Court Opinion

ID: 9797172
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:14:42.139466+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:52:58.355840
License: Public Domain

MANNHEIMER, Judge,
concurring.
I write separately to emphasize the rationale of our decision.
As Judge Coats acknowledges in the lead opinion, several superior court judges have granted defendants credit toward their sentences under the circumstances of Matthew's case. These judges' decisions were based on the theory that, because the Department of Corrections is authorized to allow prisoners *474to serve their sentences at home (or some other designated residence) under electronic monitoring, defendants who participate in equivalent forms of electronic monitoring as part of their bail conditions must likewise receive credit against their sentences for the time they spend under electronic monitoring.
In other words, these judges interpreted Nygren v. State1 to mean that defendants are entitled to credit against their sentences if their bail conditions resemble any form of custody authorized by the statutes and administrative regulations that govern the Department of Corrections. But as Judge Coats points out in the lead opinion, our decision in Nygren established a stricter rule: defendants are entitled to credit against their sentences only if the restrictions imposed by their bail conditions are the equivalent of incarceration.2
The Nygren rule does not encompass all forms of correctional custody authorized by Alaska law. For example, AS 33.30.101 and 30.121-as implemented by 22 AAC 05.271(b)(1), 22 AAC 05.316, and 22 AAC 05.326-authorize the Commissioner of Corrections to release selected prisoners on "short-duration furlough". Depending on the purpose of the furlough, these short-duration furloughs may last up to one week or longer.3 And the Commissioner of Corrections has wide discretion concerning the conditions of a short-duration furlough; apparently, these conditions might be as minimal as having the prisoner check in with a Corrections officer on a regular basis-a modified form of release on the prisoner's own recognizance.
The fact that the Commissioner has the authority to release prisoners under this minimal form of supervision does not mean that defendants can claim credit for time served if they, too, are released on their own recognizance or under the requirement that they periodically contact their attorney or some other designated officer of the court. Ny-gren credit hinges on a defendant's subjection to restrictions that approximate incarceration.

. 658 P.2d 141 (Alaska App.1983).

. Nygren, 658 P.2d at 146.

. See 22 AAC 05.326(a)(1), authorizing family visitation furloughs of up to one week, and 22 AAC 05.326(a)(2), authorizing medical furloughs of indefinite duration, "[nol longer than necessary for the [prisoner's medical] treatment".