FORMER N.C. JUSTICE: STOP WAR ON DRUGS

Spend On Treatment Instead Of Enforcement, Says Burley Mitchell

RALEIGH - North Carolina should consider decriminalizing illegal
drugs as it tries to stem the need for additional prisons, a former
state Supreme Court chief justice said Monday.

Burley Mitchell, the state's top judge from 1995 to 1999, said the
war on drugs in North Carolina and nationwide has been "a total
failure" that has filled up prisons. The money saved if police no
longer made arrests and courts no longer handed out sentences could
be used to treat drug addicts, he said.

"What if we decriminalized drugs? Then you'd knock out all of the
profits of every dealer and more to the point, the big producers,"
Mitchell said at a Raleigh luncheon crowd interested in prison
reform. Drug demand also would go down due to lower supplies, and
drug-related crimes such as robbery and murder also would fall, he said.

While many oppose the idea, Mitchell said: "I think it's something
that needs to be considered."

Even with another 3,000 beds set to come online by 2008, including
2,000 next year in Greene and Bertie counties, officials predict that
the Correction Department will remain about 1,000 short.

State prisons already are feeling the pinch by paying county jails to
keep 278 convicted criminals until space is available, department
spokeswoman Pam Walker said in an interview.

There were 36,978 state prisoners as of Monday.

Even with double-bunking, the shortfall could reach nearly 2,900 beds
in 2010 and 6,500 in 2014, when the projected prison population is
45,312, according to the N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission.

"The state of North Carolina can't build prisons fast enough," said
Chris Fitzsimon with NC Policy Watch.

Former House Speaker Dan Blue, another luncheon speaker, helped pass
a new prison sentencing system that in 1994 eliminated parole and
required judges to impose penalties based on a sentencing grid of
minimum and maximum sentences.

Blue, D-Wake, said he doesn't understand why the General Assembly
hasn't strongly considered commission recommendations in recent years
that would result in slightly shorter mandatory sentences for
convicted felons -- thereby reducing the overall prison population.

Some legislators argue the changes would lead to a slippery slope
toward the elimination of "structured sentencing." But Blue says the
recommendations "really are logical" because they would save the
state the costs of building new prisons.

The N.C. chapter of Families Against Mandatory Minimums said
commission recommendations would eliminate the need for nearly 4,600
prison beds. FAMM also supports changing the state's habitual felon
law, which requires longer punishments for multiple offenders, saying
many of those offenders have drug problems and mental illness better
served with medical treatment.

As of Sept. 30, 4,441 prisoners, or about 12 percent of North
Carolina's prison population, were habitual felons, Walker said.
Nearly 5,400 were serving sentences for drug offenses.