The Grid behind the Grid

The felony and misdemeanor sentencing grids tell us who can get probation. Community Corrections has its own grid that determines how that probation will be carried out. By statute, the Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice must have a “plan to handle offenders sentenced to community and intermediate punishments.” G.S. 15A-1343.2(b). That plan has to incorporate the results of a validated instrument that places each probationer in a “supervision level” based on his or her “risk of reoffending and criminogenic needs.” G.S. 15A-1343.2(b1). Community Corrections does those things in its administrative policy. They use the risk-needs assessment process described here to sort probationers into five supervision levels (Level One is the most serious, Level Five is the least serious—like DWI), and those supervision levels factor into a “noncompliance grid” that dictates how probation officers respond to different types of violations. The grid looks like this: As you can see, noncompliance is sorted into five severity categories: (1) public safety, (2) new crimes, (3) reoccurring/multiple violations, (4) nonrecurring violations, and (5) non-willful noncompliance. The policy recognizes that there is overlap between the categories, and leaves it to officers’ professional judgment to categorize noncompliance appropriately. Community Corrections Policy § C.0203 (“Categorizing violations is not an exact science; officers are expected to use their professional judgment in determining, for example, when a new criminal act or a combination of a new criminal act and technical violations constitute imminent threat to public safety and should thus be categorized as S1 instead of S2.”). The [...]