RALEIGH – In response to the budget crisis in Raleigh, both conservative and liberal lawmakers are offering proposals to reform the state’s criminal-justice programs. I favor a little from Column A and a little from Column B.
Column A has to do with the state’s troubled probation system. Virtually everyone agrees that North Carolina does an inadequate job of tracking criminals on probation and parole, sometimes with dangerous consequences. But the prospect of a major influx of state dollars to address shortcomings is pretty remote at the moment, despite the fact that protecting citizens from criminals is the first and foremost responsibility of state government.
Republican leaders in the legislature have pitched an useful measure in the interim to improve the supervision of those on probation: extending the power of warrantless searches, already enjoyed to probation officers, to local police officers. House Minority Leader Skip Stam called this a “force multiplier” at a news conference, a term that captures the import of the proposal well. If it’s reasonable for probation officers to be able to conduct such searches of probationers’ persons or property, then I don’t see why other officers shouldn’t be able to exercise the same authority.
Naturally, this has nothing to do with curtailing the civil liberties of the public at large. Folks on probation have already been convicted of a crime, and have been let out of state incarceration subject to certain conditions that sworn officers are tasked with enforcing. Let’s make it easier for them to do their jobs.
From the other side of the aisle, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird of Orange County is proposing that in response to the immediate prospect of prison overcrowding, North Carolina change its sentencing policies to divert certain non-violent offenders, primarily drug users, into treatment programs rather than incarceration. Given scarce resources, I strongly favor devoting our prison space to incapacitating and punishing criminal predators rather than addicts.
Sen. Pete Brunstetter, a Forsyth Republican, did point out the irony of Kinnaird’s proposal to expand the ranks of offenders subject to probationary supervision at precisely the time North Carolinians are worried about the probation system. But I think that really makes the case for adopting both ideas simultaneously. Give law enforcement the tools they need to keep track of probationers, including more probation officers and information resources as soon as possible. But also strike a better balance between prisons and alternatives when it comes to nonviolent offenders.
The taxpayers of North Carolina can’t afford to keep doing things the way we’ve been doing them.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation