AG 1999 01 19 - Laserfiche WebLink

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INTRODUCTION Cabarrus County is located in the piedmont section of North Carolina, just to the east/northeast of Mecklenburg. The county seat, Concord, is approximately fifteen miles from Charlotte. The population of the county and its two major municipalities has increased by almost 50% in the last two decades, as evidenced in Table 1 below: TABLE 1 I Cabarrus !Concord I Kannapolis** 1980 1990 85,895 98,935 16,942 ,7,.~47 ...... 29,709 1998' 125,000 42.43 35,288 * 1 / 1/98 estimate bv Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce **Approximately 25% of the population of Kannapolis resides in Rowan County and 75% in Cabarrus County. Obviously, this rapid population increase will effect the types and amount of criminal iustice services needed in Cabarrus and surrounding counties. The Cabarms County Criminal Justice Advisory Board held its first meeting on Mav 15. 1998 and has met six times. The board has reviewed Structured Sentencing, including the work of the Sentencing Commission and the philosophy and values which form the foundation of the sentencing plan. The board understands that the Sentencing Commission decided it must make choices regarding the use of costly prison space, and that the choices the Commission made mean that violent and repeat offenders serve a longer time incarcerated, while more offenders convicted of property crimes and with fewer prior convictions may be placed on probation and in various communitv corrections programs. The Advisory Board has studied the sentencing grid several times, concentrating on those cells where offenders can receive intermediate punishment. Finally, the Advisory Board understands that judicial decisions regarding those offenders ~vho fall in UA cells are the most critical in terms of effecting the prison population. The Advisory Board does not have any plans to do cell-by-cell decision- making at the present time. It is believed that available funds are adequate to provide substance abuse services, the program agreed upon by the board, to all eligible offenders who need it. However, the board will monitor the substance abuse treatment program being implemented to assess its impact on I and I/A cells on the sentencing grid. At its first meeting, the board reviewed the purpose of the Criminal Justice Partnership Program and the purpose/mission of the Advisory Board. A committee was established to determine data the board would need to make program decisions. Since a decision was made early on not to establish a pretrial program, jail data was not collected. Probation data is now available from Research and Planning in the Department of Correction, so no probation sample was necessary. Interns in the Division of Community Corrections collected information on community resources available to offenders.