Amid the opioid crisis, some state lawmakers are looking for ways to lessen the number of people going to prison with long sentences for drug-related crimes.

By Taylor Knopf

One of the latest pieces of national criminal justice reform legislation has made its way to North Carolina.

The North Carolina version of the First Step Act would give judges more discretion when sentencing non-violent drug crimes. President Donald Trump signed federal First Step legislation into law in December, and other states have enacted their own versions of it as well.

Currently, sentencing guidelines give judges a range of prison time for every offense and those often come with mandatory minimum sentences.

For example, under current North Carolina law, someone caught with up to 3.9 grams of heroin will face a Class I felony, which includes fines and spending six to 12 months behind bars. But an offender caught with 4 grams of heroin will face a Class F felony, a $50,000 fine and a mandatory minimum sentence of 70 months in prison.

That fraction of a gram can make a huge difference.

The First Step Act would create a “safety valve” for judges to dissent from the mandatory minimum sentence if the offender meets certain criteria, such as no prior criminal history.

The law would not apply to those who are organizers or supervisors of a criminal enterprise.

This bill comes at the recommendation of a legislative task force which met four times last year to look at the way North Carolina sentences drug crimes in the wake of the rising opioid crisis.

Even as the First Step Act seeks some relief for people who deal drugs, another bill moving through the legislature would create additional felony charges for people who sell drugs to someone who goes on to die from an overdose.

Retroactive relief

The First Step Act also contains a retroactive element. An inmate who may be eligible for a modified sentence under this law has the opportunity to appeal to the court within 36 months after the law is enacted.

Matthew Charles, a North Carolinian who benefited from the Fair Sentencing Act, spoke at a press conference in Raleigh on Tuesday about the importance of the retroactive part of the bill.

In 1995, Charles was sentenced to 35 years in prison for a nonviolent drug crime. He was released in 2016, after petitioning the courts in 2010 under the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced mandatory minimums for possession of crack cocaine.

“It’s important that these things are retroactive so that you are able to look back and reflect and say, ‘We feel that things were done wrong. We overreacted,’” he said.

Charles was one of Trump’s guests at his State of the Union address this year.

“Making something retroactive doesn’t mean you are going to open the gates of prison and let everybody free,” Charles said. “It’s not a get out of jail free card.”

The First Step Act hasn’t moved from the Senate rules committee since the first of April. But bill sponsor Sen. Bob Steinburg (R-Edenton) said he’s hopeful that leadership will take up the legislation.

Steinburg emphasized during Tuesday’s press conference that this bill shouldn’t be seen as “soft on crime.”

“I’m a hard-core law-and-order kind of guy myself,” he said. “As we start peeling the onion back and looking at the numbers and looking at the lives that have been impacted by this, we need to take another look.

“That’s what we are hoping this bill will accomplish.”

He added this bill simply allows a judge to look at the “unique circumstances surrounding each individual” and not apply “a one-size-fits-all sentencing mentality.”

At Tuesday’s press conference, Steinberg was joined by other conservatives, such as Tyler Voigt, deputy director of Americans for Prosperity North Carolina.

Voight said that a couple of years ago, his organization would have taken the position that this bill makes sense financially because more people would be paying taxes and the state wouldn’t be paying for them to be in prison.

“But it’s more than cost savings. Morally, it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “It’s breaking barriers for people to re-enter and be productive members of society.”