The Justice Reinvestment Project, a national project brought to North Carolina by the Governor and the legislature, gave its first review of North Carolina data on June 7, 2010. The presentation was made to Justice Reinvestment task force members and the meeting was open to the public.
The task force is a bi-partisan group that is expected to make evidence-based recommendations based on the data presented by Justice Reinvestment. Rep. Alice Bordsen serves as the House Chair and Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and Sen. Joe Sam Queen are the Senate Co-chairs.
Some of the highlights of the presentation were:
BIG PICTURE TRENDS SINCE 2000
*the general resident population has grown 14%, yet....
*crime rates are down and arrests haven't increased;
*the prison population has still increased by 25%.
ARREST DATA
*Violent and property crime rates have declined by more than 5% since 2000.
*In 2008, NC had fewer arrests than in 2000 even after growing by over one million people.
50% OF PRISON ADMISSIONS ARE THE RESULT OF REVOCATIONS RATHER THAN NEW OFFENSES
*Revocation rates have increased statewide.
*Revocations for low risk offenders have increased by 12 percentage points since 2005, the most of any risk group.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF PROBATION ARE NOT GUIDED BY RISK-BASED SUPERVISION STRATEGIES
*Probation resources are not deployed to match the risk of the population. Some offenders receive too much supervision and others, too little.
*Corrections is trying to address this issue administratively, but they need more support because risk-based supervision is critical to outcomes.
*Applying the same level of supervision resources to high and low-risk offenders is counter-productive.
What's Next?
The Justice Reinvestment team's schedule includes:
**Collecting and examining quantitative data - April - June
**Engaging input from stakeholders - May - August
Justice Reinvestment staff plans to meet with behavioral health officials and treatment providers; law enforcement, judges, prosecutors; defense attorneys, victim advocates and survivors; county officials; probation staff.
**Developing and presenting a comprehensive analysis of the state's criminal justice system - September - December
