Three-Year Review of Probation

When a probationer has served three years of a probationary period greater than three years, the probation officer is required to bring the case before the court for a mandatory review. The review has one statutory purpose: to give the court an opportunity to terminate probation early. The three-year review has been a part of North Carolina’s probation law for a long time. Formerly codified in G.S. 15-205.1, it now resides in G.S. 15A-1342(d). The provision applies to all supervised probationers—felons, misdemeanants, and impaired drivers alike. It is not clearly limited to probationers whose probation term exceeded three years from the get-go, and so it probably should be read to include probationers whose original term has been extended such that it is at least three years long. The statute doesn’t tell us much about the mechanics of the review, but it does say a little. First, it is the probation officer’s responsibility to bring the case before the court for review, and that responsibility is reflected in Community Corrections policy. § C.0612. The review should happen “before a court with jurisdiction to review the probation.” G.S. 15A-1342(d). The statute doesn’t explicitly say which courts have jurisdiction to conduct the review, but any judge from the district where the probation was imposed or where the probationer resides has jurisdiction to terminate probation, so either of those places is probably fine. G.S. 15A-1344(a). My sense is that the review generally happens in the district of residence. The probation officer must give the probationer “reasonable [...]