.