Court Opinion

ID: 9763837
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:56:57.308313+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:49.975750
License: Public Domain

Justice CASTILLE
Concurring and Dissenting.
I join the majority opinion with respect to the holding that appellant’s ex-wife’s testimony was not privileged because her testimony described appellant’s actions and therefore did not constitute a privileged communication. I respectfully dissent, however, from the majority’s determination that appellant is entitled to “credit for time served,” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9760, against his state prison sentence for the first-degree felony of arson endangering persons, 18 Pa.C.S. 3301(a)(1), for the period during which he was released on bail subject to a home confinement/electronic monitoring program supervised by Lackawanna County prison authorities.
At the heart of the majority’s holding on credit for time served is its conclusion that, as a matter of common and approved usage, “the term custody is broader than the term imprisonment” and thus “[ijmprisonment is but one form of custody.” Op. at 498, 501. However true this semantical difference may be as an abstract matter, the reality here is that appellant was subject to the home confinement/electronic monitoring program as a condition of his release on bail. Bail is neither a form of, nor in any way synonymous with, custody or imprisonment; rather, it is a form of release fi'om custody.
Bail is an issue only after the Commonwealth has acquired a right, following judicial approval to proceed with a criminal matter, to restrict an individual’s freedom pending trial (and later, pending sentencing and/or appeal). The version of Rule 4003 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure in effect in 1993, the time relevant here, is entitled “Release of Defendant on Defendant’s Own Recognizance or on Nominal Bail.” The rule thus speaks in terms of release. By no stretch of the imagination can release be consonant with either custody or imprisonment. Then-Rule 4013 also referred to bail as a form of release and, furthermore, recognized that release on bail could be subject to various conditions, as it stated that a person admitted to bail was obliged to, inter alia, “[cjomply with any *530specific requirement of release which may be reasonably imposed by the issuing authority or court....” The 1996 amendments to the bail rules corroborate this understanding of the nature of bail. Indeed, this Court specifically recognized in those rules that home confinement is an appropriate nonmonetary condition of release on bail under Rule 4006. Notably, the Comment to Rule 4006 contains a listing of examples of appropriate conditions of release on bail, including “restricting the defendant to his or her residence or a supervised halfway house____”
It is difficult to see how a defendant whom the rules permit to be released on bail can be said to be deemed “in custody” for purposes of any later imposition of sentence and awarding of credit for “time served” against a prison term. The fact that home confinement or electronic monitoring is required as a condition of bail does not alter the fundamental meaning of bail release. It is, of course, true that the condition acts as a restriction upon the defendant’s freedom; but so, too, do myriad other potential conditions of bail, such as a bond, a reporting requirement, surrendering one’s passport, a stay-away order, drug testing, etc. Such conditions are routinely welcomed, and even requested, as a desirable tradeoff to avoid placement in an institutionalized setting. To equate such restrictions of release with “custody” for purposes of computing a sentence of incarceration ignores the very nature of bail. Because appellant was released on bail, and therefore was not in custody, I would hold that he is ineligible for credit for time spent in the home confinement/electronic monitoring program. The majority disputes this analysis (see Op. at 501 n. 12) simply by ignoring the fact that restrictions of one sort or another, whether monetary or non-monetary, are nearly always imposed on individuals who are released on bail. The fact that the particular restriction involved in this case confines the individual to his home does not alter the fundamental fact that the individual is released on bail and, therefore, not in custody.
Like Justice Nigro, I find further support for this conclusion in the Superior Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Shartle, *531438 Pa.Super. 403, 652 A.2d 874 (1995). There, the Superior Court found that a defendant was not entitled to credit against her sentence for time spent in a home confinement program from the time of her arrest until her preliminary hearing. The court pointed to the non-custodial nature of a sentence served in one’s home and concluded that it is “not the equivalent of time served in an institutional setting.” Id. at 409, 652 A.2d at 877.
Finding the term “custody” in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9760 to be synonymous with the term “imprisonment” in 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731, the Superior Court applied this Court’s holdings in Commonwealth v. Kriston, 527 Pa. 90, 588 A.2d 898 (1991) (holding that sentences of imprisonment pursuant to 75 Pa. C.S. § 3731 must be served in institutional settings) and Commonwealth v. Conahan, 527 Pa. 199, 589 A.2d 1107 (1991) (credit for time served in an inpatient alcohol rehabilitation program is time served in an institutional setting and therefore imprisonment pursuant to 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731). In Conahan, this Court had expressed its concerns with awarding sentencing credit for time spent in a home confinement program:
In Kriston we were concerned with the non-custodial nature of a sentence being served in a personal residence. While it is true that one subject to home monitoring has his liberty restrained and risks being sent to prison if he violates the terms of the program, we could not hold that such a sentence was sufficient to satisfy the goals of the Legislature given the abundant amenities and nonrehabilitative temptations present in the home.
Id. at 203, 589 A.2d at 1109.
Our reasoning in Kriston and Conahan should apply with equal force here. Release on any form of bail necessarily restricts one’s liberty. But release to a home confinement program does not even begin to approach the sort of restrictions that necessarily attend an institutionalized setting. A defendant in a home confinement program is free to move about in his home, eat, watch television, sleep in his own bed, socialize with family and friends and otherwise enjoy the *532comforts of his home at will. Being told the judicial equivalent of “go to your room” in no way approaches being ordered to pack a few belongings, leave that home, and report to a prison cell. In light of the fundamental and obvious distinction between time spent in an institutional setting and time spent dallying at home subject only to sporadic monitoring, I would find that appellant is not entitled to credit against his prison sentence for time he spent at home on bail subject to electronic monitoring.
Furthermore, I find it particularly inappropriate to award sentencing credit for time spent at home subject to a county monitoring program where, as here, the sentence ultimately imposed by the court for this first degree felony called for total confinement to a state correctional institution. Under the Sentencing Code, trial courts generally have a variety of discretionary sentencing options, including guilt without further penalty, probation (with various possible restrictions), intermediate punishment, partial confinement, and total confinement. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9721(a). Bail release to home confinement obviously has something in common with less restrictive sentencing alternatives such as intermediate punishment— albeit there is no rehabilitative or punishment component present in bail release where the concerns have to do with ensuring the defendant’s appearance and the safety of the public — but it has nothing in common with a sentence of total confinement. The trial court here determined that appellant’s conviction of arson endangering persons, a felony of the first degree punishable by up to twenty years’ imprisonment, 18 Pa.C.S. § 1103(1), required a sentence of total confinement in state prison for a minimum period of five years. Requiring the court to reduce appellant’s punishment by crediting against it time he spent at home on bail release subject to monitoring depreciates the seriousness of his crime and amounts to an undeserved and unjust windfall.
Even aside from this fundamental difference between “bail release” to one’s home and “custody” for sentencing credit purposes, the Sentencing Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9701 et seq., and related provisions of the County Intermediate Punishment *533Act, 61 P.S. 1101-1114, make clear that it is inappropriate to award credit for “time served” against a sentence of total confinement where the “time” at issue was “served” at home on bail release in a county-run electronic monitoring program and the crime involved is arson.1 Under the Sentencing Code, a sentence of non-incarceration, but involving conditions such as a requirement “[t]o remain within the premises of the defendant’s residence during the hours designated by the court,” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9763(b)(16), and/or “[t]o be subject to electronic monitoring,” id. § 9763(b)(17), is a sentence of intermediate punishment. Id. But, the Code specifically provides that persons convicted of certain enumerated crimes, including arson, “shall be ineligible” for sentences of intermediate punishment. Id. § 9729(c)(1).2 Accordingly, it is indisputable that appellant was ineligible as a matter of law to receive a sentence of home confinement/ electronic monitoring, at least with respect to his arson convictions. See also Commonwealth v. DiMauro, 434 Pa.Super. 129, 642 A.2d 507, 508 (1994) (although § 9763 does not specifically define intermediate punishment, it does provide that electronic monitoring is permissible condition under intermediate punishment; therefore, home monitoring sentence imposed on defendant convicted of aggravated assault, an offense ineligible for intermediate punishment programs, was illegal). In short, appellant never had a right to, nor even a legitimate expectation of, a sentence consisting in whole or in part of home confinement/electronic monitoring for arson. Requiring the court to reduce the sentence it imposed by crediting time spent on bail *534in a restricted release program that the General Assembly explicitly directed was unavailable as a sentencing option for arsonists ignores the Sentencing Code as a whole and depreciates the seriousness of appellant’s offense.
Finally, the majority’s conclusion that time spent on bail subject to home confinement and monitoring must be deemed “custody” subject to sentencing credit is also squarely contradicted by the terms of the County Intermediate Punishment Act. The version of the Act applicable here made clear, as the Sentencing Code did, that convicted arsonists were ineligible for sentences of intermediate punishment. 61 P.S. § 1102. The Act went on to describe the options for county intermediate punishment programs as including: “Noncustodial programs which involve close supervision, but not housing, of the offender in a facility, including, but not limited to: .... (iv) house arrest and electronic monitoring.” Id. § 1104(a)(l)(iv) (emphasis supplied).
The language in the Act is significant for two reasons. First, like the Sentencing Code, the Act makes clear that home confinement/electronic monitoring programs are a form of intermediate punishment and, as such, are unavailable sentences for more serious offenders, including convicted arsonists. Second, it speaks directly to the General Assembly’s view of whether home confinement/electronic monitoring programs may be deemed custodial. The Act makes clear that, in the judgment of the General Assembly, such a program is, by definition, noncustodial. While the majority is correct that the Sentencing Code does not define the term custody as used in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9760, op. at 498, the Act, which is specifically devoted to the form of restraint precisely at issue here, reveals an unequivocal legislative judgment that such programs are non-custodial. The General Assembly obviously shares this Court’s former view, expressed both in Kriston and Conahan, that home confinement programs are, by nature as well as by definition, “non-custodial.” I would not ignore this actual legislative pronouncement in favor of the abstract semantical differences in the terms “imprisonment” and “custody” that the majority deems to be controlling here.
*535The majority questions the propriety of looking to the County Intermediate Punishment Act for guidance in determining whether appellant is entitled to credit for time served because the Commonwealth has not raised or argued the applicability of that Act. Op. at 501 n. 13. But in the realm of statutory interpretation this Court is not constrained by the parties’ arguments; rather, it is this Court’s function to determine the meaning of the legislation, a determination that often requires examination of similar or related statutory pronouncements. This Court has recently reaffirmed our authority, if not our duty, to independently interpret a statute whose meaning is at issue, when necessary to effectuate the intention of the General Assembly, irrespective of the positions of the parties. In Commonwealth v. Collins, 764 A.2d 1056 (Pa. 2001), the question was whether the offenses of homicide by vehicle and homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol merge for sentencing purposes. The Commonwealth there conceded the defendant’s argument, agreeing that the two offenses merged. Id. at 1058 n. 4. Notwithstanding the absence of an argument from either party that the statutes should be deemed not to merge, this Court, with Justice Zappala authoring the majority opinion, held that the offenses did not merge because “the legislature crafted the statutory elements of the two offenses as mutually exclusive----” Id. at 1059.
Similarly, the General Assembly has made clear in the County Intermediate Punishment Act that home confinement/electronic monitoring programs do not constitute “custody.” That legislative reality is relevant to the “custody” question presented here — specifically, the question whether time spent on bail on home confinement amounts to “custody” for purposes of sentencing credit. It is logical and proper to look to other legislation dealing with intermediate punishment to determine if our legislature intended that intermediate punishment be deemed the equivalent of custody. This Court should not turn a deliberately blind eye to such relevant legislative pronouncements. By holding that, in this case, home confinement as a condition of bail is the equivalent of *536custody, the majority ignores what I believe to be a clear expression of legislative intent. Hence, I dissent from the majority’s holding on the question of credit for time served.3

. Effective on August 21, 2000, the General Assembly repealed the version of the County Intermediate Punishment Act governing this appeal and replaced it with a revised County Intermediate Punishment Act, which is now codified as part of the Judicial Code, i.e., at 42 Pa.C.S. § 9801 et seq. See Act 2000-68, June 22, 2000, P.L. 345, No. 41, § 6 (establishing new Act), § 7 (repealing old Act), effective in 60 days. The new County Intermediate Punishment Act, like the old, makes clear that persons convicted of arson are ineligible for sentences of intermediate punishment.

. Act 68-2000 also repealed § 9729. The subject matter of § 9729 is now subsumed within the revised County Intermediate Punishment Act codified in the Judicial Code. See Act 2000-68, June 22, 2000, P.L. 345, No. 41, § 2, effective in 60 days.

. The General Assembly, of course, is free to amend the subject legislation to prevent the windfall endorsed by the majority in future cases.