Lead Opinion
for the Court:
¶ 1. The motion for rehearing is granted. The original opinions are withdrawn, and these opinions are substituted therefor.
¶ 2. Frank Tipton was wrongfully convicted of extortion and was sentenced to one year in prison and two years of house arrest in Mississippi’s Intensive Supervision Program (ISP). After his conviction
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
¶ 3. Frank Tipton was convicted of extortion under Mississippi Code Section 97-11-33.
¶ 4. Following the ISP guidelines for house arrest, Tipton was required to establish a residence approved by his correctional officer, pay monthly fees, submit to inspection of his residence, and submit to testing for drugs and alcohol at the field officer’s discretion. See Miss.Code Ann. § 47-5-1013 (Rev. 2011). While under house arrest, Tipton was confined to his home unless attending work, school, community service, or given explicit permission by his correctional field officer. See Miss.Code Ann. § 47-5-1013(d) (Rev. 2011). Had Tipton failed to complete the ISP house arrest program to the satisfaction of his field officer, he would have been returned to an MDOC prison facility.
¶ 5. While serving his sentence, Tipton appealed his conviction. This Court reversed and vacated Tipton’s conviction, holding that he was not guilty of the crime for which he had been convicted. Tipton v. State,
ANALYSIS
¶6. The decision of a circuit court to grant or deny a summary judgment is reviewed, de novo. Poppenheimer v. Estate of Coyle,
¶ 7. We must determine whether a person wrongfully confined under house arrest in the ISP is “imprisoned” such that he or she may be compensated under Mississippi’s wrongful conviction compensation statutes. This is a question of law. This Court does not engage in statutory interpretation if a statute is plain and unambiguous. Miss. Methodist Hosp. & Rehab. Ctr., Inc. v. Mississippi Div. of Medicaid,
¶ 8. The question of whether a wrongfully convicted inmate who served time in the ISP is entitled to compensation is an issue of first impression for this Court. To be eligible for compensation, a claimant must have (1) been charged with a felony; (2) been sentenced; (3) served either the full or a partial amount of that sentence; (4) and been released on grounds not inconsistent with innocence. Miss. Code Ann. § 11-44-3 (Rev. 2012). To be awarded compensation, Tipton must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence: (1) that he was convicted of one or more felonies and sentenced to a period of imprisonment which he has served in full or in part; (2) and that his judgment of conviction was reversed or vacated. Miss.Code Ann. § 11-44-7 (Rev. 2012). Tipton clearly has satisfied all of the requirements of compensation with one possible exception: whether he was sentenced “to a period of imprisonment” while under house arrest. Accordingly, the success of his claim turns on the interpretation of what it means to be subjected to a period of imprisonment, and whether someone under house arrest can be said to have been imprisoned during that period.
¶ 9. The purpose of the compensation statutes is to compensate innocent persons who have been uniquely victimized because they were wrongly convicted of felonies
¶ 10. To receive compensation, Tipton was required to show that he was “sentenced to a term of imprisonment.” Since “imprisonment” can mean confinement, and is not specific to being placed in an actual prison, we must look beyond the plain language of the statute to determine whether house arrest should be deemed “imprisonment” for the purposes of compensation. While this is an issue of first impression, there is Mississippi case law interpreting the status of inmates in the ISP as it relates to the MDOC’s classification of those inmates.
¶ 11. Although the ISP is called an “alternative to incarceration,” inmates in that program are under the complete jurisdiction of the MDOC. Miss.Code Ann. § 47-5-1003(3) (Rev. 2011). The Mississippi Court of Appeals has found that an inmate “participating in the house arrest program or serving time as an inmate in the general prison population was confined as a prisoner under the jurisdiction of the Mississippi Department of Corrections in the normally understood sense of that term.” Lewis v. State,
¶ 12. There is some precedent to the opposite effect, however. Ironically, it-comes from this Court’s decision in Tip-ton’s criminal appeal. There, this Court stated that the ISP is an alternative to incarceration, and therefore it is not incarceration. Tipton,
¶ 13. The several Court of Appeals cases analyzing ISP inmates’ status relative to the MDOC more aptly conform to the case before us. The statutory scheme of the ISP as well as several Court of Appeals decisions indicate that the purpose of the ISP is to confine inmates who are under the complete jurisdiction of the ISP. The State consistently ’ has argued that prisoners in the ISP are, for all intents and purposes, prisoners with the same liberty interests as those in actual prisons. House arrest required Tipton to submit completely to the MDOC, giving the State access to his home and his body; and he- was required to forego several significant constitutional rights enjoyed by free Americans. Further, our judicial history regarding the treatment of false imprisonment claims makes it abundantly clear that an imprisonment may occur outside of the walls of a prison. We find that the confinement that inmates experience in the ISP constitutes “imprisonment” under Mississippi’s wrongful conviction compensation statutes. Inmates who have served time in the ISP are entitled to compensation for that time if they were wrongfully convicted.
CONCLUSION
¶ 14. We find that a person who serves time in Mississippi’s Intensive Supervision Program (ISP) is entitled to compensation
¶ 15. REVERSED AND RENDERED.
Notes
. Tipton v. State,
. "If any .... employee of any contractor providing incarceration services or any other officer, shall knowingly demand, take or collect, under color of his office, any money fee or reward whatever, not authorized by law, ... such officer, so offending, shall be guilty of extortion, and ... punished by fine not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or imprisonment for not more than five (5) years, or both, and shall be removed from office.” Miss.Code Ann. § 97-11-33 (Rev. 2014).
. In fact, the MDOC had the authority to remove Tipton from house arrest and place him back into a prison facility without holding any type of hearing whatsoever. See Brown v. Miss. Dep’t of Con.,
. Mississippi Code Sections 11-44-1 to 11-44-7 work together to create a compensation scheme for claimants who have been wrongfully imprisoned.
. Turner v. Hudson Salvage, Inc.,
. Alpha Gulf Coast, Inc. v. Jackson,
.Whitten v. Cox,
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
¶ 16. I would hold that Mississippi Code Sections 11-44-1 to -7 do not entitle Tipton to compensation for being placed in the Intensive Supervision Program, commonly known as house arrest. I am of the opinion that, as a matter of law, house arrest does not equate to incarceration, and incarceration is one necessary requirement for receiving compensation. Therefore, with respect, I dissent.
¶ 17. “It is not the function of the court to determine and announce what, in its judgment, [a] statute should provide, but to ascertain, if there be ambiguity in its terms, what it does provide.” Russell v. State,
¶ 18. “If the words of a statute are clear and unambiguous, the Court applies the plain meaning of the statute and refrains from using principles of statutory construction.” Lawson v. Honeywell Int’l, Inc.,
¶ 19. Mississippi Code Section 47-5-1003 defines the “intensive supervision program” as “an alternative to incarceration.” Miss.Code Ann. § 47-5-1003 (Supp.2014) (emphasis added). The Mississippi Legislature defined house arrest as “confinement of a person ... to his place of residence....” Miss.Code Ann. § 47-5-1001 (Supp.2014). Under house arrest, the Legislature has allowed for “approved absences from the home” which include but are not limited to absence for employment, seeking employment, medical treatment, schooling, community service related work, and for other compelling reasons. Miss. Code Ann. § 47-5-1005 (Supp.2014).
¶ 20. The majority relies on Lewis v. State,
¶ 21. We are not bound by decisions of the Court of Appeals, Stewart v. Stewart,
(3) To protect and to ensure the safety of the state’s citizens, any offender who violates an order or condition of the intensive supervision program may be arrested by the correctional field officer and placed in the actual custody of the Department of Corrections. Such offender is under the full and complete jurisdiction of the department and subject to removal from the program by the classification hearing officer.
Miss.Code Ann. § 47-5-1003 (emphasis added); see Lewis,
¶ 22. Even were we bound to follow it, the Lewis Court’s holding makes it clear that there are different “classes” of confinement. The court tells us Lewis was reclassified; in order to reclassify an offender, there must be different classes of confinement. Moreover, the court stated multiple times house arrest is a “form of confinement.” Thus, there are different forms, or in the alternative, different classes of confinement. It follows that house arrest is one form of confinement and incarceration is another form of confinement. Because the compensation statute by its terms applies only to the most restrictive of the forms of confinement, imprisonment, the Lewis Court’s exploration of the meaning of confinement for reclassification purposes, even if it were binding precedent, has no application to the case sub judice.
¶ 23. The Legislature states that removal from house arrest requires the offender to be “arrested by the correctional field officer and placed in the actual custody of the Department of Corrections.” Miss.Code Ann. § 47-5-1003 (Rev. 2011). Therefore, under the plain meaning of the statute, the offender becomes more confined when moved to prison, so much so, that the offender must be “arrested” and “placed in the actual custody” of the Department. In other words, the offender is “reclassified” to a more intensive “form of confinement” or a higher level of confinement. See Lewis,
¶ 24. Comparing the instant case to Lewis further highlights the distinguishing factors between the cases. Tipton compares house arrest with incarceration, arguing that house arrest is an alternative form of incarceration; essentially, he argues they are basically one and the same. Lewis provides little, if any, support for Tipton’s argument. Lewis stops short of defining house arrest as incarceration. Outside of echoing the Legislature that house arrest is a form of confinement, Lewis simply does not compare house arrest to incarceration, nor use the term incarceration to define house arrest, as doing so would be outside the issues presented. The court was asked to compare house arrest with parole, probation, or conditional release for purposes of Department of Corrections classifications, and the court concluded that house arrest was not parole, probation, or conditional release because Lewis was under Department jurisdiction.
¶ 25. Ironically, in his criminal appeal, Tipton — with success — utilized the above-described reasoning regarding the meaning of incarceration. Tipton v. State,
¶ 26. The Court has defined the doctrine of judicial estoppel, stating that it “precludes a party from asserting a position, benefitting from that position, and then, when it becomes more convenient or profitable, retreating from that position later in the litigation.” Clark v. Neese,
¶ 27. Given that the Court has stated judicial estoppel applies generally to a suit and given that the goal of judicial estoppel is “to protect .the judicial system and applies where intentional self-contradiction is being used as a means of obtaining unfair advantage,” I would hold that in the instant case, judicial estoppel applies. Clark,
¶ 28. Under close review of Lewis, the statutes at issue, and the doctrine of judicial estoppel, I would hold that Tipton is not entitled to relief under Sections 11-44-1 to -7, or alternatively, that Tipton is barred by judicial estoppel from making a self-contradicting argument that the Court accepted once to his great benefit.
RANDOLPH, P.J., LAMAR AND PIERCE, JJ., JOIN THIS OPINION.
. Because the question before us centers squarely on statutory law, I respectfully disagree that the common-law tort of false imprisonment provides any relevant guidance.
