Court Opinion

ID: 9530116
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:57:24.246651+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:00.264956
License: Public Domain

Justice LOHR
dissenting:
The majority holds that an offender who is originally sentenced to community corrections for a definite term and later is resentenced under section 17-27-114, 8A C.R.S. (1986 & 1991 Supp.), for violating a rule or condition of the community correctional placement is not entitled to credit on resentencing for time spent as a nonresident of the community correctional facility while serving the original sentence. Because I believe this holding is contrary to the express terms of the controlling statute, I respectfully dissent.
The statute governing the resentencing of an offender who has been sentenced to a community correctional facility or program, and is removed from the facility or program for violating a rule or condition of placement is section 17-27-114(2), 8A C.R.S. (1986),1 which provides in pertinent part:
If the sentencing court determines that the offender shall not remain in community corrections, the court is authorized to make appropriate orders for the transfer of such offender from the county jail *14to a correctional facility and to resen-tence such offender and impose any sentence which might originally have been imposed without increasing the length of the original sentence.
(Emphasis added.)2
An offender is serving his sentence for a definite term during time spent as a nonresident of a community correctional facility as well as during time spent as a resident of such a facility. On resentencing, section 17-27-114(2) authorizes a court to impose any sentence that might originally have been imposed, but with the critical limitation that the length of the original sentence must not be increased. Adherence to this limitation of authority necessitates allowing credit for all time served in community corrections placement, including time spent on nonresidential status. As the Colorado Court of Appeals correctly noted in People v. Hoecher, 804 P.2d 230, 231 (Colo.App.1990), to disallow credit for time spent on nonresidential status would be tantamount to increasing an offender’s sentence.
The majority relies on the statutes and caselaw concerning the revocation of parole and presentence confinement credit when a violation of a term or condition of parole has occurred. Maj. op. at 12-13. This reliance is misplaced because, as noted above, resentencing upon termination of a community corrections placement is controlled by a clearly worded and specifically applicable statute mandating a result contrary to that reached by the majority. Re-sentencing on revocation of parole is controlled by a different statute explicitly disallowing credit for time between an offender’s release and return to custody in imposing resentence. § 17-22.5-203(1), 8A C.R.S. (1986). Similarly, the statute regarding credit for presentence confinement specifically requires that the offender be confined prior to the imposition of sentence in order to be entitled to credit. § 16-11-306, 8A C.R.S. (1991 Supp.). Section 17-27-114(2) contains no such requirement.
The majority also makes a compelling case that resentencing after termination of a community corrections placement logically should be governed by the same rules concerning credit for time served while not incarcerated as apply when parole is revoked. Maj. op. at 12-13. The short answer to this argument, however, is that the legislature has not seen fit to follow this logic.
In each of the three consolidated cases now before us the Colorado Court of Appeals held that time spent in nonresidential status during a community corrections placement must be credited upon resen-tencing in order to comply with the statutory mandate that upon resentencing, an original sentence cannot be increased. I agree and would affirm the judgments of the court of appeals.
KIRSHBAUM, J., joins in this dissent.

. § 17-27-114(2) was amended in 1989 by the addition of a sentence not relevant to the issue before us. See § 17-27-114(2), 8A C.R.S. (1991 Supp.), setting forth the section as amended.

. See also § 17-27-103(3), 8A C.R.S. (1986 & 1991 Supp.), giving the corrections board the "authority to accept, reject, or reject after acceptance the placement of any offender in its community correctional facility or program” and providing for resentencing on rejection after initial acceptance. The resentencing court is authorized to "impose any sentence which might originally have been imposed without increasing the length of the original sentence.” This wording is identical to that in § 17-27-114(2).