NCJ Number
166569
Date Published
1993
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This abridged version of the report of the North Carolina Justice Fellowship Task Force is intended as a call to the State's governor and the General Assembly for immediate action in the areas of sentencing and correctional reform, as it presents an action plan for establishing standards of justice for offenders and crime victims alike that are compatible with the principles of justice promulgated by Jesus' teachings.
Abstract
The report concludes that North Carolina's current correctional systems are neither effective nor equitable. The correctional structure is based on punishment and incapacitation rather than offender rehabilitation. The strategy that underlies the Task Force's recommendations involves a fundamental restructuring and reorientation of the State's systems and processes for sentencing, punishing, and rehabilitating offenders. It is based in six principles. First, the State should assume responsibility for correctional services to all sentenced misdemeanants and felons except those convicted and incarcerated for drunk driving misdemeanors. Second, the State should authorize the Department of Correction to develop a balanced, State-funded correctional system that provides a continuum of offender punishment and treatment options for all sentenced offenders. Third, the State should establish a structured sentencing system similar to the one proposed by the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission that channels offenders into the proper level of correctional programming. Fourth, the State should freeze all new prison construction for at least a 5-year period. Fifth, the State should not consider legislation that would increase the incarceration terms for offenders sentenced to prison unless the State has fully funded and developed its community sanctions, intermediate sanctions, and community reintegration levels of correctional programming. Sixth, the State should establish standards of justice for the State correctional system that are consistent with biblical principles of justice and that can be used as a guide in all future correctional program development. Thirty-six recommendations detail the implementation of these six principles. Also included in this report are summaries of the impact of the Task Force's sentencing recommendations and appropriations recommendations. 13 footnotes, 3 tables of cost and revenue projections as well as savings, and a sentencing matrix