Interstate Probation Cases

Article 1, section 10 of the Constitution—the Compacts Clause—authorizes two or more states to enter into agreements or compacts with one another, provided they have the consent of Congress. Dozens of “interstate compacts” have arisen over the years. Many of you have probably used the services of some of the more prominent ones, like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages many of the bridges, tunnels, and airports that serve New York City, or the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, which most people know simply as Metro. Other compacts have a nationwide (or nearly nationwide) scope, and are meant to improve coordination between the states on shared issues—like the Driver License Compact (through which member states share information on traffic violations), or the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (which facilitates adoptive or foster care placements that cross state lines). Today’s post is about the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision, or ICAOS, which allows covered offenders to move from the state in which they were convicted (the sending state) to another state (the receiving state). First formed in the 1930s as the Interstate Compact for the Supervision of Parolees and Probationers, ICAOS now includes all fifty states and the District of Columbia. North Carolina, which has participated in the compact since 1951, adopted its most recent version of the compact agreement in 2002 in Article 4B of Chapter 148 of the General Statutes. Probationers who want to transfer supervision from North Carolina to another state, [...]