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North Carolina's
Legislative Criminal Justice Policy Brief
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Session Ends - Budget Impacts
The most difficult North Carolina budget session since the Great Depression has now ended. The Session was marked by the very real possibility of total elimination of many important statewide services including essential community-based corrections programs that have been built over the past two decades. These programs are critical because they help insure that there is a treatment component for at least some categories of offenders who are supervised in the community.
Program eliminations would have taken place on a wholesale basis had a majority of legislators not responded to the need to raise the revenue. In addition, there would have been dramatic cuts in the number of teachers, services provided to the mentally ill and developmentally disabled and a host of other important statewide services. It is simply not true that the state could have provided all existing services without raising revenue. We applaud legislative leaders and the members who were willing to cast a vote for maintaining critical state services. It could have been much worse.
Make no mistake about it, deep cuts have been made in the 2009-2010 budgets and they are going to hurt. Some community-based programs will have to cut nearly one third of their budgets - a tough task indeed. Click on budget summary and final bills summary to see our full end of the session rundown. |
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It's Official!
The NC Racial Justice Act is LAW!
 It's Official! After years of hard work to reduce racial bias in North Carolina's criminal justice system, the NC Racial Justice Act was passed and officially signed into law by Governor Beverly Perdue on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009. North Carolina is the second state behind Kentucky to pass such an act.
This newly effective act will allow defendants accused of capital crimes and those currently on death row to use statistics to help prove to the courts that their cases were racially biased. Similar statistics are currently used to help prove discrimination in housing and employment legal disputes.
"I have always been a supporter of the death penalty, but I have always believed it must be carried out fairly," Governor Beverly Perdue said before signing the bill. "The Racial Justice Act ensures that when North Carolina hands down our state's harshest punishment to our most heinous criminals - the decision is based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice."
Perdue wants blinds justice in North Carolina's criminal justice system. "While our criminal justice system will continue to have the death penalty, racial disparities have no place whatsoever in North Carolina's criminal justice system," Perdue said.
Efforts to pass this historic legislation were led by Winston-Salem Democrats, Representative Larry Womble and Earline Parmon, Durham Senator Floyd McKissick, Jr., NC House Speaker Joe Hackney, NC House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman and the NC Legislative Black Caucus led by Representative Alma Adams. NC Senators Charlie Dannelly, Dan Blue, Doug Berger, Dan Clodfelter, Ellie Kinnaird and Martin Nesbitt joined by Representatives Bill Faison, Phil Haire, Angela Bryant, Deborah Ross, Earl Jones and Rick Glazier were also instrumental in passing the NC Racial Justice Act. Many advocates worked long and hard for the passage of this bill from the NC Coalition for a Moratorium on Executions, People of Faith against the Death Penalty, the ACLU, the NAACP and many other groups.
North Carolina NAACP President Dr. William J. Barber, II and Charmaine Fuller Cooper, Carolina Justice Policy Center Executive Director received two of the Gubernatorial Inkpens used to sign the historic legislation. |
Sentencing Reform Bills Pass
North Carolina Solutions are a Model
One of the major successes of the session is the final enactment of two bills that improve the sentencing grid by making the increments between points and prior record levels more consistent. These bills have been under discussion most of the decade, but were finally successful this year.
At the same time California is facing prison riots and mandates from a federal judge to reduce the prison population by 40,000 prisoners, North Carolina is making responsible and thoroughly discussed improvements in the sentencing law.
By the time they were adopted, these bills had the support of all major stakeholders including the District Attorneys' Conference, the Sheriffs' Association and the Department of Correction. They were also supported by the HK on J coalition, a coalition of over 80 community groups. Legislative leaders and members who sponsored and voted for these bills all deserve credit for their work to manage the system responsibly and safely. DAs and Judges may achieve the same sentence in 99% of the cases if they choose to do so. Passage of this legislation does not mean that North Carolina will not be building prisons in the future; they simply reduce the projected increase from 6,137 to approximately 5,000 by 2017.
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NC Bills Enacted in 2009
Most Bills Stalled Along the Way
Enacting a bill is an uphill climb. Most of the bills that were introduced did not win final support by the legislature. Click here for final bills summary to see 22 bills affecting criminal justice issues that were enacted. Studies will be covered in the next Legislative Update. Some legislation was incorporated into the budget and you can read that by clicking on the budget summary. |
Studies
Major Studies Are on the Way
This session generated numerous studies concerning community corrections programs, review of sentencing laws, and review of barriers to re-entering offenders. At this point, the primary vehicle for discussing these items is likely to be the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. $100,000 has been appropriated to this initiative and it has been endorsed by the Governor, the President Pro Tem, and the Speaker of the House. If additional studies take place, they are likely to be linked back to the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. Studies that are included in the Studies Act may be - but are not required to be - studied. Some of the bills that have been included are:
Comprehensive Community Corrections Reform - Sen. Rand and Rep. Wainwright sponsored a study that allows the Department of Correction, in consultation with the Sentencing Commission, the AOC, the conference of District Attorneys, the Office of Indigent Defense Services, the Department of Health and Human Services and the School of Government to study comprehensive reform of the state's approach to community corrections. The study may consider the "integration of evidenced based practices into all aspects of community corrections," data from other states, cost-effective ways to manage offenders, costs of identified programs, and ways to decrease offender recidivism rates.
Ex-Offender Reintegration into Society - The Legislative Research Commission may study issues "related to reintegration into society for people with criminal records. The specific areas of concern include "barriers facing ex-offenders in accessing jobs, housing, education, training and services." This study may be combined with the newly established Governor's Task Force that will also be looking at re-entry issues.
Sentencing and Prison Overcrowding - There are two bills included in the Legislative Research Commission bill that are designed to study Prison overcrowding, incarceration of nonviolent felons, the current availability, us and effectiveness of alternative punishments, and the feasibility of modifying sentences for nonviolent offenses. Legislators will be evaluating how these factors contribute to the increasing number of nonviolent offenders housed in state and local facilities.
Post-Conviction and Post-Release Bond - The Legislative Research Commission may study the "feasibility of reducing prison crowding "through a post-conviction and post-release bond program that would allow bail bondsmen to bond out prisoners who have completed the major portion of their active sentences."
Other important studies include:
The Youth Accountability Act - This bill would have raised the juvenile age to 18. It came to the General Assembly as a recommendation of the Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission and is an excellent measure. The bill is structured so that the age is raised in 6 months segments over a four year period. Although the bill was not passed, before the short session resumes in May, a study committee will be empowered to begin moving ahead to identify everything that needs to be in place at the time the age is raised.
Habitual Felons - The post-release supervision and parole commission will study issues related to habitual offenders. They will be identifying and evaluating habitual offenders whose offenses consist of Class I and Class H felonies.
Correctional and Probation Officer Education and Training Standards - The DOC and the Justice Department may study: issues that impede timely certification of officers; minimum education and training requirements; inconsistencies between rules and state laws; improvement of communication between the Criminal Justice Standards Divisions and the DOC and the feasibility of a separate training and standards division. This are extremely important items and may be more significant than hiring new officers. Lengthy training periods coupled with failure to hire excellent new criminal justice graduates have been major problems highlighted in the Eve Carson case.
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Troy Davis - US Supreme Court Orders New Look at Georgia Death Row Inmate's Case
"Substantial Risk of Putting an Innocent Man to Death"
By ADAM LIPTAK (NY Times - August 19, 2009)
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a federal trial court in Georgia to consider the case of Troy Davis, who is on death row in state prison there for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer. The case has attracted international attention, and 27 former prosecutors and judges had filed a brief supporting Mr. Davis.
Seven of the witnesses against Mr. Davis have recanted, and several people have implicated the prosecution's main witness as the actual killer of the officer, Mark MacPhail. Click for more
Photo: Troy Davis Rally in Savannah, GA - May 23, 2009
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Building Knowledge & Finding Help
COMING FALL 2009!
North Carolina's Criminal Justice Resource Directory for Practitioners, Offenders' and Their Families | |
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Upcoming Conferences & Events
Oct 15-18, 2009
Baltimore, MD
Nov 4 - 6, 2009
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Jan 14-17, 2009
Louisville, Kentucky
State & National Research Findings
Reallocate Prison Expenses to Stronger Community Programs & Community Supervision
CJPC Staff & Volunteers
Senior Director of
Policy & Special Projects
Michael Ballard
Intern
NC Central Dept of Political Science
Faith Everett
Policy Intern
NC Central School of Law
Nathaniel Boston
Volunteer Office Aide
Patricia McDonald
Volunteer Office Aide
CJPC
Board of Directors
Dr. George P. Wilson, Sr.
Chair
NC Central University Professor of Criminal Justice
Linda Weisel
Postconviction Attorney
Kate Dixon
Secretary/Treasurer
Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail - Executive Director
Dr. Peter H. Burian
Duke University
Classical Studies Professor
Dr. Jeffrey Elliot
NC Central University Political Science Dept Chair
Dr. Jarvis Hall
NC Central University
Civic Engagement Director
Edd Gulati-Partee
Self-Help Community Credit Union
Information Technology
Sheria Reid
Institute of Government
Policy Analyst
CJPC is a partner organization
of the following:
Blueprint NC
HK on J Progressive Coalition for Social Change
"A Movement Not a Moment"
North Carolina Center for Nonprofits
North Carolina
Coalition for a Moratorium on Executions
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Contact Us!
Mailing Address:
Post Office Box 309
Durham, NC 27702-0309
(919) 682-1149
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