Court Opinion

ID: 9714372
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:36:09.061619+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:25.578553
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur with the discharge of the habeas corpus writs as to these four young people because, they no longer being confined, their petitions are moot. However, I believe that even where the circumstances are “most egregious” (a showing the state did not make in these cases), the use of constructive contempt to incarcerate young people under these circumstances directly contravenes the plain meaning of the statute, as set out in the text of that statute in unambiguous words, as revealed in its legislative history, and as recognized in the majority opinion.
Minn. Stat. § 260.173, subd. 3 (1978), as amended, specifically addresses the conduct which the lower court labeled “contempt of court.” It provides:
If the child had been taken into custody and detained as one who is alleged to be delinquent by reason of:
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(c) Having been previously adjudicated delinquent, or conditionally released by the juvenile court without adjudication of delinquency, has violated his probation, parole, or other field supervision under which he had been placed as a result of behavior described in this subdivision; he may be placed only in a shelter care facility. (Emphasis supplied.)
The history of this legislation indicates that its purpose was to bar the confinement of even those young persons who are repeatedly wayward or habitually disobedient and who violate the terms of their court-ordered probation or confinement. To define disobedience to court orders during proceedings concerning an alleged status offense as a new act of delinquency of so different a nature from the original offense as to justify secure detention violates the policy of the federal Juvenile Justice Act and makes Minn. Stat. § 260.173, subd. 3(c) meaningless.
Such a procedure has been criticized by other courts and commentators. In State in Interest of M.S., 73 N.J. 238, 374 A.2d 445 (1977), the New Jersey Supreme Court vacated delinquency adjudications against four “status offenders” whose crimes consisted of leaving a shelter care facility without permission, an offense the trial court labeled criminal “escape.” The court noted that:
[t]he unauthorized leaving of a shelter is symptomatic of the very problem for which shelter care is being provided. It would be incongruous to classify a juvenile as a delinquent for the same kind of conduct which under the Act constitutes him or her as being in need of supervision only.
*70973 N.J. at 244—45, 374 A.2d at 448. Similarly, the California Court in In re Ronald S., 69 Cal.App.3d 866, 138 Cal.Rptr. 387 (1977) criticized as “bootstrapping” the lower court’s procedure by which a 13-year-old offender who ran away from a court-ordered shelter was charged with contempt, a criminal violation justifying secure detention. See also Matter of Mary D., 95 Cal.App.3d 34, 156 Cal.Rptr. 829 (1979). In North Carolina, where recent legislation forbids forcible confinement of juveniles charged with status offenses, one judge has cited these juveniles for contempt of court and sentenced them to solitary confinement in the local jail. This procedure has been criticized sharply and termed “unusual and highly controversial.” B. Stuart, Solitary, Jail Terms for NC Youth, III Change II (Law Enforcement Assistant Administration publication) (1979) reprinted in Community Corrections Scene 6 (Washington County, Minnesota, Department of Community Corrections publication) (1980).
Minn. Stat. § 260.173, subd. 3(c) (1978) provides clearly that even those juveniles, such as those before us, who have violated the terms of their probation orders, are not to be physically confined. Courts should not, by their inherent contempt powers to enforce the terms of their orders, incarcerate a child for the very conduct which under the statute constitutes him or her as being in need of supervision only.