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Martin v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole12/30/2003
l time spent in confinement must be credited to either the new sentence or the original sentence. We further hold that the indigency of a detainee in failing to satisfy the requirements for bail is not determinative as to whether the offender receives credit for time served.
Were Appellant here to serve the full term of his sentence, he would be imprisoned for one year, one month, and nineteen days in excess of that of an individual similarly situated who was able to post bail. Such a disparity can have no conceivable penological justification. There are two purposes for awarding pre-sentence credits: (1) eliminating the unequal treatment suffered by indigent defendants who, because of their inability to post bail, may serve a longer overall confinement for a given offense than their wealthier counterparts; and (2) equalizing the actual time served in custody by defendants convicted of the same offense. These purposes are not met when an indigent detainee is denied credit for serving time on both a Board detainer and new criminal charges solely because the detainee does not have the financial resources to satisfy bail requirements. To the extent that decisions in this Commonwealth have held to the contrary, they are disapproved.
The Order of the Commonwealth Court is reversed and the matter is remanded for recalculation of Appellant's maximum release date, with disposition consistent with this Opinion.
Mr. Chief Justice Cappy did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case.
Mr. Justice Nigro files a dissenting opinion.
DISSENTING OPINION MR. JUSTICE NIGRO
I must respectfully dissent as I believe that the Commonwealth Court properly affirmed the decision of the Board of Probation and Parole ("Board") not to credit Appellant James Martin's pre-trial confinement to his parole violation sentence, i.e., his "original sentence."
I would reaffirm the rule set forth by this Court over a decade ago in Gaito v. Pennsylvania Bd. of Probation and Parole, 412 A.2d 568, 571 (Pa. 1980). In that case, this Court held:
f a [parolee] is being held in custody solely because of a detainer lodged by the Board and has otherwise met the requirements for bail on the new criminal charges, the time which he spent in custody shall be credited against his original sentence. If a [parolee], however, remains incarcerated prior to trial because he has failed to satisfy bail requirements on the new criminal charges, then the time spent in custody shall be credited to his new sentence.
412 A.2d at 571. In my view, this rule is mandated by section 331.21a of the Parole Act, and as a result, may not be changed by the majority to permit a parolee's pre-trial confinement to be credited to his original sentence in circumstances where he did not post bail and the Board filed a detainer against him.
Section 331.21a(a) of the Parole Act provides:
Any parolee under the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania Board of Parole released from any penal institution of the Commonwealth who, during the period of parole or while delinquent on parole, commits any crime punishable by imprisonment, from which he is convicted or found guilty by a judge or jury or to which he pleads guilty or nolo contendere at any time thereafter in a court of record, may, at the discretion of the board, be recommitted as a parole violator. If his recommitment is so ordered, he shall be reentered to serve the remainder of the term which said parolee would have been compelled to serve had he not been paroled, and he shall be given no credit for the time at liberty on parole . . . . The period of time for which the parole viola
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