Judges can get assessments before handing down sentences

Every year, state trial judges have to choose between prison and probation for about 18,000 offenders.

Often, they have little to go on beyond the bare outlines of the person's criminal record. Some who seem to be good risks go on to more violent behavior.

Louise Davis thinks that judges choosing between the street and the cellblock should first know what threat the offender poses: Is he violent? How severe are his drug and alcohol problems? What sort of family does he come from? What is his psychological history? Has he ever held a job, and what skills does he have?

Davis runs ReEntry, a Raleigh nonprofit that tries to answer those questions in a pre-sentencing report. Davis' staff reviews mental health and school records, consults psychologists and interviews family and friends, all to determine what risks the offender poses and what help he needs.

When asked, her staff will show up at sentencing with a profile of the offender and a plan: acceptance in a drug treatment plan, counseling on domestic violence, or a job. Or the recommendation might be that the offender is dangerous to the community and ought to be in prison.

A recent audit from the National Institute of Corrections found major problems in the North Carolina probation system. It ticked off the advantages of pre-sentencing reports and strongly recommended them here.

The reports are seldom done now; last year, ReEntry did 83 in Wake County, usually at the request of a defense lawyer or district attorney. Across the state, 1,609 were submitted to judges.

Some oppose pre-sentence investigations. Judges typically sentence the defendant immediately after the guilty plea or guilty verdict; a pre-sentence report would delay the end of the case and complicate the court docket.

Probation officers, who already struggle with large workloads, fear they will be forced to produce the pre-sentencing reports.

Under North Carolina's structured sentencing laws, judges have limited discretion in crafting sentences. Most low-level offenders will get probation; those convicted of serious crimes will go to prison.

That makes Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens skeptical: "There's no sense in doing a pre-sentencing report when you have to put a person on probation anyway."

Davis recommends a pre-sentencing report only for some offenders poised between prison and probation: offenders with developmental disabilities, mental illness, drug problems or a history of property crime. Davis thinks that would be about 9,000 cases a year.

Davis says organizations such as hers could do the work. Each of ReEntry's reports in Wake County last year cost $1,292; Davis thinks she could triple the number of reports and get the cost down to about $1,000 a case or less. That would add up to an annual price tag of $9 million statewide.