DARDEN, J.
On January 25, 2010, the State and Arthur filed with the trial court their signed “Negotiated Plea Agreement” in two cases – 28D01-0911-FD-570 (“#570”), and 28D01-0908-CM-399 (“#399”). The agreement provided that in #570, Arthur would plead guilty to a class D felony; and in #399, Arthur would plead guilty to a class D felony. The agreement further provided that in #570, the State would recommend that Arthur be sentenced to 1½ years, with 180 days suspended, “to be served on work release if eligible”; and that on #399, the State would recommend that Arthur be sentenced to 1½ years, also “to be served on work release if eligible.” (App. 41, 100).
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On February 26, 2010, the trial court “accept[ed] the plea of guilty and accept[ed] the terms of the Negotiated Plea Agreement” as to both #570 and #399, and it entered judgments of conviction thereon. Id. at 104, 45. On #570, the trial court imposed a 1½ year sentence, and ordered Arthur “committed to the Greene County Community Corrections Work Release Center for a term of one and one-half years.” Id. at 105. On #399, the trial court imposed a 1½ year sentence, suspended 90 days, and ordered him committed to the community work release center “for a term of 1 year,” to be served “upon completion of” the sentence imposed in #570. Id. at 47, 48.
On June 16, 2010, Arthur filed a petition for modification of his place of commitment. He asserted that as a union millwright, he was facing difficulty in job placement because the union’s dispatch system for jobs was incompatible with rules at the work release center, and that the rules also precluded his participation in work-related education programs. Arthur sought modification of his place of “commitment to serve the balance of his sentence on home detention.” Id. at 54. According to his petition, the deputy prosecuting attorney had advised that although he did “not join in” the request for change of placement he would “not oppose the Court’s exercising discretion to grant the request.” Id.
On July 1, 2010, the trial court held a hearing on the petition for modification. Greg Roudebush of the county community corrections program testified that he was Arthur’s case manager, and that there had been “no trouble” whatsoever with Arthur since his placement at the work release center on February 27, 2010, and Arthur had complied with all its rules. . . . .
On July 14, 2010, Roudebush filed a report advising that “Arthur is an acceptable candidate for the GPS home detention program.” (App. at 167). 5
On July 30, 2010, the trial court entered its orders for “modification of commitment from community corrections work release to community corrections home detention” in #570 and in #399. (App. 8, 115). Therein, the trial court ordered that Arthur “serve the remainder of this sentence” on GPS-monitored home detention, but that he “not receive [Credit Time] for his sentence served on home detention.” Id. The trial court reasoned that the new amendment of Indiana Code section 35-38-2.6-6 only allowed “[Credit Time] effective July 1, 2010 for persons receiving a direct placement”; however, but because Arthur’s sentence was “not a direct placement,” therefore, he was “not eligible to receive good time credit.” Id.
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Arthur argues that the trial court erred when it held that the change or amendment to Indiana Code section 35-38-2.6-6 did not apply when it ordered Arthur’s placement on home detention on July 30, 2010; and that if the statutory provision only applied to those persons sentenced for crimes carrying non-suspendable sentences, then its application violates the state and federal constitutions.
As to his first argument, we turn to the statutory provisions relating to community corrections programs, which include placement “on home detention as part of a community corrections program.” I.C. § 35-38-2.6-4.5. Before the new amendment, effective July 1, 2010, the term “credit time” provision for community corrections placements stated that “’home’ means the actual living area of the temporary or permanent residence of a person” but does “not include” a hospital, health care facility, hospice, group home, maternity home, residential treatment facility, boarding house or public correctional facility; and that “[a] person who is placed in a community corrections program under this chapter is entitled to earn credit time under IC 35-50-6 unless the person is placed in the person’s home.” I.C. § 35-38-2.6-6(a) (superseded by amendment effective July 1, 2010 pursuant to P.L. 105-2010 Sec. 14).
Focusing on the bold-print language above, our Supreme Court held in State v. Purcell, 721 N.E.2d 220, 223 (Ind. 1999), that “Ind. Code § 35-38-2.6-6 deprives the offender serving time on home detention of the ability to earn credit time under Ind. Code § 35-50-6,” which “sets forth the procedures for earning good time credit.” The bold-print language above was removed by the General Assembly, effective July 1, 2010. [Footnote omitted.] We find such to demonstrate a clear legislative intent that an offender serving time on home detention would not be deprived of the ability to earn credit time. Thus, we agree with Arthur that under the statute in effect at the time the trial court ordered his placement on home detention, he has the ability to earn credit time.
The trial court’s order appears to acknowledge that the current statute authorizes the earning of credit time during a placement on home detention – but only “for persons receiving a direct placement,” with such “direct placement” being the placement of “a person convicted of a felony whenever any part of the sentence may not be suspended under IC 35-50-2-2 or IC 35-50-2-2.1.” (App. 8, 77). As Arthur notes, this suggests that the trial court relied on the first section of the community corrections program chapter — stating that the chapter applies to a person sentenced for an offense whenever any part of the sentence therefor may not be suspended. I.C. § 35-50-2.6-1.
Arthur argues that to interpret the statute as providing that a placement on home detention whereby credit time may be earned is only possible for such offenders is “illogical,” an “absurd result[],” “inconsistent with the statutory framework for home detention,” and “unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Indiana Constitution.” Arthur’s Br. at 12. Accordingly, he contends that we should find “the only reasonable construction” of the statute to result in a finding that he is entitled to credit time. Id. at 24.
We decline to reach Arthur’s constitutional arguments, concluding that it would indeed be illogical to interpret the statute so as to allow the offender to earn credit time when placed on a home detention community corrections program only if it is a direct placement of an offender who has committed an offense for which no portion of the sentence may be suspended. When there is a county community corrections plan that includes home detention, the use of home detention fosters the criminal justice goal of rehabilitation, with the concomitant promotion of the offender’s potential future contributions to society. Moreover, home detention provides that various costs are borne by the offender, see I.C. § 35-38-3.6-4.5; and § I.C. 35-38-2.5-8 and -9, an additional consideration in these times of budget constraints. We find that a reasonable construction of the statute, as amended, and consistent with its purpose is that Arthur may earn credit time during his placement on home detention.
NAJAM, J., and BAILEY, J., concur.