People v. MacKie

. HAHN, J.,

pro

tem.

To an information filed by the district attorney of Los Angeles County, wherein it was charged that the defendant and respondent “did wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously and intentionally escape from the lawful care, custody and control of the State Narcotic Hospital at Spadra, Los Angeles County, California, and . . . then and there being in the lawful care, custody and control of the said Hospital and the said Superintendent thereof, under and by Virtue of a valid commitment issued by the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of San Francisco, on or about October 16th, 1928, adjudging said defendant to be a drug addict, in accordance, with the provisions of that certain Act and Statute entitled and known as the ‘Narcotic Rehabilitation Act,’ Statutes of 1927, approved April 9th, 1927, . . . and more particularly Section 3 of .said Act,” the defendant and respondent filed a

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general demurrer alleging “that the facts stated do not constitute a public offense.” The trial court sustained the demurrer and dismissed the information. Prom this ruling the district attorney has appealed.

Section 107 of the Penal Code, under which the information was drawn, reads as follows: “Every prisoner charged with or convicted of a felony who is confined in any jail or prison or an inmate of any public training school or reformatory or county hospital, or who is engaged in any county road or other county work or who is in the lawful custody of any officer or person, who escapes or attempts to escape from such jail, prison, public training school, reformatory dr county hospital, or from the custody of any officer or person in whose lawful custody he is, is guilty of a felony and is punishable as provided in section one hundred eight of the Penal Code.”

The sole question here involved is whether or not a person committed to a state hospital for narcotic addicts who thereafter escapes or attempts to escape from such hospital, comes within the purview of the above-quoted section of the Penal Code. "While the section in question by reason of its extended wording and numerous phrases, more or less connected by disjunctives and modifying clauses, presents the opportunity for varying interpretations, a careful examination of the section, together with its history, would seem to leave no doubt but that its provisions were intended by the legislature to be limited to those who have been charged with a public offense and while in legal custody, either awaiting trial or after conviction, escape or attempt to escape from the prison or other place where the custodial restraint is being exercised. The language at the outset, “Every prisoner,” etc., would seem to limit the application of this section to those who are “prisoners.” The term “prisoner” is commonly used in law to designate a person in legal custody charged with some crime or public offense, And while it is true the section includes the words “county hospital” and “reformatory,” as well as “jail” and “prison,” these institutions are included because quite commonly persons charged with crimes are detained in the county hospital pending trial, or committed to some reformatory. In the case of