2015 Sentencing Commission Statistical Report Available

It’s a snow day across much of North Carolina. If your power is on (and your internet connection is working), today’s post will give you something to read by the fire. Allow me to make my annual plug for the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission’s Structured Sentencing Statistical Report for Felonies and Misdemeanors. As always, the fiscal year 2013/14 report contains a mountain of sentencing data, with appendices breaking the numbers down by judicial district, crime type, and specific offense. Judges, use it as a measuring stick for your own sentencing tendencies. Advocates, use it to support your argument about the appropriate sentence in a particular case. Parents, use it to create an impromptu statistics lesson for your kids, who—if they’re like mine—have been out of school all week and spent a little too much time on Netflix. The report once again includes two short Quick Facts pages, one for felonies and one for misdemeanors. Here are some other numbers that jumped out at me: As is generally the case, almost 40 percent of all felony defendants fell in four grid cells: Class H and I, prior record levels I and II. 84 percent of felony offenders were men. 49 percent of felony offenders were black, 46 percent white, and 3 percent Hispanic. 39 percent of felons received active sentences. There was some thought that the percentage of active sentences would increase in response to recent legislative changes making it more difficult to revoke probation. (The theory was that [...]