The Statewide Misdemeanant Confinement Program

In this prior post, I wrote about how Justice Reinvestment changed the rules for determining where a person serves his or her sentence. Today’s post takes a closer look at the proper place of confinement for misdemeanor inmates with sentences of 91 to 180 days, the Statewide Misdemeanant Confinement Program (MCP). The basic idea of the MCP is to transfer responsibility for misdemeanor inmates with relatively long sentences from the prison system to the counties, but with the express intent that the costs of housing and caring for those inmates “be covered by State funds and not be imposed as a local cost.” G.S. 148-32.1(b1). The decision to do that stemmed from an observation by analysts from the Council of State Governments that North Carolina was unusual in the number of misdemeanants housed in its prison system (see p. 6 of the CSG report, available here). Under the new place-of-confinement rules set out in G.S. 15A-1352, misdemeanants with a sentence imposed that requires confinement for a period of more than 90 and up to 180 days, except for impaired driving under G.S. 20-138.1 or nonpayment of a fine, must be committed by the court to confinement pursuant to the MCP. G.S. 15A-1352(e). The MCP is administered by the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, Inc. (NCSA), which developed the program in consultation with the Department of Public Safety, Division of Adult Correction (formerly DOC). After a brief pilot program in late 2011, the program began statewide operation on January 1, 2012. Here is [...]