CCJR issues statement on Urban Institute Report on North Carolina's Supervision Revocation Policies1/15/2021 January 15, 2020
Urban Institute Releases Report “Assessing North Carolina’s Changes to Supervision Revocation Policy” This week, the Urban Institute released a report reviewing the impact of North Carolina’s changes to revocation policy as part of the Justice Reinvestment Act. These changes were prompted by bipartisan leadership in 2009 upon realizing the dramatic cost of the increasing prison population, coupled by estimates that the prison population would increase by another 10% by 2020, at a cost of $378 million to taxpayers. North Carolina leaders requested technical support from the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, a public-private partnership funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and Pew Charitable Trusts. The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center provided technical support. The CSG Justice Center found that probation revocations were a huge contributor to the prison population: “...in 2009, 53 percent of prison admissions in North Carolina were for probation revocations, and 76 percent of these did not involve a conviction for a new offense. Probation and parole officers also had limited options for responding to technical violations of supervision other than revocation to prison (Council of State Governments Justice Center 2011). In light of these findings, the CSG Justice Center reviewed options for addressing supervision revocations with more effective and less costly responses.” The key finding presented in this updated analysis is that North Carolina has successfully reduced revocations since adoption in 2011 of the 90-day cap on revocation time and implementation of the Confinement in Response to Violation (CRV) centers. Specifically:
Particularly as we see a dramatic spread of covid-19 throughout NC prisons and jails, incarcerated individuals and the state employees that run these facilities are at increased risk when new individuals enter the prison system. By eliminating revocations for technical violation, this risk is decreased and the collateral consequences of incarceration are limited for individuals striving for success. The Governor’s Task Force on Racial Equity and Criminal Justice recently released a report that recommended eliminating incarceration for technical violations of supervision and many other reforms to reduce the number of people on felony probation who are subject to costly revocations. Conservatives for Criminal Justice Reform welcomes this comprehensive data from the Urban Institute and hopes to see these findings lead to evidence based reforms in North Carolina that both keep our communities safer, while relieving the burden on taxpayers.
0 Comments
We applaud the passage of the Second Chance Act.
We’re honored to be a part of the bipartisan coalition formed to combat COVID-19 in the North Carolina criminal justice system. We sent out letters to Governor Cooper, the Commissioner of Prisons, North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police Regional President and Regional Directors and the President of the Sheriffs’ Association. If you’re interested in reading the letters, please see the link below.
What is the Second Chance Act?
The North Carolina Second Chance Act (Senate Bill 562) is legislation that would automate the expunction of certain dismissed criminal charges and allow individuals to petition the court for expungement of any nonviolent misdemeanor convictions if they have remained crime free for seven years. The Second Chance Act passed the North Carolina Senate unanimously in May 2019 and is up for a vote in the North Carolina House of Representatives. |
