PROSECUTORS FEELING 'PRESSURE' TO LIGHTEN UP ON CRIMINALS

An impending space crunch in North Carolina prisons has some of the state's
district attorneys nervous about the fate of laws currently incarcerating
convicts, especially habitual felons, in record numbers.

"We are getting pressures from legislators and the Department of
Corrections to lessen the number of people incarcerated," Pitt County
District Attorney Clark Everett said. "Pressures not to increase penalties,
not to increase prosecution."

As of last week, the N.C. Department of Corrections facilities were
operating at an average 111 percent capacity, with 31,920 prisoners housed
in facilities intended for 28,690.

Individual prisons are operating at anywhere from 85 to 120 percent
capacity, department spokesman Keith Acree said.

"We move people around to make do," Acree said. "That's what we're starting
to do now. But we have sort of a gentleman's agreement with the court that
we won't exceed 130 percent overall."

Everett said he is concerned with alternatives being posed by those faced
with having to build new prisons during a state budget crisis.

"The remedy that's being suggested is we weaken the habitual felon law,
that we bring parole back," he said.

The N.C. Sentencing Commission - an independent group of 30 law
enforcement, correction and judicial officials - is reviewing all
sentencing policies, including the habitual felon statute, the commission's
executive director confirmed.

Most problematic, director Susan Katzenelson said, is the need to find
options "that maintain the integrity of structured sentencing and balance
with public safety."

Trying to find a balance is tough, she said, when the reality is that
within the next 10 years, the Department of Corrections will need to add
tens of thousands of beds to keep pace with the commission's projected
prisoner population growth.

To earn the legal designation of habitual felon, defendants must be
arrested and convicted three times. Upon their fourth conviction, they
receive the label. In the case of violent offenders, three convictions are
needed.

In combination with the 30-year-old habitual felon law, structured
sentencing policies which eliminate parole can take repeat offenders off
the streets up to 17 years longer.

Since structured sentencing went into effect in 1994, the numbers of
habitual felons in state prisons had jumped almost 200 percent. In 1995,
there were 183. Last year, 541 went to prison.

As the number of habitual offenders incarcerated grows, the number of
convicts eligible for parole under the old laws begins to dwindle. The
Department of Corrections research office estimates there are only 4,000
potential parolees in the state's prison system.

Three new prisons are scheduled for construction this year in Anson,
Scotland and Alexander counties, which will provide 3,000 new beds. But,
budget proposals before the State General Assembly also call for the
closing of up to six prisons next year.

Concerns for public safety, not the bottom line, should be motivating the
review of the habitual felon statute and other sentencing guidelines, the
president for the N.C. District Attorney's Association said.

"They're doing it because the state needs to save money," said Ken
Honeycutt, who also serves as the district attorney for Union, Anson,
Stanley and Richmond counties. "I think they're fixing to trade off
prisoners getting less time, not because they are rehabilitated, but to
save money.

"I'm mindful and aware that there is a finite number of beds in the prison
system, but I'm not going to hold back on prosecution."

Honeycutt and Everett's counterpart in Greene, Lenoir and Wayne counties
harbors similar concerns about the laws.

"There's some discussions out there to rework the habitual felons laws,"
said District Attorney Branny Vickory, "and we as prosecutors are certainly
opposed to that. We think it's been an extremely effective tool to getting
these in-and-out, in-and-out people in prison longer."

During lean budget years, prisons are often a target, Vickory said.

"There are certain areas, like schools - you can't touch school money," he
said. "But prisons, they're expensive. And when we're up in Raleigh, we're
hearing that more and more. We get concerned."

Craven County's lead prosecutor believes that the talk in Raleigh could be
a case of history repeating itself.

"When the economy makes a downturn, the first areas they start cutting back
on are law enforcement, courts and prisons," said District Attorney W.
David McFadyen Jr. "We're starting to enter the same cycle as in the '80s:
'Oh, the budget's tight; we need to start letting people out of prison or
not put them in.' The public better stand up and take notice, unless they
want to let the crowd in Raleigh start weakening the prisons."

A charter member of the Sentencing Commission, McFadyen recalled a prison
overload in the 1980s.

During that decade, judges were sentencing more people to prison under the
Fair Sentencing Act, which did not include parole, said Ron Wright, a Wake
Forest Law School professor who has studied prison sentencing for the last
10 years.

"Meanwhile the state's population is going up, the number of convictions is
up and the state wasn't building prisons very much," Wright said.

Since the 1980s crunch, lawmakers have tried a number of methods in an
ongoing attempt to adjust for prison overcrowding. A prison population cap
was added, then repealed several years later. Parole came and went twice in
the last 20 years.

As for the most recent dilemma, district attorneys may be partly to blame
because of overuse of the habitual felon statute, Wright said.

"The district attorneys have it coming to them," he said. "They have
tripled its use - it was originally intended to be sort of an exception.
That big increase has started to add up on them."

A resolution based on review of all of the state's sentencing policies, not
just the habitual felon law, is needed soon, Wright said. He points out
that in 1994, the sentencing commission's predictions for population growth
indicated the next major need for new prison construction would come in 2004.

"In prison building terms, 2004 is just around the corner," Wright said.
"At this point, you've got to decide: Are you going to build more prisons
or adjust things on the sentencing side and cut down on prison intake?"

Any recommendations by the sentencing commission are just that, stressed
Katzenelson. The group can only propose policy and solutions to prison
overcrowding, as it will at its upcoming Sept. 14 meeting in Raleigh. It is
up to lawmakers to make the final decisions.

No recommendation will please everyone eyeing the prison space crunch, she
said. Ultimately, the commission may have to play the role of Solomon and
risk making everyone involved at least partially displeased.

"I've got children, and I hate them being crowded into classes with 29
other kids, so I don't like hearing we need to spend money on prisons,"
Katzenelson said.

"But I also know there are people that should be housed in prisons."