FAMILIES PRESS FOR SENTENCING REFORM

Group Says Changes Could Save Money, Reduce Need for Prisons

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK - From age 14, Hayne and Patricia Plattenburg's
daughter used drugs and skipped school. The Waxhaw couple put Jennifer into
a treatment program, but she graduated to crack cocaine and forged checks
for the cash to support her habit.

When Jennifer Bigham tried for a fourth time to pass a fake check,
prosecutors last year charged her as a habitual felon, under a law that
brings stiff mandatory sentences.

The Plattenburgs' daughter, 25, is now serving up to almost eight years in
prison -- a term longer than some kidnappers receive.

"She wasn't there for what she did. She was given time because of a
mandatory law," Patricia Plattenburg said Tuesday. "Jennifer is a good girl
who had developed a bad drug addiction."

The Plattenburgs don't dispute that their daughter should be punished, but
they believe her sentence is out of proportion to her crimes -- a view
shared by advocates for sentencing reform who met Tuesday.

Reform advocates believe the cash-strapped state should not spend hundreds
of millions of dollars building more prisons to accommodate a growing
population of inmates, but should tweak the laws to save money, still
ensuring that violent criminals remain locked up for a long time.

The N.C. chapter of Families Against Mandatory Minimums and other groups
are backing reforms proposed by a state panel that has researched the
effect of laws on the prison system. If enacted, it is estimated that the
reforms proposed by the Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission could
save the state from having to build at least five new prisons over the next
decade.

"Money going into prisons and operating prisons takes money away from
education," said state Rep. Beverly Earle, D-Mecklenburg, a member of the
House budget-writing committee.

It has been two years since the commission first presented its reforms, but
lawmakers have made none of the suggested changes. Last year, they approved
plans to build three more prisons for $234 million.

The commission's proposals include cutting the terms for most habitual
felons, who are now sentenced in a range reserved for violent crimes. That
would put criminals who commit repeated crimes in prison for an average of
more than 5 years, rather than the current average sentence of nearly 9
years, advocates said.

The proposals wouldn't change punishment for the 13 percent of crimes by
repeat offenders that involve violence, but the remainder that primarily
involve drugs, theft or property crimes.

Prosecutors and law enforcement officials last year opposed legislation to
change the habitual felon law, which they see as an effective deterrent to
crime. Their opposition is likely to continue, said Rep. Joe Kiser,
R-Lincoln, a former member of the sentencing commission and former Lincoln
County sheriff.

Decisionmakers revised North Carolina's sentencing system a decade ago to
ensure violent criminals serve their entire sentence and that misdemeanor
crimes didn't result in a prison sentence. But lawmakers knew then that a
growing population would probably result in the need to build prisons, he said.

"Structured sentencing was designed to keep people who commit serious
crimes and commit crimes often to stay locked up for a long time," said
Kiser, who was no longer a member of the sentencing commission when it made
its reform proposals. "It's worked beautifully in North Carolina."

Other commission recommendations included cutting three months off the
maximum sentence for violent criminals other than murders and adding three
months to their post-release supervision. Sentencing reformers plan to hold
a large-scale rally two weeks after the General Assembly comes back into
session next month.

Kiser said they're likely to meet the same skepticism they did last year.

"I haven't got any feeling that anything has changed. I don't think that
anyone wants to be soft on crime, particularly in an election year," he said.

While Kiser said he sympathizes with the Plattenburgs, their daughter is
another story.

"I feel sorry for anyone that has to go to prison," he said. "But if you
continue to do the crime you have to be able to do the time."