Confinement in Response to Violations (CRV) and Limits on Probation Revocation Authority

When analysts from the Council of State Governments studied North Carolina’s sentencing laws and correctional system, one of their key findings was that revoked probationers account for a lot of new entries to prison each year—more than half. The Justice Reinvestment Act (S.L. 2011-192) responds to that finding in several ways, one of which is limiting the amount of a time a probationer can be imprisoned for certain violations of probation. Under the new law, for probation violations occurring on or after December 1, 2011, the court may not revoke probation for violations of conditions other than the “commit no criminal offense” condition set out in G.S. 15A-1343(b)(1) or the new statutory “absconding” condition set out in G.S. 15A-1343(b)(3a). (The absconding condition is a new regular condition for offenders on probation for offenses that occur on or after December 1, 2011. S.L. 2011-192, sec. 4.(d), as amended by S.L. 2011-412, sec. 2.5.) For other violations, the court may impose a period of “confinement in response to violation” under new G.S. 15A-1344(d2). I’ll refer to that confinement period in this post and in other publications as a “CRV” period (Confinement in Response to Violation). Others have termed it a “dunk.” Whatever you call it, it’s useful to have a terminology that makes clear than confinement under G.S. 15A-1344(d2) is different from other short-term confinement periods, like a “split” (special probation) or a “quick dip” (a short-term confinement option under new G.S. 15A-1343(a1)(3) that I’ll write about in my next post). For felons, [...]