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New Dashboard Metric Shows How North Carolina Criminal Charges Get Disposed

We recently added 2022 and 2023 Automated Criminal Infractions System (ACIS) court records data to our Measuring Justice Dashboard. We also just released a new Dashboard metric showing how North Carolina criminal charges get disposed. At the Lab, we support evidence-based approaches to criminal justice that promote public safety, a fair and effective system, and … Read more

Estimating Earnings Impact of Driver’s License Revocations in North Carolina

In North Carolina, driver’s licenses are revoked for failure to appear in court (FTA) and failure to pay court-ordered monetary obligations (FTP).

Not having a valid driver’s license is at best an inconvenience—relying on others to drive to get groceries—but at worst can have a major impact on life—losing a job that requires driving.

To get a handle on the consequences of losing a license, we were asked to provide a high-level estimate of the earnings impact of revocations due to FTP or FTA.

The result? We found that the statewide estimated earnings loss in 2024 dollars one year after revocation is between $6.5 and $8.8 billion (Figure 1).

The North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (NC DMV) reports that as of December 31, 2020, 996,000 people had active driver’s license revocations for FTA and FTP. These revocations occurred over time. To estimate earnings impact, we assume that about half of those people—500,000—were working at the time of the revocation and earning the North Carolina median wage ($42,095/year). Based on other research, we made two additional assumptions to assess the impact of revocation on earnings one year later. First, that 9% to 12% of people lost their jobs and were unemployed. And second, that those who were employed experienced an earnings reduction of 24% to 43%.

Even if we reduce the median wage to $30,000/year—to account for the fact that people with an FTA or FTP may earn less than the statewide median wage—the estimated earnings impact is between $4.6 and $6.3 billion.

Figure 1. Estimated earnings impact of revoking driver’s licenses for FTA and FTP

For details about how we computed this estimate, see the notes to our briefing paper here.

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North Carolina Governor’s 2024 Executive Order on Reentry

On January 29, 2024, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed an Executive Order joining the national Reentry 2030 initiative. What’s the Reentry 2030 initiative? According to the Reentry 2030 website, the initiative is being led by the Correctional Leaders Association, The Council of State Governments Justice Center, and JustLeadershipUSA. It describes the program as an … Read more

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New Resource on Employment Outcomes for People Leaving Prison

The North Carolina Department of Commerce has created a new online tool called The NC Reentry Outcome Reporting System. The tool shows employment outcomes for people leaving the state prison system. The numbers are sobering. I had a chance to talk to one of the tool’s architects, Andrew Berger-Gross, Senior Economist at the Department’s Labor … Read more

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The Role of Administrative Traffic Offenses in the North Carolina Criminal Justice System

This post explores the large role that administrative traffic offenses play in the state’s criminal justice system. The Lab’s Measuring Justice Dashboard shows that non-violent misdemeanor charges make up the bulk of the state system (Figure 1). Figure 1. Composition of Charges in the State System, 2021 Figure Note: DWI refers to impaired driving offenses. … Read more

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Updated Model Local Bail Policy

The North Carolina General Statutes require the senior resident superior court judge to issue a local bail policy, in consultation with the chief district court judge or judges. G.S. 15A-535(a). At the Criminal Justice Innovation Lab, we’ve had a lot of requests for help updating these policies. And we understand why. Doing this work is … Read more

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Measuring Justice Dashboard: New Court Non-Appearance Metric

We recently updated our Measuring Justice Dashboard with a new metric on court non-appearance. As with all Dashboard metrics, you can explore the data at the state and county level. Here’s a quick summary of what you’ll see on the Dashboard’s new metric. But if you want to get right to it, click here to access the Dashboard directly.

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New Criminal Charging Metric on the Measuring Justice Dashboard

As blog readers know, the UNC School of Government Criminal Justice Innovation Lab has been developing a Measuring Justice Dashboard. Last year we released our Dashboard first metrics: Citation v. Arrest and Summons v. Warrant. We recently released a new Dashboard metric: Criminal Charging. In this post I’ll give some highlights of that tool. But in case you want to get right to it, you can access the Dashboard from the Lab’s web page (https://cjil.sog.unc.edu/); from the main page, click on “Measuring Justice.”

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