Court Opinion

ID: 9617107
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:52:11.073272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:05.980519
License: Public Domain

Schwellenbach, J.
(dissenting) — Prior to the enactment of chapter 320, Laws of 1955, p. 1419, RCW 9.31.010 provided:
“Crime of Escape, what constitutes. Every prisoner confined in a prison, or being in the lawful custody of an officer or other person, who escapes or attempts to escape from such prison or custody, by force or fraud, if he is held on a charge, conviction, or sentence of a felony, shall be guilty of a felony; if held on a charge, conviction, or sentence of a gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” (Italics mine.)
Considerable difficulty had been experienced in obtaining convictions against prisoners who had escaped from state prison camps, the state prison, and the state reformatory, especially those who escaped without using force or fraud. Recommendation No. 5 of the Fourth Biennial Report of the Washington State Legislative Council, January 1955, provided:
*670“That the law be amended to provide a penalty where a prison inmate escapes without using force or fraud.
“Purpose: Law does not presently provide a penalty where inmate escapes without using force or fraud. An inmate can, at the present time, walk away from prison labor crews, or even climb over the wall and not be held subject to any penalty for escape, where it cannot be shown that force or fraud was used.”
As a result, a new section was added to RCW, chapter 9.31, defining the term “escape”;
“Section 1. Chapter 9.31 RCW, is amended by adding the following section:
“The term ‘escape’, for the purposes of this chapter, shall mean the unlawful departure of a prisoner from the custody of a penal or correctional institution of the state of Washington, with or without the exertion of force or fraud in the execution thereof.”
RCW 9.31.010 was then re-enacted, omitting therefrom, however, the phrase, “by force or fraud.”
The legislature has now defined “escape.” It says that the term “shall mean the unlawful departure of a prisoner from the custody of a penal or correctional institution of the state of Washington.” We must determine the legislature’s intention by what it said. It was so intent on remedying the situation where an inmate could walk away from prison labor crews or even climb over the wall that it limited the definition of “escape” to penal institutions of the state. County jails and city jails were overlooked. We cannot help the prosecutor out of his dilemma by saying that “of a penal or correctional institution of the state” includes county jails.
In State ex rel. Cowles v. Schively, 63 Wash. 103, 114 Pac. 901, cited by the majority, the court was concerned with the meaning of the phrase “in two daily papers of the largest general circulation,” contained in Rem. & Bal. Code, § 6119. The word “of” has many different meanings, depending upon the sense in which it is used. For example, an information charging A with stealing the property “of” B, means the property “belonging to” B. It is clear to me that, in the statute in question, the legislature was referring to a *671penal or correctional institution “belonging to” or “owned by” the state of Washington.
Penal statutes must be strictly construed. In State v. Hoffman, 30 Wn. (2d) 475, 191 P. (2d) 865, a case involving an escape from the state penitentiary, we said:
“In the case of State v. Hoffman, 110 Wash. 82, 188 Pac. 25, it was held that penal statutes must be strictly construed. In the course of the opinion, the court said:
“ ‘Unless the language of the statute makes the conduct of the appellant criminal, there can be no recourse to the intention of the act to establish its interpretation. Though conduct may be within the reason of an act and the mischief to be remedied thereby, yet it cannot be punished as a crime if not so denominated by the statute. Lewis, Sutherland’s Statutory Construction (2d ed.), § 520.’ ”
The majority states: “If, as contended by the appellant, the act ‘now covers only escapes from state [owned] institutions,’ RCW 9.31.010 is entirely meaningless.” It was necessary, of course, to re-enact RCW 9.31.010 (eliminating “by force or fraud”) in order to make it a crime to escape. I do not doubt that, in the back of their minds, the legislators meant to include escapes from county jails, but they did not say so. When they defined “escape,” “for the purpose of this chapter,” they limited it to the departure from the custody of a penal or correctional institution belonging to the state.
The judgment and sentence should be reversed.
Rosellini and Doetworth, JJ., concur with Schwellen-bach, J. •