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Editorial: Keep inmates locked up until issue resolved
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Common sense has prevailed on the North Carolina prisoner release.
On Thursday, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue said she would not free a group of violent inmates who were sentenced to life in prison. The governor’s office claims that inmates sentenced before the state’s Fair Sentencing Act went into effect in 1981 should not have qualified for the good conduct credits offered under that law. Until the matter is resolved, the inmates will stay in prison.
That just makes sense. All questions about the legality of this issue need to be resolved before these people are set free.
Local officials are concerned about the releases because of our close proximity to North Carolina. If released, only the sex offenders would be tracked, and there is nothing to prevent any of the freed inmates from crossing state lines. It is possible they have been rehabilitated in prison and would pose no threat to society, but we also understand people’s concerns about the public’s safety.
That is why we hope some sort of supervision could be established for these 20. They could have to register with authorities as sex offenders do, or check in with authorities as probationers do. That would be out of the ordinary, but this is not an ordinary situation.
This is a difficult issue that has been argued in North Carolina courts for years. But as long as questions remain, the inmates should remain behind bars.
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