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| Prison times could shrink |
| By Charlotte.com/Charlotte Observer |
| Published: 01/29/2002 |
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North Carolina, with its prisons filling up almost as fast as new ones can be built, is considering shorter sentences for felons. The N.C. Sentencing Commission is preparing a report to the General Assembly outlining ways to control the state's growing prison population, expected to increase 29 percent during the next decade and top 40,000 by 2010. One alternative would shorten sentences for many felons anywhere from two months to a year. Another would dramatically slash prison sentences -- some by more than half -- for nonviolent habitual felons. The report is bound to spark controversy. It comes about a decade after North Carolina embarked on a massive building program to avert a federal takeover of its overcrowded prisons and seven years after the state toughened sentences for criminals and abolished parole. Charlotte defense lawyer Lyle Yurko, one of 30 members on the sentencing commission, said the shortened sentences would not endanger public safety. 'Whether a man goes to prison for 250 months or 245 months, the public is still protected for a long, long time,' Yurko said. 'The bottom line is it would cost a half billion dollars to build 7,000 new prison beds and staff the prisons. We just don't have that money.' But shortening punishments for criminals -- especially for habitual felons -- isn't likely to sit well with prosecutors. 'I suspect prosecutors will descend on the legislature in force to oppose these changes,' said Buncombe County District Attorney Ron Moore, a member of the sentencing commission. 'This is bad public policy to run your criminal justice system on how many beds we have. North Carolina's prison population has soared 67 percent during the past decade. In 1991, the average inmate population was 19,048. Last year, the average inmate population at the state's 76 prisons was 31,882. The state's prison population is expected to reach 41,052 by 2011. The need for more prisons is fueled by the state's growing population and tough sentencing laws, which took effect in 1994 and were designed to keep violent criminals and repeat offenders behind bars. North Carolina has spent more than $400 million since 1991 to build new prisons. Three maximum-security prisons are under construction in Anson, Alexander and Scotland counties to house the growing number of dangerous criminals -- murderers, rapists and armed robbers -- who are being locked up. The proposed shorter sentences could save as many as 4,800 beds during the next decade. The commission's proposals would not shorten sentences for first-time felons. But many of those convicted again of felonies would face punishments cut anywhere from two to 13 months. |
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