2017 Sentencing Commission Statistical Report Available

It’s a chilly, blustery day in Chapel Hill, but I see signs of spring. The days are getting a little longer. College basketball season kicks into high gear tonight. And there are only four days until pitchers and catchers report. But one of my favorite signs that we’ve completed another trip around the sun and are starting to tilt toward it has also arrived: the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission has issued its annual Statistical Report for Felonies and Misdemeanors. This year’s report covers sentencing episodes from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. Here are some things that jumped out at me. As usual, about a quarter of all felony convictions come from two grid cells: Class H/Level I and Class H/Level II. Those two grid cells alone account for more convictions than the entire grid from Class F to Class A—or as I like to call it, the Wyoming of the sentencing grid (a big rectangle with lots of space but few people). Our most populous county, Mecklenburg (population of just over 1,000,000), does not have the highest number of sentencing episodes. Not even close, actually. Mecklenburg had 1,556 felony convictions and 3,457 misdemeanor convictions. Wake County (approximate population 1,000,000) had 2,134 felony convictions and 7,824 misdemeanor convictions, the most of both types statewide. Guilford County (approximate population 500,000) had more felony convictions than Mecklenburg, and both Guilford and Forsyth (approximate population 365,000) had more misdemeanor convictions. The distribution of felony offenders by age confirms the conventional [...]