In Re Black

124 Cal. Rptr. 2d 835, 101 Cal. App. 4th 1026
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 18, 2002
DocketA094946
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 124 Cal. Rptr. 2d 835 (In Re Black) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Black, 124 Cal. Rptr. 2d 835, 101 Cal. App. 4th 1026 (Cal. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

124 Cal.Rptr.2d 835 (2002)
101 Cal.App.4th 1026

In re Charles Alex BLACK on Habeas Corpus.

No. A094946.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division Five.

September 5, 2002.
Review Granted December 18, 2002.

*836 Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Paul D. Gifford, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Darrell Lepkowsky, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Timothy C. Foote, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Susan E. Myster, Deputy Attorney General, for Appellant.

Matthew Zwerling, L. Richard Braucher, Richmond, First District Appellate Project, for Respondent.

STEVENS, J.

Edward S. Alameida, Jr., as Director for the Department of Corrections, appeals from an order granting respondent's writ of habeas corpus and directing the Department of Corrections to recalculate respondent's worktime credits for his drug conviction. We consider whether the 15 percent limitation on worktime credits for violent felonies (Pen.Code, § 2933.1)[1] applies to a nonviolent felony conviction respondent suffered over two years after his conviction for a violent felony offense. We affirm the trial court's order.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 1996, respondent Charles Alex Black (Black) entered a plea of guilty in Alameda County Superior Court (case No. 126627) to a charge of assault with a firearm (§ 245, subd. (a)(2)) and admitted an enhancement allegation that he personally used a firearm in the commission of the offense (§ 12022.5). In September of 1996, Black received a five-year sentence to the Department of Corrections (Department), comprised of the low term of two years for assault with a firearm and a three-year consecutive term for the firearm use enhancement. Because Black was convicted of a violent felony under section 667.5, the worktime credits he received were limited to 15 percent of the five-year prison term. (§ 2933.1, subd. (a).)

*837 Several years later, and while serving this sentence, Black was charged in Solano County Superior Court (case No. C48244) with possession of an illegal substance (marijuana) by a prisoner. (§ 4573.6.) After pleading no contest to this offense in March 1999, Black was sentenced to a three-year prison term, to be served concurrently with the five-year term he was already serving for the Alameda County violent felony offense.

In setting Black's parole release date, the Department determined that the 15 percent credit limitation of section 2933.1, subdivision (a), applied not only to Black's 1996 violent felony conviction, but also to his 1999 conviction for the section 4573.6 drug offense (not a violent felony). This decision was based on the Department's understanding that section 2933.1 applied to the offender, rather than to the nature of the particular offense, under People v. Ramos (1996) 50 Cal.App.4th 810, 58 Cal. Rptr.2d 24 (Ramos). As a result of this calculation, Black's term of incarceration was extended by approximately one year.

In October 2000, Black challenged the Department's decision by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in Solano County Superior Court, claiming he was entitled to up to 50 percent credits under section 2933 on the concurrent three-year sentence, rather than 15 percent. The trial court issued the writ, ruling as follows: "There is no specific case law that instructs this court regarding the application of Penal Code section 2933.1 to a concurrent sentence for a nonviolent offense imposed subsequent to that for a violent offense. This court concludes that the calculations as Currently made by the California Department of Corrections are contrary to the spirit and mandates of section 2933.1." The Department was therefore ordered to recalculate the prisoner's worktime credits on the drug conviction at 50 percent.

The Department appealed this ruling.

II. DISCUSSION

Under section 2933, a prisoner may earn worktime credits while serving his prison sentence. Subdivision (a) of section 2933 reads: "It is the intent of the Legislature that persons convicted of a crime and sentenced to the state prison under Section 1170 [the Determinate Sentencing Act] serve the entire sentence imposed by the court, except for a reduction in the time served in the custody of the Director of Corrections for performance in work, training or education programs established by the Director of Corrections." (Italics added.) In general, for each six months spent in an approved worktime program, the prisoner receives a credit of up to six months, thus reducing the period of incarceration by as much as 50 percent.[2]

There is a limit, however, on the amount of post-sentence worktime credits (and pre-sentence good conduct credits under section 4019) that may be accrued by a prisoner convicted of a violent felony within the meaning of section 667.5. (§ 2933.1; see People v. Aguirre (1997) 56 Cal. App.4th 1135, 1139, 1140, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 77 (Aguirre).) Under section 2933.1, subdivision (a), "any person who is convicted" of a felony offense listed in section 667.5 can offset no more than 15 percent of his *838 sentence with worktime credits earned under section 2933. Under subdivision (c) of section 2933.1, a person convicted of such an offense can offset his sentence under section 4019 by no more than 15 percent of his actual period of pre-sentence confinement in a city or county jail or similar facility. (See generally People v. Buckhalter (2001) 26 Cal.4th 20, 30-32, 108 Cal. Rptr.2d 625, 25 P.3d 1103 (Buckhalter).)[3]

As mentioned, Black was convicted in 1996 of a felony offense listed in section 667.5. Section 667.5, subdivision (c), which enumerates "violent felonies," includes "any felony in which the defendant uses a firearm which use has been charged and proved as provided in Section 12022.5 ...." (§ 667.5, subd. (c)(8).) The 15 percent limitation of section 2933.1, subdivision (a), was properly applied in calculating credits with respect to this offense. The question presented is whether the 15 percent limitation should also be applied to Black's subsequent conviction in 1999 for possession of an illegal substance by a prisoner, which is not a section 667.5 offense. The Department maintains it should, because section 2933.1 has been held to apply "to the offender not to the offense." (Ramos, supra, 50 Cal.App.4th at p. 817, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d 24.) Black contends, and the trial court concluded, that the 15 percent limitation should not apply to a nonviolent felony conviction, where the offender's only violent felony conviction was entered in an earlier separate proceeding.

A. Judicial Construction of Section 2933.1

In Ramos, the defendant was convicted of a number of offenses including second degree robbery, which is a violent felony (see § 667.5, subd. (c)(9)), and possession of a controlled substance (Health & Saf. Code, § 11377, subd. (a)), which is not. He also admitted personally using a firearm in the commission of the robberies (§ 12022.5, subd. (a)). Ramos was sentenced to an aggregate term of 22 years in prison, which included a consecutive term of eight months for possession of a controlled substance. (Ramos, supra, 50 Cal. App.4th at pp.

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124 Cal. Rptr. 2d 835, 101 Cal. App. 4th 1026, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-black-calctapp-2002.