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July 8, 2013
Last week the court of appeals decided State v. Nolen, its first absconding “donut hole” case. Pardon the mixed metaphor, but here is the donut hole in a nutshell: The […]
READ POST "Court of Appeals Decides an Absconding Donut Hole Case (July 8, 2013)"June 26, 2013
The Justice Reinvestment Act became law in 2011. S.L. 2011-192. Even before its initial effective date it was amended in 2011 by a technical corrections act. S.L. 2011-412. It was […]
READ POST "More Justice Reinvestment Clarifications Become Law (June 26, 2013)"June 11, 2013
Drug trafficking offenses can lead to really long sentences, and not just because of the special minimums and maximums that apply to those crimes. Consider this example: My husband and […]
READ POST "Why Trafficking Really Bites (June 11, 2013)"June 6, 2013
Author’s note: This post has been updated since its initial publication. The original version overlooked G.S. 15A-1340.11(7), a statute that is clearly relevant to the discussion. Do old (as in, […]
READ POST "Do Old DWIs Count toward Felony Prior Record Level? (June 6, 2013)"May 28, 2013
May a judge delegate to a probation officer the task of setting the amount of restitution owed to a victim? For several reasons, my standard answer to that recurring question […]
READ POST "Restitution “TBD by the Probation Officer” (May 28, 2013)"May 16, 2013
How specific does a probation violation report need to be about which condition the probationer allegedly violated? Until last week, I would have said “not very.” A new case from […]
READ POST "Alleging Probation Violations in a Post-JRA World (May 16, 2013)"May 9, 2013
It’s been over two years since I recorded my first video blog post. With the help of School of Government multimedia developer Jamar Jones, I prepared another one for today. […]
READ POST "Video Blog Post: Unstructured Sentencing (May 9, 2013)"April 29, 2013
I read an article this morning from the Washington Post about how some inmates are using the online consumer review site Yelp to rate jails and prisons. It’s an interesting […]
READ POST "Home Leaves from Prison (April 29, 2013)"April 25, 2013
In Jeff’s recent announcement of the new version of the ASSET smartphone app, he mentioned that we would release another app soon. I’m pleased to report that our second app, […]
READ POST "Smartphone App on Justice Reinvestment (April 25, 2013)"April 23, 2013
The court of appeals recently decided another case on petitions to terminate sex offender registration. Once again, the decision turned on what I have called the “Wetterling finding”—the rule in […]
READ POST "The Wetterling Finding: Not an Unconstitutional Delegation (April 23, 2013)"