Gov. Mike Easley said Tuesday that the principal flaw in the state's probation system is that state sentencing laws let too many people avoid prison. He said his administration has asked for more money and more probation officers to help repair the damage.

"The current system puts people on probation who shouldn't be on probation," Easley said in an interview. "Until those people are put behind bars, this is going to continue."

Easley's comments came after a News & Observer series highlighted 580 cases of probationers who killed since 2000, a system that has lost track of thousands of convicted criminals and leadership that had missed chances to improve technology to help officers keep up with their charges.

In several cases, probation officers had abandoned supervision of cases where probationers went on to kill. One of the suspects in the death of UNC student body president Eve Carson had never met his probation officer after being sentenced in another case.

Easley said his administration has asked for additional money for prison cells and probation officers, because a primary problem is that more prisoners need to be kept behind bars.

"When you put mean people on the street," he said, "they do mean things. If they need 24/7 supervision, they should be in jail."

The N&O reported that during some years, correction officials had not asked for extra people and that they had not made an issue of the vacancies that lead to heavy caseloads for the officers left on the job. In 2005, the probation division asked for 135 new probation officers, but the secretary of correction, in consultation with Easley's budget officials, killed that request and decided instead to increase the caseloads of probation officers.

The newspaper also reported that 26 new jobs approved by the legislature in July for "critical staffing needs" had not been posted as of last week. They were posted Tuesday.

Easley said that when the legislature is asked for funding, the money doesn't come through until months later because of the length of the budget process.

He criticized lawmakers for requiring the probation system to find extra money in its budget from jobs that aren't filled. The probation system doesn't really have those "lapsed salaries," he said, so it has to cut.

"If you have a murderer on the street, don't blame the probation officer for the murder -- 'If they'd only made that meeting last week,' " Easley said. "These people are like hair triggers waiting to fire, and they need to be in prison."

Under the state's structured sentencing, prosecutors and judges work with a grid that allows some sentencing discretion depending on the crime and the criminal's previous offenses. Susan Katzenelson, executive director of the N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, said she was not aware of any Easley administration initiative to toughen sentencing laws.

"Very short answer, no," Katzenelson said. "None that was tagged or identified that it was from the governor's office."

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