Johnson v State, Minn.Ct.App., 8/27/2012. The state of Washington sent Mr. Johnson to the Prairie Correctional Facility, out in Appleton, Minnesota, to serve a prison sentence. We aren’t told what Mr. Johnson did to deserve getting banished from Washington to a prison surrounded by cornfields. Understandably, he was a bit crabby while there and got into it with another inmate, punched him. Mr. Johnson eventually settled the resulting criminal charge for a gross misdemeanor. The trial court ordered that he serve this sentence consecutively to the Washington state felony sentence.
This prison is a private facility that the state rents for the housing of inmates; the department of corrections doesn’t run the place. Mr. Johnson argued that he was entitled to a concurrent sentence. The statue in play here says:
If an inmate of a state correctional facility is convicted of violating section 609.221, 609.222, 609.223, 609.2231, or 609.224 [first-, second-, third-, fourth-, or fifth-degree assault], while confined in the facility, the sentence imposed for the assault shall be executed and run consecutively to any unexpired portion of the offender’s earlier sentence. The inmate is not entitled to credit against the sentence imposed for the assault for time served in confinement for the earlier sentence. The inmate shall serve the sentence for the assault in a state correctional facility even if the assault conviction was for a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor.
The court of appeals agrees with Mr. Johnson, but it may be a short lived victory. A “state correctional facility” does not include a facility not under the operational control of the department. Also, Mr. Johnson had not been committed to the custody of the commissioner; he was farmed out from Washington State. The catch, though, is that this misdemeanor is not subject to the Guidelines so the trial court retains discretion to impose a consecutive sentence.
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