Court Opinion

ID: 9615973
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:42:19.41662+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:54.107545
License: Public Domain

TURSI, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
Here, on the day defendant was sentenced, he was committed to the custody of the executive director of the Department of Corrections. From that day he was under the control of the Department and in its constructive custody. The trial court found that the defendant had conducted himself in a manner which would entitle him to earned time credit had he been received by the Diagnostic Center during the critical period. Thus, the mere fact that his physical place of custody was in the Denver County Jail rather than in a facility operated by the Department of Corrections is not dispositive of his claim to equal protection under the law.
The concept of fundamental fairness which underlies our constitutional guaranty of equal protection cannot be reconciled, on a rational basis, with the denial of a liberty interest merely because the administration of the Department of Corrections has failed to supply those inmates in its charge who are detained in county jails with the same goals and programs which are offered to the inmates similarly sentenced but who happen to be incarcerated within state facilities. Cf. People v. Turman, 659 P.2d 1368 (Colo.1983).
Section 2-4-201(l)(c), C.R.S. (1980 Repl. Vol. IB) admonishes the courts in construing statutes to presume that a just and reasonable result is intended. I would therefore construe § 17-22.5-302, C.R.S. (1980 Cum.Supp.) as requiring progress towards the goals and programs established by the Colorado Diagnostic Program, only if such programs are in fact made available to an inmate. This construction must be given to the statute if a just and reasonable result is to be achieved.
Based upon the discussion above, I would remand this matter to the trial court for entry of an order granting defendant earned time for the 119 days spent in the Denver County Jail after he had been sentenced to the Department of Corrections.