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North Carolina Criminal Law » The Justice Reinvestment Act: An Overview » Print Pagel of 3 - North Carolina Criminal Law - http:// sogweb.sog.unc.edu /blogs /ncclaw - The Justice Reinvestment Act: An Overview Posted By Jamie Markham On June 30, 2011 @ 3:11 PM In Sentencing,Uncategorized 1 19 Comments The Governor signed the Justice Reinvestment Act ( S.L. 2011 -192 E '� (H 642)) into law last week. It makes substantial changes to the law of sentencing and corrections in North Carolina — easily the most sweeping changes to Structured Sentencing since its passage in 1994. I'm working on a detailed bulletin on how our sentencing laws will operate after Justice Reinvestment, but I wanted through this post to give a brief summary of some of the major changes. Here's what the law does (with almost everything effective December 1, 2011): Lessens the distinction between community and intermediate punishment. The law retains the community /intermediate /active ( "C /I /A ") framework on the sentencing grids but redefines what community and intermediate punishment mean. Under the new law, a community punishment will be one that includes supervised or unsupervised probation and any condition of probation except drug treatment court or special probation. The only requirement for a punishment to be intermediate under the new law is that it include supervised probation; no longer will the court be required to impose one of the six intermediate conditions (special probation, residential program, house arrest with electronic monitoring, intensive supervision, day reporting center, or drug treatment court) to make a sentence intermediate. Expands the authority delegated to probation officers, including authority to impose brief stints in jail. Through delegated authority, probation officers will be empowered to impose new conditions of probation in both community and intermediate cases, including brief stints of jail confinement. The jail confinement condition is limited to 2- or 3 -day periods that total no more than six days per month, and they may only be imposed during any three separate months of the period of probation. (So, the most jail time an officer could impose through the condition in a single probation case would be 18 days.) The officer can only impose the jail condition if the offender waives his or her right to a hearing and counsel. Unlike other delegated authority provisions, an offender ordered to jail through a probation officer's exercise of delegated authority has no statutory right to have the action reviewed by a court. Repeals intensive supervision. Under current law, intensive supervision is the most commonly used intermediate sanction; it accounts for over half of all intermediate conditions imposed. The new law repeals the definition of intensive supervision and the statutory special condition referencing intensive supervision. The law also repeals the definitions of "day-reporting center" and "residential program." Adds an "absconding" condition. The law makes it a regular condition of supervision for all probationers that they not "abscond, by willfully avoiding supervision or by willfully making [their] whereabouts unknown to the supervising probation officer." A similar provision is added for post - release supervisees. Limits a judge's authority to revoke probation. Under the new law a court will only be allowed to revoke probation (that is, activate the entirety of a suspended sentence) for two specific types of violations: committing a new criminal offense and absconding. For other violations, the court will be limited to other existing non - revocation options (like imposition of a split sentence, for example) or a new response option allowing 90 days of confinement (or up to 90 days for misdemeanants). The court is not allowed to revoke probation for a non - absconding, non -new crime violation unless a defendant has previously received two periods of confinement under the new 90 -day confinement provision. Expands post - release supervision to all felons. Under current law, only Class B1 through Class E felons get post - release supervision. Under the new law, Class F through Class I felons will also be released on post - release supervision. The period of post - release supervision for Class B1 through Class E felons is increased from 9 months to 12 months, while the new period of supervision for Class F through Class I felons will be 9 months. (Except for sex offenders, who will all be subject to a five -year supervision period.) The law adds time to all the maximum sentences on the sentencing grid (an additional 3 months for the Class B1 through Class E felonies and an additional 9 months for the lesser felonies) to account for the fact that inmates will be released 12 and 9 months, Attachment number 1 F -1 Page 47 http://sogweb.SOg.Linc.edu/blogs/ncclaw/?p 4/24/2012