North Carolina's Determinate Sentencing Legislation - An Evaluation of the First Year's Experience - Executive Summary - Discussion Draft

• NCJ Number: 96726
• Author(s): S H Clarke
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 30 pages
• Grant Number(s): 80-IJ-CX-0004 (D/L)
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A study was conducted to assess the effects of North Carolina's 1979 Fair Sentencing Act (FSA).

Abstract

It compared the first year of experience under the FSA with previous years. In addition to interviews with prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys, four data sources were used. These include a sample from 12 representative counties, which provided information on court processing of felony defendants (1,325 before and 1,193 after FSA); the Department of Corrections statewide felony sentence sample (9,752 felons convicted in 1979 and 5,707 in 1981-82); the release cohort data (1,634 felons in 1977-78, 1,569 in 1980, and 2,030 in 1981); and felony judgments issued under the FSA during August 1981 - January 1982 for 1,457 convicted felons. The FSA left intact much prosecutorial and judicial discretion. Consecutive prison sentences increased among those with multiple convictions. Total length of sentence did not increase. After the FSA, plea bargaining was more often formal and fewer bargains involved sentence concessions. Suspension of sentences became less frequent. The net effect of the FSA may actually be to reduce the prison population slightly compared with the level it would otherwise have reached by 1990. Tabular data and 35 footnotes are included.