Evaluation of North Carolina's Structured Sentencing Law. Final Report

摘要

Effective on October 1, 1994, the State of North Carolina implemented a new structured sentencing law. Anyone committing an offense on or after that date became subject to prosecution and sentencing under the new law. The purposes of the new law were to increase the effectiveness of the sanctioning process to enhance public safety, to improve consistency and fairness for offenders, to promote truth in sentencing, and to make more efficient use of the States prosecution, adjudication, and correctional resources. The study we report on in this document will help build knowledge of the effects of sentencing reforms by looking at the effects of structured sentencing on multiple aspects of the adjudication and corrections processes in North Carolina. The study used multiple quantitative and qualitative techniques to examine the effects of the new sentencing law on charging, dismissals, plea negotiations, jury trials, adjudication time, and commission of institutional infractions while incarcerated. The study included three major components: (1) analysis of court data accumulated by the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), (2) analysis of prison infractions data accumulated by the North Carolina Department of Correction (DOC), and (3) interviews with judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and clerks from three judicial districts in the State.