COA: No credit for pretrial home detention

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court's decision not to award a man credit time for pretrial home detention, finding the man's rights weren't violated under the federal or Indiana constitutions.

Marques Lewis was arrested for criminal trespass and criminal gang activity and incarcerated. He later was released on his own recognizance to go on home detention. Lewis pleaded guilty to the charge of criminal trespass and pursuant to the plea agreement, his sentence couldn't be more than 730 days.

Lewis wanted credit for the actual days he served on home detention, claiming there was little difference between pre-trial home detainees and post-conviction home detainees. He based his argument on a response from Community Corrections regarding his inquiry about the difference between the two, which said the only differences between the two could be any additional conditions the court may order, such as additional testing. The trial court denied giving him credit for the 275 days he was on home detention.

In Marques Lewis v. State of Indiana, No. 49A05-0806-CR-319, the Court of Appeals examined the trial court's decision for an abuse of discretion because there isn't a statute mandating an award of credit time served while on pretrial home detention, wrote Judge Carr Darden.

The appellate court rejected Lewis' argument that treating people on pretrial home detention and post-sentence home detention differently violates the Equal Protection Clause. Lewis hadn't been convicted of a crime yet and when he was placed in home detention, he accepted the conditions he now asserts to be the same as those applying to post-sentence home detainees. Judge Darden noted Lewis would have earned more credit time had he remained in jail.

"Moreover, if Lewis had violated the conditions of his pretrial home detention, he would have risked being returned to jail to await trial while still presumed to be innocent; whereas, a post-sentence home detainee who violates conditions of home detention risks being sent to prison," he wrote.

Lewis' argument that the different treatment of people on pretrial home detention and post-sentence home detention violates Indiana's Equal Privileges and Immunities Clause also failed. Citing Senn v. State, 766 N.E.2d 1190 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002), the appellate court ruled home detention as a condition of pretrial release isn't "upon the same terms" as home detention as a condition of a sentence or probation.