Credit for Voluntary Drug Addiction Treatment • Entitlement or Court’s Discretion • Treatment Facilities as Custody
Commonwealth v. Kutchera, PICS Case No. 16-1376 (C.P. Carbon Oct. 31, 2016) Nanovic, P.J. (memorandum) (20 pages).
A defendant who volunteered for multiple rounds of addiction therapy to turn his life around sought credit for the additional treatment time. The question before the court was whether a defendant was entitled to such credit or whether it was in the court’s jurisdiction, and the importance of choice without court encouragement and the nature/extent of any restrictions on a resident of a treatment facility. The court found the award of credit in the present case within its discretion, not automatic, and found the nature of the additional facilities insufficiently representative of custody to qualify for additional credit.
