RALEIGH -- Thousands of misdemeanor offenders will serve their time in local jails instead of state prisons under a change in state law that takes effect next week. It also allows county sheriffs to claim revenue for their lockups by filling empty beds.
The law approved by the General Assembly last summer aims to reduce spending on the state's nearly 40,000 incarcerated criminals, and redirects the savings into community-based alternatives that reduce law-breaking.
One of those changes, taking effect with the new year, will see about 4,500 people a year convicted of misdemeanor crimes serving their sentences of three to six months in county jails instead of prisons.
Offenders sentenced to 90 days or less behind bars will continue to serve their sentences in county jails at county expense. The longer sentences are typical for certain types of assault and some property crimes with prior criminal records.
Lockups in more than half the state's 100 counties have signed up to participate in the voluntary program, which allows jails to collect $40 per inmate per day, according to N.C. Sheriffs' Association Executive Vice President Eddie Caldwell Jr.
"Our goal will be to assign all inmates in close proximity to the county in which they're sentenced," Caldwell said.
His nonprofit trade association is using new, state-collected court fees to pay participating jails and the sheriff's departments that run them.
$33M a year saved
Until next week, offenders sentenced to 90 days or more will continue to serve their sentences in state prisons. By raising the threshold for prison stays to 180 days, the state Department of Correction is expected to cut space for more than 1,000 inmates, saving more than $33 million a year, legislative fiscal analysts estimated.
The average cost of housing an inmate in a minimum-custody state prison, where people convicted of misdemeanors are typically sent, is $64.59 a day, the Department of Correction said.
Offenders from every county will be affected by the change if they are sentenced to longer misdemeanor terms for crimes committed starting next week, though not every county's jail wants to participate in holding them for their sentences. But most counties have lined up to take inmates, collecting a new source of revenue by filling jail beds that otherwise would be empty.
It puts inmates only "in jails that have space," Caldwell said.
Jails across the state will be paid the same rate so counties don't bid against each other, he said.
