Abraham v. Department of Corrections

615 A.2d 814, 150 Pa. Commw. 81, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 552
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 18, 1992
Docket166 M.D. 1991
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 615 A.2d 814 (Abraham v. Department of Corrections) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abraham v. Department of Corrections, 615 A.2d 814, 150 Pa. Commw. 81, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 552 (Pa. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

*84 CRAIG, President Judge.

Before this court is a motion of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to open a peremptory judgment in a mandamus action addressed by Philadelphia’s District Attorney (DA) to the original jurisdiction of this court. The Commonwealth seeks to open this court’s peremptory mandamus order of January 13, 1992, requiring the Commonwealth to take into custody certain classes of criminal defendants incarcerated in Philadelphia county prisons by aggregating consecutive sentences under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9757, so that, if the aggregated maximum term is five years or more, confinement shall be by the Commonwealth pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S. § 9762(1).

History of the Case

On May 30, 1991, the DA filed a petition for review in this court seeking an order compelling the Commonwealth to aggregate all consecutive sentences of each prisoner, regardless of the designated place of confinement, and to take into custody criminal defendants incarcerated in the Philadelphia County prison whose aggregated maximum sentence is five or more years. The DA requested this relief chiefly because the City of Philadelphia must now release pre-trial detainees as a consequence of the prison-population cap imposed upon the Philadelphia County jail by the federal court’s order in Harris v. Reeves, U.S.Dist.Ct.E.D.Pa., No. 82-1847.

In her petition, the DA relied upon 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9757 and 9762(1) of the Judicial Code, which state:

§ 9757. Consecutive sentences of total confinement for multiple offenses
Whenever the court determines that a sentence should be served consecutively to one being then imposed by the court, or to one previously imposed, the court shall indicate the minimum sentence to be served for the total of all offenses with respect to which sentence is imposed. Such minimum sentence shall not exceed one-half of the maximum sentence imposed.
*85 § 9762. Sentencing proceeding; place of confinement
All persons sentenced to total or partial confinement for: (1) maximum terms of five or more years shall be committed to the Bureau [now Department] of Corrections for confinement;
(2) maximum terms of two years or more but less than five years may be committed to the Bureau of Corrections for confinement or may be committed to a county prison within the jurisdiction of the court;
(3) maximum terms of less than two years shall be committed to a county prison within the jurisdiction of the court except that as facilities become available on dates and in areas designated by the Governor in proclamations declaring availability of State correctional facilities, such persons may be committed by the Bureau of Corrections for confinement.

In ruling upon the DA’s peremptory mandamus request, this court found the following facts, which the motion to open has not contested:

1. The Philadelphia County prison is under a federal prison cap order in Harris v. Reeves, U.S.Dist.Ct.E.D.Pa., No. 82-1847, limiting the population of the Philadelphia County prisons. The present population of the Philadelphia County prisons is 4,998 prisoners, with an approved capacity of 3,750. The cap order limits the admission of pre-trial detainees to those charged with violent crimes but not those charged with crimes such as robberies without a weapon, burglaries or car theft.
2. The admission of defendants charged with drug offenses is subject to minimum thresholds of the amount of drugs possessed.
3. The admission of defendants subject to bench warrants is not permitted unless there are two or more non-summary bench warrants on separate criminal charges.
4. Under a recent consent decree for the reduction of the Philadelphia County prison population, Philadelphia must release 175 pre-trial inmates per week among those charged with drug offenses, admitted for outstanding bench *86 warrants or whose legal status has changed so that they would not now be admitted under the minima stated above.
5. At present, approximately 600 Philadelphia prisoners are eligible for release under the above, and approximately 90 of the prisoners entering each week will be eligible for release under this same provision.
6. The evidence shows that releases mandated by the Harris case cap threaten irreparable harm to Philadelphia and its public. The rate of failures to appear in the Philadelphia criminal courts has increased because of the limitations on the enforcement of bench warrants with, at present, 50% of the defendants not in custody failing to appear for felony preliminary hearings. Rearrests of pretrial detainees released under the cap are now at a rate of 37%. As a result, many criminal prosecutions cannot be completed.
7. Law enforcement officials confirm that the releases with respect to drug offenses hamper the development of drug prosecutions because potential witnesses assume that persons charged will not be incarcerated pending trial.
8. The state at present will review a prisoner’s status and make an aggregation determination only as to sentences under which the prisoner is designated for admission to a state facility by a judge.
9. State prisoners facing a subsequent Philadelphia commitment are treated by the state as being in state custody subject to detainer sentences, pursuant to which they are returned to the county prison after the conclusion of their state sentence.
10. The state has refused to admit prisoners with consecutive sentences noted on Philadelphia County prison commitment forms, even though the aggregated maximum term would exceed five years.
11. The state has also refused to admit prisoners where the state sentence is consecutive to a sentence listed on a Philadelphia County prison commitment form.
12. The DA claims that aggregation and acceptance of prisoners into state custody to the maximum extent would *87 cause the state to receive between 300 and 800 sentenced prisoners who are presently incarcerated in Philadelphia County prisons.
13. Both the state and Philadelphia are presently planning the construction of new prisons. The state proposes the construction of new prisons to provide 10,000 new beds.
14. As of November 30, 1991, the male prisoner capacity of all state facilities was 14,653, with a committed population of 21,662, so that the state institutions are presently at 147.8% of rated capacity with respect to male prisoners. State prison capacity computations assume single-prisonercelling, not double celling.
15.

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Bluebook (online)
615 A.2d 814, 150 Pa. Commw. 81, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 552, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abraham-v-department-of-corrections-pacommwct-1992.