Weekly Briefing

What Governor Perdue should say and do about the proposed inmate release

Last week, one of North Carolina’s veteran political observers, Rob Christensen of Raleigh’s News & Observer, more or less chalked Governor Beverly Perdue’s recent tough talk surrounding the likely release of several inmates from the Department of Correction up to politics:

“Being tough on crime has long been part of the Southern Democratic playbook.

Tar Heel Democrats such as Perdue have traditionally engaged in a balancing act, supporting more liberal policies such as more spending for education while appealing to more conservative voters on crime. Perdue's two Democratic predecessors, Mike Easley (2001-2009) and Jim Hunt (1977-85, 1993-2001), were both strong supporters of the death penalty.

‘Crime is always a basic issue,’ said Democratic strategist Gary Pearce. ‘People expect government to keep them safe. … You've got to be sensitive to that expectation. … Politically you cannot be soft on crime.’"

Christensen’s conclusions seem to match the common perception of most people in the state policy and political worlds. According to this widely repeated theory, whether or not Perdue agrees with conclusion of the courts that several inmates should be released, she simply must combat it lest she be branded a softy. Especially, goes the thinking, in light of her current lack of popularity in the polls, the Governor simply can’t take a position that, to paraphrase Christensen, “strays from the playbook.”

An alternative approach

Christensen and the other traditional pundits may be right: North Carolina voters may simply be incapable of understanding and appreciating the subtleties of old sentencing laws (however well-intended they may have been at the time they were put on the books) but it would be interesting to see what would happen if the Governor were willing to think just a little bit outside of the box.

Governor Perdue is, after all, unpopular at least in part because of the widespread perception that she is a traditional insider politician: an elected official who always has one thumb in the air and a deep commitment to doing whatever she can not to alienate anyone. What if she engaged in a little unpredictable straight shooting?

Consider, for instance, the following possible alternative statement that she might have made in the matter – perhaps even in a televised speech (though, granted, this would have been tough to pull off from China).

My fellow North Carolinians…

“My fellow North Carolinians, I want to talk to you briefly tonight about a difficult matter that is confronting our state. Earlier this month, our state Supreme Court upheld a decision of the Court of Appeals in the matter of an inmate currently being held in the state Department of Correction.

The offender, a man by the name of Bobby E. Bowden, was convicted of murder 34 years ago. Bowden’s crime was a terrible and unforgivable act that ended the lives of two innocent human beings. If he were convicted of those crimes today, there would be only two possible sentences: the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole.

Unfortunately, at the time of Bowden’s conviction, our state laws were different. Today, thanks to “truth-in-sentencing” laws that I helped pass as a state senator in the 1990’s, a criminal offender will actually serve the sentence to which he or she is sentenced. “Life in prison” really means “life in prison.”

In 1970’s and 80’s, however, North Carolina law still offered the chance of parole to offenders. In addition, as a way of encouraging rehabilitation and good behavior in prison and controlling dangerous overcrowding, inmates were also offered the possibility of “good time” –a day-for-day reduction in their sentence if they behaved well in prison. To top things off, at that time, a life sentence didn’t necessarily mean “life.” Rather state law considered a life sentence to be an 80 year sentence. This may seem hard to understand to us today, but like it or not, it was the law.

In the recent court decisions (both of which were unanimous and included judges of both political parties) it was determined that the relevant state law applicable to Mr. Bowden would result in his being released right away. The judges found that, for better or worse, the law in effect at the time of his sentence allowed him credit for time served. In other words, whether we like it or not, he has served the sentence that he was legally obligated to serve. To further complicate matters, it has come to my attention that there are at least 19 other offenders who are in the same situation.     

Like most North Carolinians I am extremely upset with this development. The notion that some obscure law from decades past can trump modern public policy when it comes to fundamental matters of public safety is tremendously frustrating. I am confident that if we were able to go back in time and explain to the people who made these laws many decades ago the effect of what they were doing, they would have made a different decision.

Unfortunately, we can’t do that. The law is what it is and it is a good and fundamental American constitutional tradition that our nation does not allow so-called “ex post facto” laws – that is, people must be treated according to the law of the time in which they live. Whatever our frustrations at the current state of affairs, it would be an even greater injustice (and, of course, unconstitutional) for us to try and change the law retroactively. Our founding fathers banned this practice for good reason.

So, what do we do? 

Well, as far as I am concerned, there’s really only one thing to do – it’s the thing I swore an oath to do almost 10 months ago when I became your Governor: to support the laws and Constitution of our nation and state. It is my most solemn duty.

This will probably not be the only time when I will have to enforce laws that I do not like or agree with, but to do otherwise is to engage in despotism – a step I will never take.

None of this is to say that we will simply be turning dangerous criminals loose on our streets. We may see these releases as unjust through modern lenses, but the truth of the matter is that there is reason to believe that these inmates – all of whom are older or middle aged – have been at least partially rehabilitated. Indeed, some have been involved with work release programs that have allowed them time in the community for some years. And while this may not be just, it is no reason stoke fears or to lose our perspective.

The hard reality of running a prison system that releases 27,000 inmates a year or about 74 people a day (as we do here in North Carolina) is that almost all offenders will be released at some point. So, while we might prefer that these particular prisoners never be on such a list, we do have great experience in working with such individuals and are making great progress in building systems to monitor them and to help assure that they do not re-offend. 

So, as we go forward, let me pledge four things:

1)    To uphold our laws and Constitution;

2)    To do every thing within my power to protect the people of this state;

3)    To re-double our efforts to do what is necessary to assure that all offenders released from our state prisons become law abiding citizens and provide restitution to their victims; and

4)    To do everything in my power to strengthen the state’s truth-in-sentencing laws and to build a justice and corrections system that’s tough, fair and logical so that no future generation in our state ever confronts such a problem.

I hope you will join me in this effort and resist the calls of those who say we should simply ignore the Supreme Court of our state or find some pretext to hold these people. We are bigger than that. North Carolina is bigger than that. Our state has survived greater challenges without abandoning the rule of law. We will survive this one.

Thank you and good night.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Weekly Briefing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.