Parham v. Warden, Bridgeport Community Correctional Center
Parham v. Warden, Bridgeport Community Correctional Center
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus claiming illegal confinement on the ground that he had been denied due process when returned to confinement for violation of parole. The trial court granted the petition and ordered the plaintiff discharged from custody as a parole violator. Upon the granting of certification the defendant appealed, assigning error in the court’s finding of facts, in the conclusions reached and in the overruling of the defendant’s claims of law.
The finding, which is not subject to any material corrections,
The trial court concluded that the parole officer and other law enforcement agencies failed to take reasonable steps to execute the warrant for violation of parole or give the parolee notice of its issuance and that the plaintiff could have been apprehended by the parole or other law enforcement officer, acting with reasonable diligence. The finding contains no conclusion relating to due process or other constitutional limitation. We therefore refer to the memorandum of decision in order to learn the basis for the court’s decision. Waterbury v. Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities, 160 Conn. 226, 228, 278 A.2d 771. The memorandum of decision recites that “[t]his unreasonable delay in giving notice and in executing the warrant, in the light of the dead-time penalty, violates the fundamental fairness required by the procedural due process clause of the Constitution of the United States.”
“The essence of parole is release from prison, before completion of sentence, on the condition that the prisoner abide by certain rules during the balance of the sentence.” Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 477, 92 S. Ct. 2593, 33 L. Ed. 2d 484; see Taylor v. Robinson, 171 Conn. 691, 697 n.2, 372 A.2d 102. By statute, any inmate confined in the correctional institution at Somers, after serving not less than the minimum term of his sentence, may, in the discretion of the parole hoard, be paroled if it appears reasonably probable that the inmate will live and remain at liberty without violating the law and such release is not incompatible with the welfare of society. General Statutes § 54-125. The statutes also provide that each order of parole shall fix the limits of the parolee’s residence, and in any particular case, the hoard of parole may establish special provisions for the parole of a convict. General Statutes §§ 54-125, 54-126. The statutes further provide that any returned parolee who has violated his parole may he retained in the institution from which he was paroled “for a period equal to the unexpired portion of the term of his sentence at the date of the request or order for his return.” (Emphasis supplied.) General Statutes § 52-128.
After an examination of all the subordinate facts in the finding, we are of the opinion that, they do not logically support the ultimate conclusions of the trial court and they do not establish that the plaintiff was denied due process. The plaintiff disregarded the principal rules of his parole agreement, thereby defeating the essence of parole. See Morrissey v. Brewer, supra. One of the basic conditions of the parole agreement was that the plaintiff was to remain in the in-patient narcotics treat
The implications of violation of parole are clearly defined in § 54-128 of the General Statutes. As provided in this statute, they include the possibility that the parole violator, upon return to custody, may be subject to the requirement that he serve a period equal to the “unexpired” portion of the term of his sentence at the date of the request or order for his return. The issuance of the arrest warrant stopped the running of the plaintiff’s sentence, and the ensuing period until his return to custody became “dead time.” Ibid. The plaintiff does not challenge the validity or constitutionality of § 54-128. The plaintiff is presumed to have known the provisions of this law. Such a fundamental rule is based on public policy and the principle that the acts of a person must be considered as having been
When one is charged with a crime, we have held that a delay in making an arrest does not of itself result in a denial of due process of law. To establish that a delay has produced a denial of due process, the person arrested must show that actual significant prejudice to him has resulted. State v. Echols, 170 Conn. 11, 17, 364 A.2d 225; State v. Lockman, supra; State v. L’Heureux, 166 Conn. 312, 321-22, 348 A.2d 578; see United States v. Marion, 404 U.S.
There is error, the judgment is set aside and the case is remanded with direction to render judgment remanding the petitioner to the custody of the defendant warden.
In this opinion House, C. J., Loiselle and Longo, Js., concurred.
Some of the general facts in the court’s finding appear to be overly broad, but they are elsewhere modified by more specific findings and therefore it cannot be said that the broader findings of fact are in language of doubtful meaning so that their real significance does not clearly appear. It does not appear that the facts which the defendant seeks to have added to the finding are either admitted or undisputed. Practice Book § 628.
“[General Statutes] See. 54-128. violation of pakole. (a) Any paroled convict or inmate who has been returned to the custody of the commissioner of correction or any institution of the department of correction for violation of his parole may be retained in the institution from which he was paroled for a period equal to the
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). On the facts of this case and the law applicable thereto, the trial court properly ordered the discharge of the plaintiff.
The sentence of a parolee continues to run until such time as a request for his return to custody is issued by an appropriate authority. Upon return to custody for a violation of parole, an inmate may be retained in custody for a period equal to the unexpired portion of the term of his sentence as measured from the date of the request for rearrest.
In this case, the parole violation warrant was issued on December 21, 1971. It was not, however, until October 25, 1974, that the warrant was served upon the plaintiff. The plaintiff claims that the failure of the state to execute the warrant within a reasonable time after its issuance violated his constitutional rights guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States.
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the liberty of a parolee “is valuable and must be seen as within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. Its termination calls for some orderly process, however informal.” Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471,482, 92 S. Ct. 2593, 33 L. Ed. 2d 484. The underlying rationale of that decision was that fundamental fairness is required before the liberty of a parolee may be taken away. Id., pp. 483-84. In Moody v. Daggett, 429 U.S. 78, 86, 97 S. Ct. 274, 50 L. Ed. 2d 236, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the Morrissey decision as holding “that the conditional freedom of a parolee generated by statute is a liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which may not be terminated absent appropriate due process safeguards.”
That fundamental fairness doctrine requires that the warrant for a parolee’s arrest be executed within a reasonable time after its issuance. Some
The warrant for the arrest must be executed within a reasonable time. “We think the issuance of a violator warrant triggers a process which, as a matter of fundamental fairness, must be pursued with reasonable diligence and with reasonable dispatch.” Boswell v. United States Board of Parole, supra, 574.
To determine whether execution of the warrant was accomplished within a reasonable time, each case must be decided on its own merits. The relevant considerations are: (1) the time lapse between the issuance of the warrant and its execution; (2) the efforts of the state to serve the warrant; and (3) the conduct of the plaintiff in frustrating service of the warrant. United States ex rel. Vance v. Kenton, supra; United States v. Gernie, supra, 338.
The relevant findings of fact concerning the state’s effort to execute the warrant are: A parole violation warrant was issued on December 21, 1971. Because the plaintiff indicated he was staying in the Stamford area, the parole officer mailed the warrant to the Bridgeport police with instructions to alert the Stamford police department. During the entire period from December, 1971, to October, 1974, the division of parole, in accordance with its well-established policy in such cases, made no attempt to notify the plaintiff that a parole violation warrant had been issued for his arrest.
From these and other facts found the trial court concluded (1) that the plaintiff did nothing to frustrate the service of the warrant on him or the giving to him of timely notice; (2) that the parole and law enforcement agencies failed to take reasonable steps to execute the warrant or give the plaintiff notice of it; and (3) that the plaintiff’s maximum sentence would have expired on May 1, 1974, if he had not been admitted to parole.
On those facts, the trial court concluded that the delay in the execution of the warrant was unreasonable. That delay, in light of the dead-time penalty, made the warrant stale and ineffective.
As this case involves the intrusion into the constitutional rights of the accused, the plaintiff “is not required to show that the constitutional error was harmful; rather, the state must show that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S. Ct. 824, 17 L. Ed. 2d 705”; Aillon v. State, 168 Conn. 541, 548, 363 A.2d 49. There was no evidence presented by the state that the deprivation of the plaintiff’s constitutional rights was harmless.
I would, therefore, find no error in the trial court’s rulings.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Isaac Parham v. Warden, Bridgeport Community Correctional Center
- Cited By
- 30 cases
- Status
- Published