New Probation CRV Centers Open

Have you ever eaten cake decorated with the name of a prison facility? I hadn’t until a few weeks ago, when I attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Division of Adult Correction’s new CRV Center in Robeson County. I’m glad I made the trip down to Lumberton—not just because of the cake (which turned out to be pretty good), but also because of what I learned about DAC’s vision for its new form of confinement for probation violators. Today’s post is intended to pass some of that information along to the judges and prosecutors who will send probationers to the CRV centers, and to the defense lawyers who will advise their clients about what to expect there. The Robeson facility is one of two CRV centers that DAC opened last month. The other is in Burke County in Morganton, near the former Western Youth Institution. DAC reopened both sites under a legislative authorization to “convert closed facilities for use as treatment and behavior modification facilities.” S.L. 2014-100, section 16C.10. Effective immediately upon their opening, men ordered to serve a period of confinement in response to violation for a technical violation of felony probation (a violation other than a new crime or absconding) will serve their 90-day term of incarceration in one of the two centers. The goal of the new centers is to provide a special type of treatment-focused behavior modification for probation violators. Previously, felony CRVs were being served in regular prison facilities, alongside inmates serving active sentences. The CRV centers [...]