State Strategies to Manage Budget Shortfalls

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Case Study: Structured Sentencing in North Carolina

In 1993, North Carolina enacted the Structured Sentencing Act, a new sentencing law that, among other things, abolished parole and required all offenders to serve their entire sentence. Although these kinds of provisions lengthen prison stays and require additional funding, the new law also created a system that balances sentencing policies with correctional resources.

The 1993 law, which became effective on Nov. 1, 1994, created a felony punishment chart or sentencing grid that balances the number of offenders sentenced to prison with the number of available prison beds. Under this program, judges determine the seriousness of an offender's crime, the offender's past criminal record and how much prison space is available. The grid then identifies the level of punishment, ranging from an alternative sentence to a prison sentence. In some instances, the judge has discretion to choose either. If the punishment is incarceration, the grid provides a range of minimum and maximum sentences. First and second offenders who commit certain nonviolent crimes may be given suspended sentences if they successfully complete alternative punishments such as intensive probation, house arrest or boot camp. Unlike some other states' structured sentencing, North Carolina's law does not provide guidelines but instead provides edicts that must be followed.

At the time the grid originally was developed, all sentences were designed to match the expected prison capacity for five years. Since that time, the grid has been adjusted to reflect increased penalties for selected low-level crimes (such as misdemeanor assaults) and to accommodate changes to parole provisions that were in place prior to the 1993 law. Overall, the state is close to its original inmate projections.

Evaluations to date indicate that the Structured Sentencing Act is accomplishing its goals, including the establishment of truth-in-sentencing, expanded use of less expensive sanctions, more prison space being reserved for more violent offenders and better overall use of the state's correctional resources. Although the state's new approach to corrections and sentencing policy has required significant up-front costs (largely to fund prison construction that will be completed in late 1997), the result is that North Carolina's prison capacity is expected to meet or exceed the state's prison population until about 2004. {For more information on this program, see North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, 1995 Progress Report on Structured Sentencing, July 1, 1996.}

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Written December 1996, posted January 2003, reviewed December 2003
Email statebudget-info@ncsl.org for more information.
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