Jail Credit for Probation Contempt

As I traveled around the state teaching about the Justice Reinvestment Act, I had lots of discussions about the various types of confinement that can now be ordered in response to a probation violation (splits, dips, dunks, and so forth—they’re all catalogued here). That conversation almost always included a discussion of jail credit. The general rule that I passed along is that a probationer who ultimately gets revoked is entitled to credit against his or her suspended sentence for any prior time spent confined in response to a violation, regardless of the precise basis for that confinement. At almost every session, someone would ask if that rule included contempt ordered under G.S. 15A-1344(e1)? It does. Under G.S. 15A-1344(e1) the court may, in response to a willful violation of probation, hold a defendant in criminal contempt as provided in Article 1 of Chapter 5A of the General Statutes. Looking at Article 1 of Chapter 5A, the maximum period of imprisonment that may be ordered for the contempt is 30 days. G.S. 5A-12. Under G.S. 5A-15, the judge must hold a plenary hearing on the violation to determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty of the alleged violation, based on facts established beyond a reasonable doubt. In that sense the contempt hearing is more formal and demanding than a typical probation violation hearing, where the facts need only be shown to the judge’s reasonable satisfaction. State v. White, 129 N.C. App. 52 (1998). The contempt punishment is in lieu of revocation [...]