New Jail Credit Rules Signed Into Law

Two revisions to North Carolina’s primary jail credit statute, G.S. 15-196.1, will kick in on December 1, 2015. Both of them benefit defendants. The changes appear in Session Law 2015-229, signed by the governor on Tuesday. Incident-based crediting. The first change broadens the confinement that is eligible for credit under G.S. 15-196.1. As described in this prior post, under the existing version of the law, a defendant is eligible for all time spent in confinement “as a result of the charge that culminated in the sentence.” Not everyone interprets that provision in the same way. Under the most restrictive interpretation, a defendant doesn’t get credit for confinement on any charge aside from the one actually resulting in a conviction—even if the ultimate charge was a superseding charge for the same crime, or perhaps a different charge for the same behavior. For example, a defendant charged with rape who ultimately pleads to indecent liberties would get no credit for the confinement on the rape charge, because the rape charge did not “culminate[] in the sentence.” The revised law commands a broader view of creditable confinement, requiring the judge to credit all time spent in confinement as a result of the charge that culminated in the sentence or the “incident from which the charge arose.” The authorization to award credit for confinement related to the same “incident” will clearly require the court to credit confinement on an earlier charge for the same behavior that eventually results in a conviction on a different charge (like the [...]