Tapia v. United States, 10–5400.

• Decision Date: 16 June 2011
• Docket Number: No. 10–5400.,10–5400.
• Citation: 131 S.Ct. 2382,180 L.Ed.2d 357,564 U.S. 319
• Parties: Alejandra TAPIA, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

564 U.S. 319

131 S.Ct. 2382

180 L.Ed.2d 357

Alejandra TAPIA, Petitioner,

v.UNITED STATES.

No. 10–5400.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued April 18, 2011.

Decided June 16, 2011.

Reuben C. Cahn, San Diego, CA, for Petitioner.

Matthew D. Roberts, for Respondent supporting vacatur.

Stephanos Bibas, for amicus curiae, appointed by this Court.

Reuben Camper Cahn, Shereen J. Charlick, Steven F. Hubachek, James Fife, San Diego, California, for Petitioner.

Neal Kumar Katyal, Acting Solicitor General, Washington, D.C., for United States.

Neal Kumar Katyal, Acting Solicitor General, Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General, Michael R. Dreeben, Deputy Solicitor General, Matthew D. Roberts, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Sangita K. Rao, Washington, D.C., for United States.

Justice KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court.

We consider here whether the Sentencing Reform Act precludes federal courts from imposing or lengthening a prison term in order to promote a criminal defendant's rehabilitation. We hold that it does.

I

Petitioner Alejandra Tapia was convicted of, inter alia, smuggling unauthorized aliens into the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1324(a)(2)(B)(ii) and (iii). At sentencing, the District Court determined that the United States Sentencing Guidelines recommended a prison term of between 41 and 51 months for Tapia's offenses. The court decided to impose a 51–month term, followed by three years of supervised release. In explaining its reasons, the court referred several times to Tapia's need for drug treatment, citing in particular the Bureau of Prison's Residential Drug Abuse Program (known as RDAP or the 500 Hour Drug Program). The court indicated that Tapia should serve a prison term long enough to qualify for and complete that program:

"The sentence has to be sufficient to provide needed correctional treatment, and here I think the needed correctional treatment is the 500 Hour Drug Program.

.....

"Here I have to say that one of the factors that—I am going to impose a 51–month sentence, ... and one of the factors that affects this is the need to provide treatment. In other words, so she is in long enough to get the 500 Hour Drug Program, number one." App. 27.

("Number two" was "to deter her from committing other criminal offenses." Ibid. ) The court "strongly recommend[ed]" to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that Tapia "participate in [RDAP] and that she serve her sentence at" the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California (FCI Dublin), where "they have the appropriate tools ... to help her, to start to make a recovery." Id., at 29. Tapia did not object to the sentence at that time. Id., at 31.

On appeal, however, Tapia argued that the District Court had erred in lengthening her prison term to make her eligible for RDAP.App. to Pet. for Cert. 2. In Tapia's view, this action violated 18 U.S.C. § 3582(a), which instructs sentencing courts to "recogniz[e] that imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation." The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed, 376 Fed.Appx. 707 (2010), relying on its prior decision in United States v. Duran, 37 F.3d 557 (1994). The Ninth Circuit had held there that § 3582(a) distinguishes between deciding to impose a term of imprisonment and determining its length. See id., at 561. According to Duran, a sentencing court cannot impose a prison term to assist a defendant's rehabilitation. But "[o]nce imprisonment is chosen as a punishment," the court may consider the defendant's need for rehabilitation in setting the length of the sentence. Ibid.

We granted certiorari to consider whether § 3582(a) permits a sentencing court to impose or lengthen a prison term in order to foster a defendant's rehabilitation. 562 U.S. ––––, 131 S.Ct. 817, 178 L.Ed.2d 551 (2010). That question has divided the Courts of Appeals.¹ Because the United States agrees with Tapia's interpretation of the statute, we appointed an amicus curiae to defend the judgment below.² We now reverse.

II

We begin with statutory background—how the relevant sentencing provisions came about and what they say. Aficionados of our sentencing decisions will recognize much of the story line.

"For almost a century, the Federal Government employed in criminal cases a system of indeterminate sentencing." Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361, 363, 109 S.Ct. 647, 102 L.Ed.2d 714 (1989). Within "customarily wide" outer boundaries set by Congress, trial judges exercised "almost unfettered discretion" to select prison sentences for federal offenders. Id., at 364, 109 S.Ct. 647. In the usual case, a judge also could reject prison time altogether, by imposing a "suspended" sentence. If the judge decided to impose a prison term, discretionary authority shifted to parole officials: Once the defendant had spent a third of his term behind bars, they could order his release. See K. Stith & J. Cabranes, Fear of Judging: Sentencing Guidelines in the Federal Courts 18–20 (1998).

This system was premised on a faith in rehabilitation. Discretion allowed "the judge and the parole officer to [base] their respective sentencing and release decisions upon their own assessments of the offender's amenability to rehabilitation." Mistretta, 488 U.S., at 363, 109 S.Ct. 647. A convict, the theory went, should generally remain in prison only until he was able to reenter society safely. His release therefore often coincided with "the successful completion of certain vocational, educational, and counseling programs within the prisons." S.Rep. No. 98–225, p. 40 (1983) (hereinafter S. Rep.). At that point, parole officials could "determin [e] that [the] prisoner had become rehabilitated and should be released from confinement." Stith & Cabranes, supra, at 18.³

But this model of indeterminate sentencing eventually fell into disfavor. One concern was that it produced "[s]erious disparities in [the] sentences" imposed on similarly situated defendants. Mistretta, 488 U.S., at 365, 109 S.Ct. 647. Another was that the system's attempt to "achieve rehabilitation of offenders had failed." Id., at 366, 109 S.Ct. 647. Lawmakers and others increasingly doubted that prison programs could "rehabilitate individuals on a routine basis"—or that parole officers could "determine accurately whether or when a particular prisoner ha[d] been rehabilitated." S. Rep., at 40.

Congress accordingly enacted the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, 98 Stat. 1987 (SRA or Act), to overhaul federal sentencing practices. The Act abandoned indeterminate sentencing and parole in favor of a system in which Sentencing Guidelines, promulgated by a new Sentencing Commission, would provide courts with "a range of determinate sentences for categories of offenses and defendants." Mistretta, 488 U.S., at 368, 109 S.Ct. 647. And the Act further channeled judges' discretion by establishing a framework to govern their consideration and imposition of sentences.

Under the SRA, a judge sentencing a federal offender must impose at least one of the following sanctions: imprisonment (often followed by supervised release), probation, or a fine. See § 3551(b). In determining the appropriate sentence from among these options, § 3553(a)(2) requires the judge to consider specified factors, including:

"the need for the sentence imposed—

"(A) to reflect the seriousness of the offense, to promote respect for the law, and to provide just punishment for the offense;

"(B) to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct;

"(C) to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant; and

"(D) to provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner."

These four considerations—retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation—are the four purposes of sentencing generally, and a court must fashion a sentence "to achieve the[se] purposes ... to the extent that they are applicable" in a given case. § 3551(a).

The SRA then provides additional guidance about how the considerations listed in § 3553(a)(2) pertain to each of the Act's main sentencing options—imprisonment, supervised release, probation, and fines. See § 3582(a) ; § 3583; § 3562(a); § 3572(a). These provisions make clear that a particular purpose may apply differently, or even not at all, depending on the kind of sentence under consideration. For example, a court may not take account of retribution (the first purpose listed in § 3553(a)(2)) when imposing a term of supervised release. See § 3583(c).

Section 3582(a), the provision at issue here, specifies the "factors to be considered" when a court orders imprisonment. That section provides:

"The court, in determining whether to impose a term of imprisonment, and, if a term of imprisonment is to be imposed, in determining the length of the term, shall consider the factors set forth in section 3553(a) to the extent that they are applicable, recognizing that imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation."

A similar provision addresses the Sentencing Commission in its capacity as author of the Sentencing Guidelines. The SRA instructs the Commission to:

"insure that the guidelines reflect the inappropriateness of imposing a sentence to a term of imprisonment for the purpose of rehabilitating the defendant or providing the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment." 28 U.S.C. § 994(k).

With this statutory background established, we turn to the matter of interpretation.

III

A

Our consideration of Tapia's claim starts with the text of 18 U.S.C. § 3582(a) —and given the clarity of that provision's language, could end there as well. As just noted, that section instructs courts to "recogniz[e] that imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation." A common—and in context the most natural—definition of the word "recognize" is "to acknowledge or treat...