NCJ Number
165534
Journal
Sentencing News Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1997) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1997
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The recommendations of the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission to the 1997 session of the State General Assembly and the Commission's prison population projections are summarized.
Abstract
Legislative recommendations focused on reclassifying offenses such as accessory after the fact and voluntary manslaughter and changing sentences by requiring active sentences for convictions for habitual impaired driving and adding a new aggravating factor relating to injury to a public safety official. Other recommendations focused on changing the calculation of an offender's prior record, clarifying structured sentencing, changing or clarifying community-based corrections, and changing post-release supervision. The North Carolina prison system is expected to have an additional 1,307 inmates in the year 2000 and an additional 2,944 inmates in the year 2007. The projections were adjusted downward from previous projections due to a slowing crime rate, a falling imprisonment rate, and a higher than predicted volume of parole for offenders sentenced under the Fair Sentencing Act. In January 1997 the Commission began distributing its report on sentencing practices under structured sentencing. Table