Gault v. Board of Directors of State Institutions for Juveniles

442 P.2d 844, 103 Ariz. 397, 1968 Ariz. LEXIS 278
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJune 26, 1968
Docket9305
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 442 P.2d 844 (Gault v. Board of Directors of State Institutions for Juveniles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gault v. Board of Directors of State Institutions for Juveniles, 442 P.2d 844, 103 Ariz. 397, 1968 Ariz. LEXIS 278 (Ark. 1968).

Opinions

LOCKWOOD, Justice.

Billie L. Gault, mother of James Robert Walmsley, hereafter called the juvenile, brought a petition for writ of habeas corpus requesting that the Board of Directors of the State Institutions for Juveniles or the Superintendent of the State Industrial School be ordered to return the juvenile to-the Arizona Youth Center for diagnosis or treatment or in the alternative that appropriate orders be made to give him the services provided by an order of the Juvenile Court dated April 29, 1968.

The facts appear to be as follows: On April 11, 1968 the juvenile was adjudged a delinquent child by the Juvenile Court in Maricopa County. He was placed on probation and directed to engage in a weekend work program at the Kiwanis Hall at the detention home as one of the terms of probation. Thereafter the juvenile was detained at the Maricopa County Detention Home on a charge of using dangerous drugs. On April 29, 1968 a hearing was held before a referee of the Juvenile Court. The referee found that the juvenile had been experimenting with drugs and found that the Arizona Youth Center was the only place where diagnostic procedures could be rendered in a controlled environment. He therefore recommended that the juvenile be committed to the Board of Directors of State Institutions for Juveniles (hereafter referred to as the Board) for placement at the Arizona Youth Center for diagnosis and for such treatment as might be necessary. This recommendation was presented to the Judge of the Juvenile Court and the Court confirmed the conclusions and recommendations of the referee by an order, which converted it to a judgment of the Court pursuant to § 8-230 A.R.S. (1956).

Thereafter the juvenile was transported to the Arizona Youth Center where he remained for two days, after which he was sent to the Industrial School at Fort Grant, presumably upon the authority of the Board.

We are of the opinion that under the order of commitment the Board had no authority to change the place of commitment. Some discussion of the authority of the [399]*399Board is found in Ridgway v. Superior Court, 74 Ariz. 117, 245 P.2d 268 (1952). In that case a writ of prohibition was issued to the Superior Court which had instituted a contempt proceeding against the Superintendent of the State Industrial School on a charge of cruel and unusual punishment of the juveniles committed to the Industrial School by the Juvenile Court. In prohibiting the Superior Court from maintaining the contempt proceedings, this Court held that the power to commit a juvenile was the only power conferred upon the judges, and that the administration of the laws for the detention, education and treatment of juvenile offenders is vested in the Board. This Court further pointed out that the Board and its Superintendent (the Superintendent of the Industrial School) were state officers of the Executive Branch and their allegiance as such officers was not to the Court but to the law.

The Court reviewed a former decision, Howard v. State, 28 Ariz. 433, 237 P. 203, 40 A.L.R. 1275 (1925) which held that a contempt proceeding against the Superintendent of the Prison for subjecting to cruel and unusual punishment a prisoner sentenced by the Superior Court was proper. Howard held that the order of commitment was that the Superintendent “receive and safely keep” the defendant for the time specified therein, and that any “cruel and unusual treatment” was a violation of the order, hence punishable as a contempt.

In the Ridgway case, this Court specifically overruled Howard on the ground that it usurped to the courts powers not intended or conferred. Ridgway further held, however, that a warden could be proceeded against by contempt for permitting a prisoner to roam at large or be released prior to the expiration of the sentence, on the basis that such conduct would be a violation of the explicit words of the mandate of the commitment (to receive and safely keep), though not to its connotations since connotations or implications from orders are not “of the stature of orders that no one can or should misinterpret and for whose violation the stern remedy of contempt will reach”. 74 Ariz. at 126, 245 P.2d at 274 (1952).

We do not disagree with the holding in Ridgway. Nevertheless in the instant case the order of the Court was that the juvenile be committed to the Board for placement in a specific institution, i. e., the Arizona Youth Center. Insofar as the intent to commit the juvenile to a specific institution is concerned, such an order was unequivocal and one which no one could misinterpret.

What then was the duty and the authority of the Board under the order of commitment? We have examined the statutes dealing with the authority of the Board and its predecessors for the control and governing of juvenile institutions since the inception of its predecessor, the Board of Control, in 1901, and nowhere do we find authority given to the Board to' determine to which institution a juvenile shall be committed except in the case of “girl juvenile offenders”. Section 8-310 A.R.S. (1956) gives the Board specific authority to make arrangements with private institutions in the state for the detention, education, employment and reformation of girl juvenile offenders, and to “assign the girl juvenile offender to an appropriate institution with which an arrangement has been entered into” as stated.

The powers and duties of the Board appear in Art. 1, Chap. 3, Title 8, A.R.S. (1956). In § 8-301 a “juvenile offender” is defined as “a person who has been committed according to law to an institution for the education and treatment of juvenile offenders”. Section 8-302 provides that “the government of state institutions for juvenile offenders and the administration of laws for the detention, education and treatment of juvenile offenders is vested in the board of directors of state institutions for juveniles”. Further, § 8-308 provides that “a [juvenile] shall not be received by the state industrial school or by an institution for girl juvenile offenders, except upon commitment by the juvenile court”.

[400]*400In Chap. 6, Laws of 1965, 3d Spec.Sess., the legislature authorized the Board to purchase land and to construct a juvenile institution of a specific type, now known as Arizona Youth Center. The legislature in § 1 of the Act stated its intent as follows:

“The legislature recognizes the urgency of establishing, and hereby declares its intent to establish at or near a population center in Arizona, a facility to provide programs for the reception, evaluation, diagnosis, day care, outpatient treatment, detention, correction, training and treatment, for the rehabilitation, post-release, parole and readjustment into society of male juveniles adjudged delinquent but who are not in need of the maximum care provided at other state institutions. To facilitate this intent, the legislature hereby provides for the immediate programming, planning and construction of such a facility.” (Emphasis added.)

The powers of the Juvenile Court for commitment of a juvenile offender are set out under the Juvenile Code § 8-231, as amended:

“A. The judge shall make such order for the commitment, custody and care of the child as the child’s welfare and the interests of the state require. He may commit the child:
“1.

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Bluebook (online)
442 P.2d 844, 103 Ariz. 397, 1968 Ariz. LEXIS 278, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gault-v-board-of-directors-of-state-institutions-for-juveniles-ariz-1968.