Lawrence v. Pa. Bd. of Prob. & Parole
Lawrence v. Pa. Bd. of Prob. & Parole
Opinion
Mark Lawrence (Inmate) petitions, pro se , for review of a determination of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (Board) that denied his petition for administrative review of the Board's recalculation of his maximum sentence date. For the following reasons, we affirm the Board's decision as modified by its subsequent October 2015 determination recalculating Inmate's maximum sentence date as November 6, 2016.
In 2002, Inmate was sentenced to a total of four to eight years of incarceration for Manufacture, Sale, Delivery or Possession with the Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance and Carrying a Firearm Without a License. (Certified Record (C.R.) at 1, Sentence Status Summary.) The original maximum date for this sentence was March 29, 2008. ( Id .) On April 5, 2004, Inmate was released on parole. (C.R. at 10, Order to Release on Parole.) At the time of his release, Inmate had 3 years and 359 days remaining on his original sentence. On February 8, 2005, Inmate was arrested on state criminal charges of attempted theft and the Board lodged a detainer against him. (C.R. at 16-17, MC-51-CR-0202111-2005 Philadelphia County Municipal Court Criminal Docket; C.R. at 11, 2/8/05 Board Detainer.) On April 13, 2005, those criminal charges were withdrawn, and the Board released Inmate on May 12, 2005. (C.R. at 17, MC-51-CR-0202111-2005 Philadelphia County Municipal Court Criminal Docket; C.R. at 100, Department of Corrections (DOC) Moves Report.)
On December 7, 2005, Inmate was arrested on different state criminal charges, including illegal possession of firearms. (C.R. at 20-21, MC-51-CR-1205341-2005 Philadelphia County Municipal Court Criminal Docket.) On December 14, 2005, the Board lodged a detainer against Inmate, and, by decision mailed February 16, 2006, the Board recommitted him as a technical parole violator for failure to report his arrest within 72 hours. (C.R. at 14, 12/14/05 Board Detainer; C.R. at 46-47, 2/16/06 Notice of Board Decision.) On February 28, 2006, Inmate was indicted in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on federal firearms charges, and the state charges were thereafter withdrawn on March 21, 2006. (C.R. at 54-55, Federal Court Docket; C.R. at 22, 26, MC-51-CR-1205341-2005 Philadelphia County Municipal Court Criminal Docket.) On June 14, 2007, a federal jury found Inmate guilty of three counts of Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm. (C.R. at 28, Federal Court Judgment; C.R. at 64, Federal Court Docket.) On April 30, 2008, the federal court sentenced Inmate to serve terms of 98 months in federal prison on each count, "all to run concurrently to each other," with the recommendation that Inmate "receive credit for all time served while in federal custody on this matter." (C.R. at 28-29, Federal Court Judgment.)
On June 10, 2008, the Board held a parole revocation hearing based on Inmate's federal convictions. (C.R. at 87-97, Revocation Hearing Transcript.) By decision mailed July 16, 2008 and re-mailed to Inmate at the federal correctional institution where he was incarcerated on September 15, 2008, the Board recommitted Inmate as a convicted parole violator to serve backtime at the completion of, or parole from, his federal sentence. (C.R. at 99, 7/16/08 Notice of Board Decision.) Inmate did not file any appeal from that parole revocation decision.
Inmate completed serving his federal sentence on January 19, 2014, but remained in federal custody until October 10, 2014 as a result of a federal administrative error. (Supplemental Certified Record (Supp. C.R.) at 2a, Federal Bureau of Prisons Notification.) On October 11, 2014, Inmate was returned to a state correctional institution. (C.R. at 100, DOC Moves Report.) By decision mailed November 3, 2014, the Board recalculated Inmate's maximum sentence date to September 27, 2017, based on the conclusion that Inmate was entitled to credit for the periods from February 8 to May 12, 2005, December 14, 2005 to March 22, 2006, and April 7 to October 4, 2006, when he was either confined solely on the Board's detainer or received no credit against his federal sentence. (C.R. at 103, 11/3/14 Notice of Board Decision; C.R. at 101-102, 10/14/14 Order to Recommit.) Inmate filed a petition for administrative review challenging this recalculation decision. (C.R. at 109-114, Inmate's 11/12/14 Administrative Remedies Form.) By decision mailed February 5, 2015, the Board modified Inmate's maximum sentence date to July 28, 2017, based on its conclusion that Inmate was entitled to credit for an additional period of confinement from May 16 to July 15, 2007, for which he received no credit against his federal sentence. (C.R. at 106, 2/5/15 Notice of Board Decision; C.R. at 104-105, 1/28/15 Order to Recommit.) Based on this recalculation, the Board on February 9, 2015 dismissed Inmate's petition for administrative review of the 2014 recalculation decision as moot. (C.R. at 115, Board Dismissal Letter.)
On February 25, 2015, Inmate filed a petition for administrative review challenging the February 5, 2015 recalculation of his maximum sentence date. (C.R. at 116-127, Inmate's 2/25/15 Administrative Remedies Form.) On June 25, 2015, the Board affirmed the February 5, 2015 recalculation decision. (C.R. at 140-141, Board Decision.) 1 On July 8, 2015, Inmate filed the instant petition for review appealing the Board's June 25, 2015 decision to this Court. On October 15, 2015, while this appeal was pending, the Board issued a further recalculation reducing Inmate's maximum sentence date to November 6, 2016, based on the determination that Inmate was entitled to an additional backtime credit for the 265-day period in 2014 when he was erroneously held in federal custody after completion of his federal sentence. (Supp. C.R. at 6a, 10/15/15 Notice of Board Decision; Supp. C.R. at 3a-4a, 10/6/15 Order to Recommit.) Inmate has also filed a petition for administrative review of that recalculation decision (Supp. C.R. at 7a-29a, Inmate's 10/28/15 Administrative Remedies Form), but the Board has not acted on the petition for administrative review of the October 2015 recalculation as a result of this pending appeal.
In this appeal, 2 Inmate argues 1) that his parole revocation hearing was untimely; 2) that the Board lost jurisdiction over him when it transferred him to federal custody to serve his federal sentence in July 2008; and 3) that the Board's recalculation of his maximum sentence date is invalid because he is entitled to credit against his state sentence for all periods when he was held on federal charges or serving his federal sentence regardless of whether he received credit for those periods against his federal sentence.
As the Board correctly contends, Inmate waived any challenge to the timeliness of his parole revocation hearing. An administrative appeal from a recommitment as a parole violator must be filed within 30 days of the date that Board's decision was mailed to the inmate.
Here, the Board's decision recommitting Inmate as a convicted parole violator was mailed to him on September 15, 2008, and Inmate does not dispute that he received that decision at that time. Inmate filed no appeal from the Board's 2008 recommitment decision. Accordingly, Inmate's claim that his parole revocation hearing was untimely is waived and cannot be considered in this appeal.
Woodard
,
Inmate's other arguments have been properly raised, but fail on the merits. Contrary to Inmate's contentions, the transfers to federal custody did not deprive the Board of jurisdiction to recalculate his maximum sentence date and to require him to serve the remainder of his sentence. The Board does not lose its jurisdiction over an inmate when it transfers the inmate to federal custody.
Bellochio v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
, 126 Pa.Cmwlth. 419,
Inmate's argument that he is entitled to credit against his state sentence for the entire time that he was confined on federal charges or serving his federal sentence is based on two assertions, that his 2002 state sentence must be served prior to his federal sentence and that his federal sentence was to run concurrently with his 2002 state sentence. Neither of these premises is valid.
Under Section 6138(a)(5.1) of the Prisons and Parole Code, 61 Pa. C.S. § 6138(a)(5.1), a parolee sentenced to a new term of imprisonment by a federal court is to serve the remainder of his prior state sentence before serving his new federal sentence and periods when he was confined on both the Board's detainer and a federal detention are therefore to be credited against his state backtime.
Banks v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
,
Under Section 21.1(a) of the Act commonly known as the Parole Act
4
in effect in 2008 and the Prisons and Parole Code prior to the enactment of Section 6138(a)(5.1), an inmate convicted of a federal crime while on parole was required to serve his federal sentence before serving the remainder of his state sentence.
Smith
,
Inmate's assertion that the federal sentence was concurrent to his 2002 state sentence is unsupported by the record. The federal judgment imposed 98-month sentences for each of the three firearms offenses for which Inmate was convicted and provided only that those three 98-month sentences were concurrent to each other. (C.R. at 29, Federal Court Judgment.) The federal judgment states:
The defendant is hereby committed to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a total term of:
98 months on each of counts 2, 3 and 4, all to run concurrently to each other.
(
Id.
) Nothing in that language refers to any sentence of any other court or suggests that federal court ordered or intended that the 98-month sentences were to run concurrently with any sentence of any other court.
Compare
Griffin
,
When a parole violator is incarcerated on both a Board detainer and new criminal charges, all time spent in confinement must be credited to either the new sentence or the original sentence.
Martin v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole,
Accordingly, the order of the Board, as modified by its October 2015 determination, is affirmed.
ORDER
AND NOW , this 13th day of July, 2016, the June 25, 2015 order of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole in the above-captioned matter, as modified by the Notice of Board Decision mailed October 15, 2015, is AFFIRMED.
Inmate had originally included in his appeal a challenge to the denial of backtime credit for the period of his parole when he was in a community corrections facility (C.R. at 121, Inmate's 2/25/15 Administrative Remedies Form), which required a hearing before the Board could decide the administrative appeal, but Inmate withdrew that ground of appeal on May 22, 2015. (C.R. at 132, Notice of Partial Withdrawal.)
Our review of the Board's decision is limited to determining whether constitutional rights were violated, whether the adjudication was in accordance with law, and whether necessary findings were supported by substantial evidence.
Baasit v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
,
While
Marrow
and
Thomas v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
(Pa.Cmwlth., No. 279 C.D. 2015, filed March 7, 2016),
Act of Aug. 6, 1941, P.L. 861, added by the Act of August 24, 1951, P.L. 1401, as amended, formerly 61 P.S. § 331.21a(a). The Parole Act was superseded in 2009 by the Prisons and Parole Code, 61 Pa. C.S. §§ 101 -6309.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.