Court Opinion

ID: 9471702
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:39:23.536044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:32.752532
License: Public Domain

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent.
As the majority recognizes, our circuit has not directly addressed the issue whether indeterminate Youth Corrections Act (YCA) sentences for felony offenses should be limited to the maximum sentences that adults could receive for the same offense. I be*479lieve, however, that the rationale for our holding in United States v. Amidon, 627 F.2d 1023 (9th Cir.1980), reflected in United States v. Smith, 683 F.2d 1236 (9th Cir.1982) (en banc), and United States v. Bell, 707 F.2d 1080 (9th Cir.1983) (per curiam), requires us to impose such a limitation.
The district court in Amidon sentenced the appellant, convicted of a misdemeanor, to a six-year indeterminate term under the YCA. We reversed, holding that “a youth may not be sentenced to a term of confinement under the YCA that exceeds the statutory maximum that an adult could receive.” 627 F.2d at 1026. Our holding was based on the belief that in enacting the Federal Magistrates Act of 1979 Congress intended “that neither a district court judge nor a magistrate may sentence a youth under the Youth Corrections Act to a term of confinement longer than it could impose on an adult.” 627 F.2d at 1027. We concluded that it was “clear that, [by enacting the Magistrates Act,] Congress has rejected the earlier conclusions of this court and others that the rehabilitative purposes underlying the YCA justify longer confinement .... ” 627 F.2d at 1026 (citations omitted).
Although we were ruling on a misdemeanor sentence in Amidon, our conclusions logically must apply to felony sentences as well. We found that because YCA and adult prison conditions were nearly identical, “it is inequitable and unjust to permit imposition of the six year sentence under the YCA for offenses for which an adult, or a juvenile, could be sentenced to just six months.” 627 F.2d at 1026 (footnote omitted). For the same reason, it would be inequitable and unjust to permit imposition of'the six-year sentence under the YCA for an offense for which, as in this case, an adult could be sentenced to a maximum of three years.
Two panels of this circuit (one en banc) have treated Amidon as applying to felony as well as misdemeanor sentences: In United States v. Smith, 683 F.2d 1236 (9th Cir. 1982) (en banc) (involving both felony and misdemeanor sentences under the YCA), we read Amidon as holding “that district courts may not sentence a youth offender under the YCA to a term of confinement longer than the maximum that could be imposed on an adult for the same offense.” 683 F.2d at 1239 n. 10; see also id. at 1242 n. 20. And in United States v. Bell, 707 F.2d 1080 (9th Cir.1983) (per curiam) (involving a felony sentence under the YCA), we reaffirmed this interpretation, summarizing Amidon as holding “that the indeterminate term of confinement permitted under § 5010(b) could not exceed the maximum term which could be imposed upon an adult.” 707 F.2d at 1081.
In Bell, the district court sentenced the defendant to a two-year YCA sentence, even though the maximum allowable sentence for an adult was five years for the same felony offense. The issue on appeal was whether district courts could impose “maximum sentences for periods less than those specified in the YCA or allowable for adults charged with the same offense.” 707 F.2d at 1081 (emphasis added); see also id. at n. 4. We held: “While the district court has some discretion to choose between the indeterminate sentencing options set forth in §§ 5010(b) and 5010(c), the length of the sentence to be served by a youth offender, subject to any statutory maximum term of less than six years for a particular offense, may not be set by the district court but instead is in the discretion of the Parole Commission.” 707 F.2d at 1082 (emphasis added).
Both Smith and Bell reinforce my belief that our reasoning in Amidon was intended and requires us to limit indeterminate YCA sentences for felony offenses to the maximum sentences that adults could receive for the same offense.