Torres v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole

In Torres v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 861 A.2d 394 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2004), an inmate was released on parole to a community corrections center/in-patient drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility where, for the first 45 days, he was allowed to leave only to attend drug and alcohol rehabilitation meetings where he was driven by staff. After the first 45 days, residents could leave unsupervised for work or recreation or other purposes but had to inform staff of their whereabouts and when they would return. The facility had no fence, no window bars, no restraining devices and no internally locked doors. The Court reversed the Board and gave credit to the parolee for the first 45 days of his stay, noting that "the mandatory escort during this initial period plainly was intended as a coercive security measure and not merely as transportation assistance." Id., 861 A.2d at 400. The Court explained: As the Supreme Court held in Cox, not a case involving escorts specific circumstances may constitute such restrictions on liberty as to require credit toward a sentence on recommitment. Although no formulation will apply to all potential individual circumstances, . .. ordinary restrictions such as those that attend many inpatient treatment programs are not so onerous as to require a credit. The court holds otherwise, however, when the restrictions upon a parolee become such that they destroy any sense of being 'at liberty on parole' and, consequently, meet the Cox standard. Recognizing that courts must continue to examine the factual circumstances of each case, the Court nevertheless holds that a parolee who has been forbidden generally to leave a particular inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility for a specified period for which credit is sought, who is under 24-hour supervision during the specified period and who is not permitted to make required trips outside of the facility without an escort cannot reasonably be described as being 'at liberty on parole.' Id., 861 A.2d at 400-401. The Board proposed that this Court adopt a "bright line" test for determining sentence credit cases. It proposed, relying on Meehan, that the status of the resident be determinative of credit. The Board argued that where time spent in a drug and alcohol treatment facility was not for the purpose of law enforcement, that should end the sentence credit inquiry. The Court rejected the Board's argument, noting, inter alia, that Cox established that in these cases there can be no per se rule. The Court went on to consider the evidence presented by Torres and concluded that he was entitled to credit for time spent at Conewago-Wernersville, a licensed drug and alcohol treatment facility similar to Keenan House, which had been the subject of Meehan. At Conewago-Wernersville, Torres was under 24-hour supervision and was not permitted to leave the building, except to attend weekly "meetings approved or ordered" and "under the supervision of Conewago staff." Torres, 861 A.2d at 400.