| Date: | 01/10/2019 |
|---|---|
| Organization: | Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court |
Commonwealth v. Plasse
Supreme Judicial Court, January 10, 2019
(Sentencing/Drug Rehabilitation)
The Court declined to adopt the federal approach in Tapia v. United States, 564 U.S. 319 (2011), in which, “ the United States Supreme Court relied upon express language in the Federal Sentencing Reform Act that directs a Federal judge, when sentencing, to recognize that ‘imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation.’"
In this case, after a probation violation hearing, when setting the length of the defendant’s sentence, the judge did not abuse his discretion when he took into account the time requirements of a rehabilitative program that the defendant herself requested to enter.