corrections – NCRSOL

Registrant inmate dies following ‘altercation’ at N.C. jail, officials say

Dwayne Daughtry — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:34:49 +0000

CBS 17 Digital Desk — A federal inmate on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry being held in the Orange County Detention Center died after an “altercation” on Wednesday night, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities said Maurice Antoine King, 34, of Durham, was taken to Duke University Medical Center following the altercation and later died there.

King was a federal inmate being held in the detention center “pursuant to an agreement between Orange County and the US Marshals,” officials said.

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Coronavirus raises health, legal concerns for NC jails

Dwayne Daughtry — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:26:35 +0000

JORDAN WILKIE — At least six of North Carolina’s largest counties are ordering the release of jail detainees as a preventive measure against COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.

Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg and Wake counties have all confirmed that they are releasing detainees as a means to lower jail populations. The fewer people who are in the jails, the easier it will be to enforce preventive measures — such as medically screening staff and those arrested — to keep COVID-19 out of the facilities.

If the virus gets into a jail, lower populations will mean the illness will be easier to contain and fewer people who will be exposed, which would protect both the people in jail and communities at large.

When discussing the releases, Aaron Sarver, public information officer for the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, stressed the difference between jail and prison.

The people being released from the Buncombe County Detention Center are all pretrial, Sarver said, meaning they have not been convicted of a crime.

In some cases, people convicted of low-level misdemeanors and are serving time in the jails could also be released. Prisons, by and large, hold people who have been convicted of felonies.

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NC Recidivism Report: sex offender recidivism lower than other offenders

Admin — Tue, 03 May 2016 01:58:55 +0000

By JAMIE MARKHAM . . . The North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission and the Division of Adult Correction recently released their Correctional Program Evaluation: Offenders Placed on Probation or Released from Prison in FY 2013—known better as the recidivism report. Every biennial report is interesting—who wouldn’t want to know how present sentencing choices affect future crime?—but this report is especially interesting because it is the first one to include a sizable number of defendants sentenced and supervised after Justice Reinvestment. We can begin to see if the law is working as intended.

Under G.S. 164-47, the Sentencing Commission and DAC must jointly report to the General Assembly on the recidivism rates of prisoners and probationers every other year. The report defines recidivism as an arrest, conviction, or subsequent incarceration during a two-year period after being placed on probation or released from imprisonment. The report sample included over 35,000 probationers and nearly 14,000 inmates released from prison.

The report slices and dices the recidivism rates for probationers and prisoners in many ways—by gender, race, age, and marital status, among other personal characteristics. I encourage anyone interested in the particulars to read the full report. There are a few things I wanted to highlight in today’s post. (See highlighted items at North Carolina Criminal Law Blog)