RULES COULD FREE PRISON BEDS

North Carolina, strapped for cash and facing a prison population that is
outpacing the number of prison beds, is considering reducing some stays
behind bars for the first time in eight years.

Such a change, proposed to the General Assembly, would be a partial
reversal of the state's tough criminal justice policies, which helped to
increase the prison population by 67 percent in the past decade. State
officials say they must weigh public safety against the public's
willingness to pay for more prisons.

Consider: When the new 192-bed death row unit at Central Prison opens next
month, it won't have enough cells to house all the death row inmates. Some
inmates who are transferred to the new unit will have to sleep in bunks in
the day room.

When three new 1,000-bed prisons open in Anson, Alexander and Scotland
counties by 2004, projections indicate that prisoners will fill them
immediately. North Carolina's prison system is forecast to have a shortage
of cell space by 2005, despite a near doubling of the number of prison beds
since 1990. The crunch is the result of stiffer sentences and rapid growth
in the state population.

Budget pressures are forcing lawmakers to reconsider how long people are
kept in prison.

"It's always a balancing act between the safety of the public and our
ability to pay for what our Department of Correction costs us," said state
Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat and member of the Legislative
Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety. "All this is hugely
expensive."

Based on projections from the state Sentencing and Policy Advisory
Commission, the state will need 7,000 more beds by 2010. A spokesman for
the Department of Correction said building seven 1,000-bed prisons would
cost about $525 million.

The sentencing commission, at the request of lawmakers, has come up with
alternatives to current sentencing guidelines to reduce the need for
additional beds. Among them:

- - Shortening sentences for nonviolent habitual felons convicted of property
crimes and lesser drug offenses.

Under the habitual felon law, people convicted of a fourth felony can be
tried as repeat offenders. With the proposed change, nonviolent habitual
offenders would still get mandatory prison time, but the sentences would be
shorter.

For example, a person convicted of breaking and entering as a habitual
felon now faces a sentence of 58 to 168 months, depending on their record.
Under the proposed change, the sentence would be 20 to 59 months. The
change would free up about 1,900 beds over 10 years, the commission estimates.

- - Reducing the weight given to prior convictions in sentencing.

Under the state's structured sentencing law, the seriousness of the latest
offense and a person's record are the two main factors used in setting the
length of sentences.

The change would de-emphasize the record, resulting in slightly shorter
sentences for nonviolent and violent offenders. It would free up 800 to
1,800 beds over 10 years, depending on which variation were adopted.

Tough Laws Filled Prisons

The longer sentences handed out today are a result of North Carolina's
efforts in the early 1990s to get tough on crime.

In the late 1980s, the state had a prison crisis because of a shortage of
space. In some instances, criminals were serving a fraction of their
sentences. The state began a massive prison-building program.

In 1993, the legislature overhauled the sentencing laws to bring some
predictability to how long people would stay behind bars. Structured
sentencing reduced sentences for lesser offenses to make more room for
serious offenders and career criminals.

Ten years ago, the state's average yearly prison population was 19,048.
Last year, it was 31,882, a 67 percent increase. The growth far outpaced
the overall growth in the state's population, which increased by 21 percent
during the 1990s.

The prison commission projects that the prison population will be 41,052 by
2011.

"It was a well-known anticipated result of what we are doing," said Susan
Katzenelson, executive director of the Sentencing Commission. "We abolished
parole, sent violent and repeat offenders to prison and kept them there
longer."

Katzenelson said the commission's projections were a signal to the
legislature that the state won't have enough beds down the road.

The numbers already have gotten some response. Lawmakers last year
authorized a lease-purchase agreement to build the three 1,000-bed prisons
in Anson, Alexander and Scotland counties. The state could spend about $400
million to lease those prisons over 20 years, plus hundreds of millions in
operating costs.

DAs Oppose The Change

The number of prisoners in the state prisons increased in the 1990s, even
as the state violent-crime rate fell, reflecting a nationwide trend.

Still, North Carolina ranks below the national average in the proportion of
people incarcerated. As of 2001, North Carolina had 347 sentenced prisoners
per 100,000 population, compared with the national average of 478 per 100,000.

District attorneys say the crime rate has declined because more career
criminals are off the streets and that the state needs to find ways to keep
them locked up.

"This cuts to the heart of what we do," said Forsyth County District
Attorney Tom Keith. "We are as strongly opposed to this as anything you can
imagine."

By the end of this year, the number of habitual felons will exceed 3,000,
about 10 percent of the state prison population, according to the N.C.
Conference of District Attorneys.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said prosecutors use the
habitual felon law as an incentive to get repeat offenders to enter a plea
agreement rather than risk the longer sentence if convicted as a habitual
felon.

"If these recommendations are implemented, the crime rates for residential
break-ins and other types of properties will go up," Willoughby said. "I
guarantee it."

Larger Prisons

Rather than reducing sentences or changing the habitual felon law, the N.C.
Conference of District Attorneys says a better way to solve the prison
space problem is to operate the prison system more efficiently.

The state's 76 prisons are a legacy of a Depression-era strategy of
building a large number of small prisons and road camps throughout the
state. But small prisons aren't efficient, prosecutors say.

The Department of Correction has 1.7 inmates per correction employee, while
the national average is 2.7.

"The state must build larger and more centralized prisons," said Union
County District Attorney Kenneth W. Honeycutt, president of the district
attorneys conference. "There will then be efficiencies in size. More prison
beds would then be available at no increase in cost."

State Correction Secretary Theodis Beck said the department was waiting to
see how the General Assembly reacted to the sentencing recommendations
before asking for money to build more prisons. The department needed to get
money to operate the three prisons now under construction, he said.

Correction officials wanted to keep the sentencing commission's growth
projections in front of lawmakers, Beck said, so that everybody will be
mindful that the state could face another prison crisis.

"We didn't want to get into the position we found ourselves in 10 years
ago," Beck said.