Ex parte Gould

51 F. Supp. 354, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2379
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedJuly 29, 1943
DocketNo. 2430
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 51 F. Supp. 354 (Ex parte Gould) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex parte Gould, 51 F. Supp. 354, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2379 (D.D.C. 1943).

Opinion

MORRIS, Justice.

The petitioner, upon conviction in this Court for violation of Section 415, 18 U.S.C.A., was sentenced on May 13, 1938, to the penitentiary for a term of two to five years. He immediately began the service of said sentence. He did not 'serve any portion thereof at any institution other than a penal institution in and for the District of Columbia. After serving the full sentence, less allowance for good conduct while confined under said sentence, he was released from custody on January 17, 1942, subject to certain conditions, one of which was that he not depart the District of Columbia without the permission of the Board of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole of the District of Columbia. Petitioner did depart from said District without asking or receiving such permission. On February 24, 1943, he was arrested in the State of California on a warrant issued at the instance of said Board of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole of the District of Columbia (which will be hereafter referred to as the District Board) and subsequently brought to the District of Columbia. Whereupon, the District Board revoked the release and directed that the petitioner be confined for service of the remaining portion of his sentence. The petitioner in these proceedings challenges the authority of the District Board to impose conditions on his release, to su[355]*355pervise him during the period between such release and the expiration of his maximum sentence, or to revoke such release because of any violation of such conditions.

It is the contention of the petitioner that he is entitled to the good conduct deduction provided for by Section 710, 18 U.S.C.A.1 It is not contended by the petitioner that Section 24 — 405 of the District of Columbia Code 1940, or its antecedents, providing for deductions for good conduct of persons sentenced to and imprisbned in the jail or in the workhouse of the District of Columbia has any application to him. He does contend, however, that neither does Section 4 of the Act of Congress, approved June 29, 1932, § 716b, 18 U.S.C.A2 which modifies the character of the release for good conduct authorized by Section 710, supra, and treats such release “as if on parole” until the expiration of the maximum term stated in the sentence, have any application to him.

It is no longer open to question in this jurisdiction that a person convicted of a felony in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia and sentenced to serve a term in the penitentiary is entitled to the deduction authorized by Section 710, supra, and, if released on account thereof, that such release is conditional as provided in Section 716b, supra. Story v. Rives, 68 App.D.C. 325, 97 F.2d 182. In that case our Court of Appeals was dealing with the conditional release of Story who, having been sentenced in the District of Columbia and committed to the District of Columbia Reformatory at Lorton, Virginia, was subsequently transferred to the United States Northeastern Penitentiary, and thereafter to the United States Hospital for Defective Delinquents at Springfield, Missouri, from which institution he was so released after having served the maximum sentence imposed, less deduction allowed for good conduct. The United States Board of Parole caused him to be detained for a breach of the conditions of his release, and the Court determined that Story was properly treated “as if released on parole,” and that he could be retaken for violation of the conditions of release.

If petitioner looks to the general statute authorizing release on account of good conduct, he must look to that statute as it is amended. The contention of the petitioner that the amendment has no application to him is grounded upon the proposition that, by an Act of Congress, approved July 15, 1932, 47 Stat. 696, Sections 24 — 201 to 24 — 208, D.C.Code 1940, there was established in the District of Columbia the District Board for the penal institutions for said District, which Act undertook to legislate generally on the subject matter, and did not provide for any conditional release of prisoners entitled to release because of good conduct. The short answer to such [356]*356contention is that neither did such legislation provide for any release of a person so situated as the petitioner, but left to him such rights as he had under Section 710, supra, which, as has been already stated, was amended by Section 716b, supra, before the District Board was created. It is to be noted that Section 9 of the Act approved July 15, 1932, supra, provides that: “Upon the appointment of the members of said board, the powers of the existing parole board over prisoners confined in the penal institutions of the District of Columbia shall cease and determine and all the powers of said existing parole board under the authority of the Act of Congress approved June 25, 1910, entitled ‘An Act to parole United States prisoners, and for other purposes,’ as amended, over said prisoners confined in the penal institutions of the District of Columbia shall be transferred to and vested in said Board of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole * * The part of the section quoted, with some alterations by the codifiers, appears in Section 24 — 208, D.C.Code 1940. The members of the District Board were appointed August 30, 1932.3

It is obvious that the “existing parole board” mentioned in the statute referred to the board of parole created by Act of Congress approved May 13, 1930, 46 Stat. 272, Sec. 723a, 18 U.S.C.A., and generally referred to as the United States Board of Parole. It seems clear that such board of parole, at the time of the transfer of its authority and powers “over prisoners confined in the penal institutions of the District of Columbia” to the District Board, had the power to impose conditions on the release of prisoners entitled to such release under Sections 710 and 716b, supra, and that such board also had the power to supervise such persons so released and to cause any such person violating the conditions of his release to be retaken. There is nothing in the Act or its legislative history to indicate that it was the intention of Congress that the United States Board of Parole should retain any authority, whether derived from the statutes authorizing release on parole or conditional release “as if on parole,” with respect to prisoners confined in the penal institutions of the District of Columbia. That the United States Board of Parole, and not the District Board, should have jurisdiction over prisoners convicted in the District of Columbia and transferred to some federal institution other than the penal institutions of the District is made abundantly clear by Act of Congress approved June 5, 1934, 48 Stat. 880, Section 24 — 209, D.C.Code 1940.4 Indeed Story v. Rives, supra, points out that this is so independent of the Act of June 5, 1934, supra.

It is insisted, however, by the petitioner that certain language in Story v. Rives also indicates that the District Board did not acquire from the United States Board of Parole any power to impose conditions upon the release of prisoners confined in the penal institutions of the District of Columbia when such prisoners were released because of the good conduct deductions authorized by Sections 710 and 716b, supra. I believe that the critical proposition for which Story v. Rives stands is that neither the Act of July 15, 1932, creating the Dis[357]

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Related

Johnson v. Ward
171 F. Supp. 26 (District of Columbia, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
51 F. Supp. 354, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-gould-dcd-1943.