Court Opinion

ID: 9462867
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:52:27.123761+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:49.911813
License: Public Domain

BRIGHT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
■ I respectfully dissent. One of the main purposes of the Youth Corrections Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 5005 et seq., is to try to prevent a young offender from following a lifetime of criminal activity. The Congress, I believe, recognized that to sentence a youth to a long prison term with adult criminals is, in effect, to conclude that rehabilitation of that young offender is a virtual impossibility. Because of the gravity of such a determination, Congress and the courts have required sentencing judges to make explicit findings of no benefit under the Youth Corrections Act before the defendant could be sentenced as an adult.
In the instant case, the district judge not only failed to make an explicit “no-benefit” finding under the Youth Corrections Act, but apparently considered only the Young Adult Offenders Act, 18 U.S.C. § 4209. The Young Adult Offenders Act applies only “[i]n the case of a defendant who has attained his twenty-second birthday but has not attained his twenty-sixth birthday at the time of conviction * * *.” It permits special treatment only if the court affirmatively finds that the defendant “will benefit.” Since Scruggs had just turned 19 at the time of sentencing, this statute did not apply to him. The district judge’s inconclusive comments concerning the Young Adult Offenders Act at defendant’s initial sentencing6 cannot be construed as an explicit no-benefit finding under the Youth Corrections Act. Instead, they may reflect a failure to make the affirmative finding of probable benefit required by the Young Adult Offenders Act.
Accordingly, I would reverse and remand this case either for resentencing or for a “conscientiously” made determination by the district court that it was aware of the Youth Corrections Act at the time of sentencing and determined at that time that *217defendant would receive “no benefit” under the Act. Tasby v. United States, 535 F.2d 464, at 465-466 (8th Cir. 1976); Brager v. United States, 527 F.2d 895, 898-99 (8th Cir. 1975).

. Defendant was initially sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment but on appeal this court ordered resentencing under a different statutory section. Scruggs v. United States, 450 F.2d 359 (8th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 1071, 92 S.Ct. 1521, 31 L.Ed.2d 804 (1972). At defendant’s resentencing, the district court made no mention whatsoever of the Youth Corrections Act.