People v. Walling

Opinion

PUGLIA, P. J.

Defendant pleaded guilty in superior court to a charge of escape from a county jail facility without force or violence (Pen. Code, § 4532, subd. (a)). On August 10, 1979, he was committed to the California Youth Authority (CYA) pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 1731.5. The commitment purported to be “for a period of four months.. . consecutive with” a preexisting commitment. On August 21, 1979, the court “set aside” its commitment of August 10 and again committed defendant to the CYA for “the term prescribed by law.” The written order of commitment, however, recites that the commitment is for “a period of one (1) year and One (1) day consecutive with” the preexisting commitment.

Defendant appeals, contending that the superior court was without jurisdiction to “resentence” him once the four-month “sentence” had been entered in the minutes and executed. We reject the contention. We shall order the written commitment modified to eliminate reference to

[896]

any specific “term” as set by the trial court and, as so modified, we shall affirm the judgment.

A sentence not authorized by law may be corrected whenever the error comes to the attention of the trial court or a reviewing court.

(People

v.

Serrato

(1973) 9 Cal.3d 753, 763 [109 Cal.Rptr. 65, 512 P.2d 289].) Defendant makes the argument that the original four-month “sentence” to CYA is authorized because an alternative punishment to incarceration in state prison prescribed by Penal Code section 4532, subdivision (a), is imprisonment in the county jail “not exceeding one year.”

The only limitation on the duration of Youth Authority confinement in the present circumstances is the “maximum period of imprisonment which

could

be imposed upon an adult” convicted of the same offense. (Italics added; Welf. & Inst. Code, § 1766, subd. (b); see