Com. v. Darwish, A., 3647 EDA 2016

Defendant Ahmed Nabil Darwish was incarcerated on new criminal charges and sought release into the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Program (a 6½ month inpatient program) as a modification of bail.
Darwish filed a petition to modify bail and was accepted by the Program; admission materials and an intake letter show he applied for and was admitted to the Program in January 2016.
The trial court and the Commonwealth conditioned the bail modification on Darwish’s successful completion of the Program; the court warned that leaving the Program would violate bail conditions.
Darwish left (absconded from) the Program after roughly three months, failed to report his discharge, failed to appear for sentencing, was the subject of a bench warrant, and committed additional crimes while a fugitive.
The trial court ultimately credited Darwish with the time spent in the Program when calculating sentence credit; the dissenting judge argues that credit was improper and would reverse and remand for resentencing.

Issue	Commonwealth's Argument	Darwish's Argument	Held (dissent)
Whether time in an inpatient rehabilitation facility counts as credit toward incarceration	Such time should not automatically be credited when the commitment was voluntary and conditioned on bail; the Commonwealth opposed credit if completion was a bail condition	Darwish sought credit for time spent in the Program and asserted he was entitled to that credit	Dissent: credit was improper; Darwish voluntarily entered (via bail modification) and absconded, so the court abused its discretion in awarding that credit and should reverse and remand

Commonwealth v. Toland, 995 A.2d 1242 (Pa. Super. 2010) (no automatic entitlement to credit for voluntarily entered inpatient treatment; trial court has discretion)
Commonwealth v. Conahan, 589 A.2d 1107 (Pa. 1991) (upheld credit where defendant’s movement was restricted, commitment exceeded minimum sentence, and credit depended on completion of program)