At the hearing, what must be established before an inmate may be convicted of failing to return after leaving a correctional facility with permission?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this exercise, the file to read is the director's written permission granting the inmate leave, which shows the ground for leaving and the time set for return, the departure record showing no correctional officer was assigned to custody, and the facility's log of the deadline passing without the inmate's return, because each of these bears on a condition the provision attaches to the offence.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the item as written: an inmate commits the offence where, after leaving the correctional facility outside the custody of a correctional officer with the director's permission for a home visit, outside commuting or another ground, the inmate, 'without justifiable cause', does not return by the time set, and the penalty is imprisonment for a period no longer than the maximum the provision sets.
Another reading stresses that the provision attaches to both items the single condition that the act was done 'without justifiable cause', so the hearing must reach that question on the facts before the offence can be found made out, and the provision leaves open what would count as such a cause.
Your judgment
If the inmate was detained in hospital after an accident, what in the record would show whether a justifiable cause existed for not returning in time?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to define a justifiable cause or to require the time set for return to be given in a particular form, or if a court decision explains what a court must find on that question.