Frequency of Parole Reviews

North Carolina did away with parole for most crimes with the adoption of Structured Sentencing in 1994. Parole is still permitted in certain impaired driving cases, but infrequently granted in practice. Still, there are over 1,300 persons on parole in North Carolina. They are mostly former inmates who served time for serious offenses under Fair Sentencing (effective from 1981 to 1994) or other prior law. There are also over 2,000 inmates in prison serving sentences that are now or will one day be eligible for parole. Today’s post considers the law of how often those inmates are considered for parole. Parole decisions are made by the Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission (the Commission) in Raleigh. The baseline rule for how often the Commission must consider a parole-eligible inmate for parole is in G.S. 15A-1371(b)—or perhaps I should say was in that statute, because the portions of it applicable to crimes other than DWI was repealed over 20 years ago. Still, the law continues to apply for sentences being served for offenses committed before October 1, 1994. It’s not in the current edition of the General Statutes, but you could find it in the General Assembly’s session laws. The most recent substantive amendment was made by S.L. 2015-228, should you ever need the text of the law. Looking at that text, you’d see that for most parole-eligible inmates, the Commission must consider the inmate for parole at least once a year until parole is granted (or the sentence is fully served). A [...]