Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Sentencing toughness one-way-ratchet warming up in North Carolina

By Douglas A. Berman

Despite tough budget times and lots of reason to believe over-punishment is a bigger problem than under-punishment, the social and political forces that drive (very costly) sentencing toughness seem to be heating up in North Carolina.  Here are the details from this local article: Gov. Mike Easley said today the principal flaw in the state's probation system is it lets the wrong people out of jail. He said his administration has asked for more money and more probation officers to help fix it. "The current system puts people on probation who shouldn't be on probation," Easley said in an interview with The News Observer and the Charlotte Observer. "Until those people are put behind bars, this is going to continue." The News Observer published a three-part series last week highlighting 580 cases of probationers who killed while out of prison since 2000 and a system that has lost track of thousands of convicted criminals...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).