Court Opinion

ID: 9472257
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:54:34.066022+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:50.154187
License: Public Domain

KEITH, Circuit Judge,
with whom Chief Judge LIVELY, and Judges GEORGE CLIFTON EDWARDS and NATHANIEL R. JONES join, dissenting.
We respectfully dissent. The majority takes the position that the Youth Corrections Act (YCA), 18 U.S.C. § 5010, has been implicitly repealed by the Parole Commission and Reorganization Act of 1976 (PCRA), 18 U.S.C. § 4206. It asserts that “Congress altered the focus of parole decisions for youthful offenders by mandating that the Parole Commission no longer follow the traditional parole procedures of the YCA, but rather follow parole criteria provided for all federal offenders.” Op. at 8. The majority continues by stating that “the legislative history of the PCRA makes it clear that Congress intended that the Parole Commission apply uniform standards or parallel methods of paroling all offenders irrespective of their status as youthful offenders.” Op. at 9. We cannot agree with this interpretation of the PCRA. This interpretation is so clearly contrary to the YCA that it eviscerates the purposes for which it was enacted.
In reviewing the legislative history of the YCA, it is clear that Congress was motivated by two primary factors in promulgating the Act. First, it was recognized that the period of life between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two was the time “when special factors operated to produce habitual criminals.” Second, then-existing methods of treating criminally inclined youths were found inadequate in avoiding recividism. H.R.Rep. No. 2979, 81st Cong., 2nd Sess. reprinted in 1950 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad. News 3983. To this end, the YCA was designed to provide a better method for treating young offenders convicted in federal courts. Of particular emphasis was the vulnerable age bracket, with the goal to rehabilitate and restore normal behavior patterns. Dorszynski v. United States, *327418 U.S. 424, 433, 94 S.Ct. 3042, 3048, 41 L.Ed.2d 855 (1973).
The YCA provides that all offenders under the age of twenty-two years at the time of conviction are eligible for probation or treatment under the Act. It defines treatment as “corrective and preventive guidance and training”. 18 U.S.C. § 5006(e). An important element of the program was that once a person was committed for treatment, the execution of the sentence was to fit the person, not the crime for which he was convicted. 18 U.S.C. §§ 5014, 5015. Further, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons (predecessor to Parole Commission) was authorized both to adopt numerous public facilities, and to contract with public or private agencies, in order to provide institutional treatment which could be varied according to the person’s progress or lack thereof. 18 U.S.C. §§ 5011, 5015. An integral part of the treatment program was the segregation of committed persons, placing them with those similarly committed to avoid the influence of association with the more hardened inmates serving traditional criminal sentences. 18 U.S.C. § 5011. In addition, once the offenders had been properly treated, an unconditional release could be granted with an expunetion of the offender’s record. 18 U.S.C. § 5021.
It is clear from these YCA provisions that Congress mandated that response to treatment was to be a primary concern in the parole decision process of a youth offender. The courts have long recognized this mandate, of rehabilitating and restoring normal behavior patterns, in the sentencing of youth. Dorszynski v. United States, supra; United States v. Hunt, 661 F.2d 72 (6th Cir.1981); Benites v. United States Parole Commission, 595 F.2d 518 (9th Cir.1979); United States v. Hopkins, 531 F.2d 576 (D.C.Cir.1976).
The majority has erred in interpreting the PCRA as repealing the response to treatment provisions of the YCA. It bases this position on the legislative history of the PCRA. At best, the legislative history of the PCRA is ambiguous. The YCA was amended to reflect changes in the name and nature of the agency responsible for youth parole decisions; to provide for parallel parole procedures and release criteria for all offenders, including those sentenced under the YCA; and to expressly give the Commission responsibility for decisions regarding the parole of youth offenders. See S.Rep. No. 369, 94th Cong., 2d Sess., 28-29 reprinted in 1976 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad. News 335, 350.
However, it is beyond peradventure that the PCRA retained all of the provisions of the YCA. As the Tenth Circuit noted in Watts v. Hadden, 651 F.2d 1354, 1382 (10th Cir.1981):
It is our view that these rules which prohibit implied repeals of legislation apply with even greater strength or force where the implied repeal would have to have occurred not from the enactment of an independent statute, but from revisions of portions of statutory schemes. Clearly, Congress had before it the entire Youth Corrections Act when the amendments were passed in 1976. Nevertheless, provisions which require that response to treatment be considered in setting release dates were left unaltered. Also unchanged were provisions holding that the Youth Corrections Act inmates should be considered for unconditional release following one year of parole. Indeterminate sentences, segregation, classification, individual treatment and the goal of rehabilitation all stand unchanged. Id. at 1382 (emphasis supplied).
Furthermore, a fundamental tenet of statutory construction is that repeals by implication are strongly disfavored. Blanchette v. Connecticut General Insurance Corp., 419 U.S. 102, 95 S.Ct. 335, 42 L.Ed.2d 320 (1974). Absent an implicit expression to the contrary, the statutory provisions at issue must be read harmoniously. See Watt v. Alaska, 451 U.S. 259, 101 S.Ct. 1673, 68 L.Ed.2d 80 (1981). A review of the legislative history of the PCRA reveals no Congressional manifestation of an intent *328to completely disregard the rehabilitative underpinnings of the YCA.
Moreover, we disagree with the majority in its characterization that the term “parallel” mandates that precisely the same criteria which are used for other offenders, are also to be used for those sentenced under the YCA. We agree with the Tenth Circuit’s holding in Watts v. Hadden, supra, that the YCA and the later PCRA can be harmonized only if the Commission considers a youth offender’s response to treatment as well as the parole criteria of 18 U.S.C. § 4206(a). While 4206(a) allows the Commission to consider response to treatment when making parole decisions for adults, the YCA mandates that response to treatment be an integral part of the release criteria for youth offenders. Additionally, it requires the Commission to consider the fact that the youth offender was, in fact, sentenced as a youth offender, and that the policies and purposes of the YCA should be applied to the parole considerations.
We are compelled to dissent from the majority’s position that the rehabilitative treatment policies no longer need be considered when making parole decisions regarding youthful offenders. Such a position is antithetical to the very purposes and goals of Congress in promulgating the YCA.
The Congressional mandate was to treat youthful offenders differently, and by providing educational and rehabilitative measures, prevent the offenders from becoming habitual criminals. Pursuant to the YCA, the institutional performance and response to treatment are the primary criteria in determining parole release. Benites v. United States Parole Commission, 595 F.2d 518 (9th Cir.1979). A reading of the legislative history of the PCRA does not evince that Congress has retreated, from this mandate. Surely, if Congress had made such a fundamental change in this mandate it would have provided express provisions indicating this new position. Therefore, in the absence of an express provision, the response to treatment factor remains valid and a primary consideration in the parole process of youthful offenders.
The majority opinion condones an unnecessary and improper deviation from the Congressional mandate. Accordingly, we would reverse the district court and grant the habeas petition.