Sanders v. Allen
| Decision Date | 21 November 1938 |
| Docket Number | No. 7232.,7232. |
| Citation | 100 F.2d 717,69 App. DC 307 |
| Parties | SANDERS v. ALLEN et al. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Dorsey K. Offutt and Reynolds Robertson, both of Washington, D. C., for appellant.
Elwood Seal, Corp. Counsel, D. C., Vernon E. West, Principal Asst. Corp. Counsel, D. C., Matthias Mahorner, Jr., Asst. Corp. Counsel, D. C., David A. Pine, U. S. Atty., and H. L. Underwood, Asst. U. S. Atty., all of Washington, D. C., for appellees.
Before GRONER, Chief Justice, and MILLER and VINSON, Associate Justices.
This is an appeal from an order denying appellant's application for a writ of habeas corpus. Sometime in July, 1938 appellant (petitioner) and a friend were arrested for being drunk on the street near a public restaurant. Petitioner was tried in the Police Court and fined $100, in default of which she was committed to the city jail until the fine should be paid or — in lieu thereof — for 60 days. After a few days detention, she was transferred to the District workhouse at Occoquan, some 20 miles distant from the City of Washington, where she was at the time of her application.
Her petition alleges that when arrested and tried she was not drunk but instead was suffering from the effects of a drug which had been administered to her without her knowledge, and that at neither time was she mentally able to understand the nature of the charge against her or to make her defense. She contends that on her trial she was entitled of right, under the provisions of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution, U.S.C.A. Const.Amends. 5, 6, to be represented by counsel, and that she was not informed of this right and did not waive it.
The District Court thought that, the confinement not being in the District of Columbia, there was lack of jurisdiction and the writ should not issue. We think, in the circumstances, that this conclusion was wrong. The question, in our view, depends rather upon whether the person against whom the writ is asked and who is responsible for the detention is within the jurisdiction. "The place of confinement is therefore not important to the relief, if the guilty party is within reach of process, so that by the power of the court he can be compelled to release his grasp". Cooley, J., in Re Jackson, 15 Mich. 417, at page 440. If we are correct in this respect, the question involves an examination of the local law to determine what official of the District had custody of the person of petitioner. The workhouse at Occoquan was authorized and constructed about 1910. The selection of a site in Virginia grew out of the fact that the available land in the District was insufficient and undesirable for the purpose. Ever since the workhouse was established, however, it has been, as it was intended to be, a part of the local jail system and has at all times been as completely under the control of the Commissioners of the District as the local jail. The statute (Tit. 6, D.C.Code 1929, § 403) vests in the Commissioners jurisdiction and control of all prisoners delivered to the workhouse from the time they are so delivered, including the time in transit, and until they are returned to the District of Columbia, as the law requires, to be discharged. Section 409 of the same title vests in the local Board of Public Welfare (appointees of the Commissioners) the management and control of the workhouse, and the asylum and jail. Upon recommendation of this Board, the Commissioners appoint the superintendent of the penal institutions. The present incumbent, one of respondents, is in turn responsible to the Board for the custody, discipline, and good conduct of the inmates of the workhouse. Hence it is clear that when a prisoner is committed to Occoquan on conviction of an offense against the laws or ordinances of the District, he is confined in an institution of and belonging to the District, under the administration of District officials, and is governed while there by the provisions of the District Code. Counsel for petitioner properly describe this situation as sui generis and as in no way analogous to sentence and confinement of a prisoner convicted of a violation of a...
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