WASHINGTON – Alejandra Tapia's tough life is now one for the lawbooks, as the Supreme Court on Thursday agreed with the one-time California resident that judges cannot lengthen prison sentences in order to get inmates into drug rehabilitation.

The unanimous decision Thursday resolves a sentencing conflict that has divided lower-level courts. It's also a remarkable victory for the 32-year-old Tapia, who fought long odds simply to be heard.

"She has been sexually and physically abused since she was a teenager … and she needs help," U.S. District Judge Barry Moskowitz noted during Tapia's original trial, the trial transcript shows.

Justice Elena Kagan dispensed with Tapia's personal story with only one sentence in the 15-page majority opinion. The high court's sole stated interest was in interpreting a statute.

In 2009, Tapia was convicted of crimes that included trying to smuggle illegal aliens through the San Ysidro border crossing.

The trial judge imposed a 51-month sentence. This was longer than it might have been, but the judge noted that it was long enough to make Tapia eligible for a drug treatment program at a federal prison in Dublin.

Tapia originally went along with the longer prison term, but then challenged it as violating a sentencing reform law.

A lower-level appellate court covering Western states, including California, Idaho and Washington, rejected Tapia's argument. An appellate court covering Pennsylvania and several other East Coast states, though, had accepted similar sentencing challenges raised by other prisoners.

In the Supreme Court decision issued Thursday, justices noted that the sentencing reform law passed by Congress declared that imprisonment can serve only the purposes of retribution, public protection and deterrence.

"What Congress said was that when sentencing an offender to prison, the court shall consider all the purposes of punishment except rehabilitation, because imprisonment is not an appropriate means of pursuing that goal," Kagan wrote.

Tapia is now incarcerated at Federal Medical Center Carswell in Texas, which specializes in medical and mental health services for female inmates. The sentence that currently calls for her to be released in November 2012 will now be re-evaluated.

A young teenage mother, Tapia was previously convicted of possessing 66 pounds of marijuana for sale. She and a friend were then caught Jan. 14, 2008, when a San Ysidro border guard smelled gasoline in their Jeep Cherokee. Officials subsequently found two illegal immigrants stuffed into the car's reworked gasoline compartment.

Indicted on two counts of smuggling, Tapia fled. Six months later, she was captured in a trailer, where authorities also seized methamphetamine and a sawed-off shotgun. Prosecutors added a third charge – bail jumping – and secured a conviction.

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