I’m glad to announce the supply of the Second Version of Probation Violations in North Carolina.
The guide is on the market within the Faculty of Authorities bookstore, right here.
Regardless that the variety of individuals on probation in North Carolina is about half of what it was once I began on the Faculty of Authorities in 2007, probation violations are nonetheless a high-volume difficulty for our correctional system and our courts. And so they’re difficult, notably after passage of the Justice Reinvestment Act in 2011 and a subsequent collection of technical corrections. Issues are extra secure now. And lots of the trickier points of Justice Reinvestment have been resolved (or not less than clarified) by the appellate courts.
The Faculty revealed the primary version of Probation Violations in North Carolina in 2018. Truly, a few of you could recall that there was a precursor publication—a bit of lime inexperienced trifold booklet that summarized the probation violation course of. However after Justice Reinvestment, the content material outgrew that format.
The brand new version of the guide contains instances and laws by means of June 2025. Contained in the entrance cowl is an up to date chart displaying all of the actions a trial court docket can take at a probation violation listening to relying on the kind of case—felony, misdemeanor, or DWI. Among the many revisions is the addition of “fast dips” for DWI instances, added by means of a legislative modification in 2023.
The guide addresses lots of the regularly requested questions associated to probation violations, together with:
When a pending cost or a technical violation may be dealt with as a revocation-eligible “commit no prison offense” violation, and when it may possibly’t. For instance, the courts have made clear {that a} optimistic drug display, standing alone, shouldn’t be reframed as a brand new prison offense. See State v. Hemingway, 278 N.C. App. 538, 544 n.1 (2021) (“The trial court docket was actually with out statutory authority to revoke [the defendant’s] probation merely for a optimistic drug display.”) (cited in be aware 176 of the guide).
The newest instances on what qualifies as absconding.
The requirement to make a discovering of “good trigger proven and acknowledged” to protect the court docket’s authority to behave on a “discontinued” case (one with a violation nonetheless pending after the case has expired).
Conditional discharge “limbo” conditions, the place a defendant isn’t in violation, however likewise hasn’t accomplished all of the issues she or he was purported to do.
I hope the guide is beneficial in your work.
