RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina officials on Thursday said they were rescinding decades of good behavior credits that had been awarded to dozens of violent inmates – prisoners who thought they were going to be freed because of a quirky 1970s law that limited a life sentence to 80 years.

Gov. Beverly Perdue said the inmates will not be allowed to accrue the credits to shorten their time behind bars. Those credits will only be used to improve an inmate’s chance at parole.

“I will continue to pursue all legal means of preventing the release of these inmates without any review by the parole board or any post-release supervision,” Perdue said in a statement.

Inmate Bobby Bowden had successfully argued in state courts that his life sentence was defined as 80 years – something Perdue conceded in her statement Thursday. He had also argued that credits for good conduct knocked more than half the time off his sentence, meaning he is eligible for unconditional release.

Some of the inmates, most convicted of rape or murder, were set to be released last month. Perdue later blocked the release by arguing that officials had improperly applied some of the credits.

The potential releases appalled victims and their advocates, partially because most of the inmates would be freed without any post-release supervision. Only one would have had official supervision, although those convicted of rape would have to register as sex offenders.

A handful of those inmates have been working toward time outside of prison, using volunteer or work-release programs to spend time in society. They can eventually be approved for supervised release by the parole board.

By Michael Hewlett
Media General News Service

Gov. Bev Perdue can stall but not stop the release of 27 inmates convicted of violent crimes in the 1970s, legal experts said.

The inmates, convicted in the 1970s of crimes that included murder, rape and robbery, are eligible for release because of credits – time off their sentences – they have earned during their time in prison.

Bobby E. Bowden, a Cumberland County man serving life in prison for killing two people in 1975, successfully argued in court that had served his time under state law at the time he was convicted.
Bowden said that he has accumulated enough credits to cut his sentence from 80 years to 40 years, making him eligible for release this year.

The N.C. Supreme Court agreed, upholding a lower court ruling that state law defined a life sentence as 80 years for inmates convicted in the 1970s.

The court’s decision becomes official today, 20 days after it was issued.

State correction officials are reviewing the inmates’ cases to determine how many credits they earned.

Perdue is trying to delay the inmates’ release, arguing that they shouldn’t have gotten the credits in the first place.

But legal experts said the law that was in effect when they were sentenced is clear.

“There’s nothing for us to be debating,” said Carol Turowski, a professor of law at Wake Forest University and a co-director of the school’s Innocence and Justice Clinic.

Inmates can get time off, or credits, for good conduct, attending classes or working. There are three kinds of credit – good time, gain time and merit time, said Keith Acree, spokesman for the N.C. Department of Correction.

The 27 inmates – including three convicted in Forsyth County – scheduled for release have earned some combination of all three credits, which has significantly reduced the time they have to spend in prison.

In 1981, the Fair Sentencing Act was passed, and inmates became eligible for getting time shaved off their sentences, Acree said. The secretary of correction extended the credits to inmates convicted before 1981 regardless of their crimes, he said.

Perdue said that the secretary of correction overstepped his authority, but according to general statutes, he had the discretion to give the credits to inmates who were sentenced to life before 1981.

“It’s understandable people’s fears about having individuals convicted of violent crimes back in the general population,” Turowski said. “However, individuals are released from jail with violent backgrounds all the time.”

About 28,000 inmates are released from North Carolina prisons each year, Acree said, some of whom are violent.

And the law is clear that when these inmates were convicted, a life sentence meant 80 years, Turowski said.

Jim Coleman, a professor of law at Duke University, said what Perdue is doing is political grandstanding. Perdue has an obligation to respect the law, even if she doesn’t like it, he said.

“This is about the law,” he said. “It isn’t about this political crap.”

Tim Crowley, a spokesman for Perdue, said the inmates pose a threat to the general public and that there are legal issues that have to be resolved.

“She and her legal counsel believe there’s a strong argument that can be made in the courts and is committed to looking at every legal option,” he said.

Many of these inmates were initially sentenced to death, Crowley said.

Turowski said she understands that people are upset that these inmates might be released, but the law is the law.

“Even if the public doesn’t like the result, even if the governor doesn’t like the result, we are a nation of laws, not of men and women, and therefore, the law has to stand,” she said.

Inmates can get time off their sentences through three different kinds of credit, said Keith Acree, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Correction.

The most common is good time credit, for which every inmate is eligible. In 1981, state law changed so that inmates convicted of serious felonies such as murder and rape would not be allowed to get time off their sentence.

An inmate can get a day off their sentence for every day they serve in prison without an infraction.

Acree said that even though most of the 27 inmates have had infractions, they have far more credits because they’ve been in prison for more than 30 years.

Inmates can also get what is known as gain time credit. This type of credit is awarded to inmates who are taking classes or working in a job assignment, Acree said. Inmates can earn as much as 6 credits for every month they are working or taking classes.

Merit time is the third kind of credit inmates can get, Acree said. Inmates can earn time off their sentence for working overtime, working in inclement weather or for doing things such as getting a college degree. The prison superintendent has the discretion to determine how much time off inmates will get.

Winston-Salem Journal

A cell phone in the hands of an inmate can be as dangerous as a knife. People who provide inmates with phones should face criminal prosecution.

Rep. Garland Pierce, D-Hoke, introduced legislation this session to make it a felony to provide an inmate with a cell phone. This bill is long overdue.

North Carolina currently punishes only inmates in possession of cell phones, not the person who provided it to them.

With a cell phone, an inmate can maintain control of an outside criminal operation. According to the N.C. Insider, a political newsletter, state corrections officials believe that one inmate ordered an attack upon another who was in a different prison. He did so with a smuggled cell phone. In that case, the phone was every bit as dangerous as whatever weapon was used against the victim.

North Carolina has a serious and growing gang problem. The state’s effectiveness in combating gangs is seriously diminished when imprisoned gang leaders can communicate with their underlings on the outside. This is already a problem without cell phones. Orders can be relayed after inmate visits or through the mail.

Give a gang leader a cell phone when he is behind bars, however, and the state might as well just release him. So long as he can keep the phone charged, he can continue to run the gang’s criminal operations.

Rep. Ronnie Sutton, D-Robeson, who chairs the House Judiciary III Committee to which Pierce’s bill is headed, raises a legitimate concern. The lawyer says state prisons are crowded. He worries about increasing sentences and creating new offenses and the effect that would have on the budget.

Some legislators are wisely proposing that state law be adjusted to shorten the prison time of non-violent offenders. If they can do so without harming public safety, they may be able to relieve some of the budget pressure on the Department of Correction.

Sutton may have a legitimate concern. But providing an inmate with a cell phone is not a non-violent act. It may appear to be such, but if that phone is used to convey orders to harm others, then the person who provided that phone is an accomplice to violence.

Pierce says that the new felony would serve as a deterrent to such phone smuggling and that it will not increase the prison population. We wish we could be as confident of that as he. But the bottom line is that a cell phone in an inmate’s hands is a weapon, and the people who assist the inmate’s acquisition of that phone deserve to be punished severely.

YANCEYVILLE, N.C. – Former North Carolina state Sen. Hugh Webster says he’s innocent of two felony charges that accuse him of taking $12,000 from his elderly aunt.

Webster turned himself in to Caswell County sheriff’s deputies Monday and was released on an unsecured bond. His next court date is Dec. 9.

The 65-year-old Webster was indicted on charges of embezzlement and exploitation. Prosecutors allege he was entrusted by his 80-year-old aunt to manage her financial affairs, but the account was converted to his own personal use.

Webster said the charges were politically motivated. He served in the Legislature for six terms through 2006. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress this year, losing to incumbent Rep. Brad Miller.