Should failure to return to a halfway house qualify as a “violent felony”?

I have not discussed much lately the Kafkaesque reality that, as discussed before here and here, many seemingly non-violent state offenses can qualify as crimes of violence triggering severe federal sentence enhancements.  But the issue merits another spotlight today following a strong concurring opinion from Judge Hill of the Eleventh Circuit in US v. Taylor, No. 05-15088 (11th Cir. June 13, 2007) (available here).

In Taylor, the panel affirms an enhancement under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) based upon an escape conviction for “failure to return” to a halfway house counting as a “violent felony.”  Judge Hill, feeling bound by circuit precedent, concurs separately (along with Judge Wilson) in order to “a tiny, but growing, choruses of doubt that a district court is permitted to enhance a sentence under the ACCA based in part upon a ‘failure to return’ prior escape conviction.”  Anyone working on these intricate criminal history issues (or perhaps seeking a cert-worthy issue to pursue) ought to check out Taylor.