A UNC School of Government Blog
Jamie Markham 
Under G.S. 14-208.12A, a sex offender can petition the superior court for removal from the sex offender registry “[t]en years from the date of initial county registration.” Many times I have been asked whether time spent on another state’s registry counts toward the 10-year minimum registration period in North Carolina. In other words, does the … Read more
When analysts from the Council of State Governments studied North Carolina’s sentencing laws and correctional system, one of their key findings was that revoked probationers account for a lot of new entries to prison each year—more than half. The Justice Reinvestment Act (S.L. 2011-192) responds to that finding in several ways, one of which is … Read more
Under Structured Sentencing, there are two types of non-active sentences: community punishment and intermediate punishment. Intermediate punishment is supervised probation plus at least one of six specific conditions of probation (special probation, residential program, electronic house arrest, intensive supervision, day reporting center, and drug treatment court). G.S. 15A-1340.11(6). A community punishment is any other non-active … Read more
Under existing law, the basic rules for where a sentence should be served are as follows: Misdemeanors, 90 days or less. If a sentence imposed for a misdemeanor is 90 days or less, it generally must be served in the jail. G.S. 15A-1352(a). There are exceptions for when the jail is overcrowded or the inmate … Read more
The Justice Reinvestment Act (S.L. 2011-192) creates a new program called Advanced Supervised Release (ASR). Through it, certain inmates will be eligible for release from prison before serving their minimum sentence. According to literature prepared by the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, a non-profit group that helped develop the legislation, the purpose of … Read more
It has long been the rule in North Carolina that all that is required for a judge to revoke probation is a finding that the defendant has violated a valid condition of probation willfully or without lawful excuse. State v. Hewett, 270 N.C. 348 (1967). After December 1, 2011, there will, under the Justice Reinvestment … Read more
Every cell on the felony sentencing grid is divided into three ranges of permissible minimum sentences—mitigated, presumptive, and aggravated. Most defendants (69 percent) are sentenced in the presumptive range, about a quarter (27 percent) are sentenced in the mitigated range, and the remaining 4 percent are sentenced in the aggravated range. At the low end … Read more
In North Carolina a probationer has a statutory right to counsel at a probation violation hearing. G.S. 15A-1345(e); G.S. 7A-451(a)(4). The probationer can also waive the right to assistance of counsel and proceed pro se, Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975), but before that can happen the trial court must determine that the waiver … Read more
Jeff mentioned in this prior post that S.L. 2011-12 created three new drug trafficking crimes—trafficking in MDPV, mephedrone, and synthetic cannabinoids. I have incorporated those new crimes (effective for offenses committed on or after June 1, 2011) into my tabular summary of the drug trafficking law, available here. The front page of the chart includes … Read more
One of the goals of the Justice Reinvestment Act is to have more misdemeanants serve their time in the county jail instead of the Department of Correction. I’ll write soon about the new rules for determining where a sentence should be served (you should disregard this prior post on that subject). In the meantime, it … Read more