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Crime and punishment

Preventing crime is the most basic function of government. North Carolina governments have made important progress in this area in recent years, but the state has reached an upper bound on imprisonment.

The probation system loses far too many offenders, with many returning as violent offenders. A large proportion of inmates have serious mental illnesses, and many of them could have been diverted from incarceration into the community care they need.

Key Facts

• In the 1980s, North Carolina tried to control its inmate population with Fair Sentencing (passed in 1981), Community Service Parole (1983), and a prison cap (1987).
• From 1980 to 1992, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, North Carolina was the only state in the nation whose overall incarceration rate declined (by 6 percent). The state's crime rate rose by 25 percent, the nation's second-highest increase.
• By 1990 only one-fifth of state convicts were actually serving prison time, and one-third of new prison admittees each year were convicts incarcerated for violating the terms of their alternative punishments.
• By 1994 the average sentence for misdemeanants in North Carolina was 23.9 months, with average time served only 1.4 months (about 6 percent of the sentence). For felons, the average sentence was 8.8 years; average time served, 8.1 months (about 8 percent). And 83.4 percent of imprisoned convicts were on parole.
• In 1994 the General Assembly passed Structured Sentencing, which increased time served by violent offenders by eliminating parole.
• In 1996 the prison cap was repealed. In 1993, North Carolina's prison capacity was about 21,400; by 2010, extended prison system capacity was over 40,000.
• Inmate population, however, exceeded even extended capacity.
• In 1993, statewide jail capacity was about 9,000; by 2010, it was almost 21,000.
• From 1994 to 2008, North Carolina's crime rate fell by about 20 percent.
• According to The News & Observer, from 2000 to 2008, 580 offenders killed while on probation, and probation officers couldn't locate nearly 14,000 of the 114,000 criminals supposedly under their supervision.
• The private sector appearance bond system is a proven, successful, workable private model for getting families and communities, who are subject to the full financial penalty of the bond, to take responsibility for offenders.
• A system known as Conditional Post-Conviction Early Release would use performance bonds that require a surety and security or indemnity agreements to keep individuals placed in the system from committing new offenses. It would be geared to youthful offenders and non-violent misdemeanants identified at the trial level.
• Sixteen percent of all jail and prison inmates have serious mental illness and would be better served by community-based care (see the section on "Mental Health").
• Communities should start with crisis intervention teams or other pre-booking methods before implementing mental health courts or other post-booking interventions.

Recommendations

1. Maintain North Carolina's commitment to fighting crime while reserving prison for violent and repeat offenders.
2. Adopt Conditional Post-Conviction Early Release bonds as an alternative to the failing state probation system and a better way to involve the community in supervising and rehabilitating youthful and nonviolent offenders, with the costs borne by the offenders rather than the taxpayers.
3. Divert mentally ill individuals into communitybased care rather than jails, starting with crisis intervention teams and other pre-booking interventions.