By Rachel Crumpler
A law that took effect this month tightens North Carolina’s pretrial release rules, making it more difficult for people accused of violent offenses to be released before going to trial. The changes are expected to keep more people in jail for longer, which would add pressure on county jails across the state — many of which are already near or at capacity.
The Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 307, known as Iryna’s Law, in response to the fatal stabbing in August of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte light rail — a crime that drew statewide and national attention. The bill moved through the legislature in just two days, despite objections from many Democrats who argued that it failed to address gaps between the mental health and criminal justice system and did not provide funding to support those needs.
The law makes changes to the state’s pretrial release system, which critics have blamed for Zarutska’s death. They argue that Decarlos Brown Jr., who is charged with killing her, should not have been free in the community given his criminal and mental health history.
Under the new law, magistrates and judges have stricter criteria for weighing release decisions for people charged with violent offenses, or for those who have been charged with a Class 1 or higher misdemeanor three times within the past decade. Examples of Class 1 misdemeanors are breaking and entering, soliciting a prostitute, drug paraphernalia possession, criminal trespassing and cyberbullying.
The law also requires mental health evaluations for more people and requires judicial officials to make written explanations for release decisions.
The legislation — signed into law by Gov. Josh Stein despite his opposition to some provisions related to the death penalty — also eliminates the option for defendants to be released on a “written promise to appear.”
Supporters of the law, including the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, argue that the changes are needed to break what they describe as a cycle of quick releases followed by repeat offenses.
Eddie Caldwell, executive vice president and general counsel of the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, said sheriffs across the state have long raised concerns about what he called “catch-and-release situations.”
“That’s a real problem for creating victims and increasing crime,” Caldwell said.
“The objective of the bill is to hold more people in jail than are currently being held so they’re not out on the street committing more crimes,” he said.
That will have an effect on jail capacity, Caldwell said.
Terry Johnson, Alamance County sheriff since 2003, said he agrees with about 99 percent of the legislation, though he has some concerns about implementation.
“I don’t think a whole lot of thought was probably put into how it was going to impact the number of inmates increasing in facilities, and that’s where we’ve run into a problem,” he said.
Increased pressure on jails
Sheriffs and jail administrators say increases in jail populations can quickly strain detention centers. Every incarcerated person requires food, clothing, a bed and medical care — costs that can quickly add up and demand more staff to handle daily operations, security rounds and services.
Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden, who oversees North Carolina’s largest jail, said its capacity is already stretched. The jail is managing its highest population levels since he became sheriff in 2018 — and he is bracing for additional strain as a result of Iryna’s Law.
At a Dec. 8. media briefing, McFadden said 1,619 people were in the jail’s custody — an 18 percent increase over the same time last year. He attributed that in part to stricter pretrial release rules, as well as another recent law — House Bill 318 — that took effect this year. It requires jails to hold undocumented people for up to 48 hours for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a magistrate has approved their release.
Maj. Anthony Durrah, who oversees Detention Center Central in Charlotte, told reporters at the briefing that 97 people were sleeping on stack-a-bunk beds — portable bed platforms used when housing units reach capacity.
Just weeks into the implementation of Iryna’s Law, Durrah said he expects the jail population to continue to grow — as well as the length of time people stay. That’s going to come as more people who are arrested are booked into the detention center instead of being released because of the new limits on judicial discretion. The increase will carry a financial cost; McFadden said it costs the county $198 a day to house one person in the jail.
“Overcrowding also reduces efficiency and raises the risk of incidents, making it harder to maintain order,” Durrah said. “As far as morale goes, when the resident population rises, staff demand rises with it. We are without additional personnel. The burden falls on those already here.”
Johnson, sheriff of Alamance County, said his 396-bed jail is facing similar challenges.
“Our population at the jail is already over population, and to have to hold these individuals, it’s really going to put some pressure on us,” he said.
Anticipating a higher jail population under Iryna’s Law, Johnson ended Alamance County’s agreement with Immigration Customs Enforcement in November, which had provided 40 beds to hold federal detainees.
Those beds have already been filled, he said. Johnson said the county needs even more beds than the jail has — a capacity issue he said he’s been raising with county commissioners for years. It has taken on new urgency now.
“Even if we don’t hold a single ICE inmate, we are overcrowded now, which puts my detention officers in a tough situation,” Johnson said. “When you’ve got more inmates and some sleeping on the floor, they’re not going to be in a good mood to start with, and then if you have one inmate to start a fight … it’s going to take more detention officers in that detention center to make sure our inmates are kept safe and our officers are kept safe.”
But Johnson said his detention center is already short by about 10 personnel — roles that can be tough to fill given the scope of work and pay.
Onslow County Sheriff Chris Thomas said he is less worried about his jail capacity. Over the past few weeks, he said the 528-bed detention center’s census is running at about 430 people, and he has not yet seen a significant increase tied to the new law. The law’s impact will vary by county, hinging in part on local crime rates, he said.
Caldwell acknowledged that some counties will be better positioned to manage the effects of Iryna’s Law than others.
“Some counties have done great preparations, and they’re looking ahead and building ahead and thinking ahead, both in the number of jail beds that they’re building and also in the pay and benefits for their detention officers,” Caldwell said. “Part of that is perhaps attributable to local demographics, but in some cases, it’s just due to money. And you can’t expect someone to work as a detention officer for the same salary that somebody flipping hamburgers is going to get.
“Some counties probably should have built a jail decades ago and haven’t done it, and so they’re likely to be impacted the hardest by this.”
No new funding, likely higher costs
McFadden and others have criticized the legislation for adding pressure on jails without providing more funding to offset some of the new demands.
“It’s a difficult pill to swallow when you talk to my staff, but my staff is ready to take on the challenge,” McFadden said.
Johnson said he would have liked to see some state money set aside for grants to counties to help with expansion or construction of new jails.
“If [lawmakers] don’t do something, our commissioners — and I’m not talking about just Alamance County commissioners — are going to have to raise taxes considerably to add on to these detention centers to be able to fulfill the obligation that the law requires of the sheriff,” he said.
Caldwell from the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, which provided some feedback to lawmakers on the legislation, said while state lawmakers could have provided some money for jail construction and personnel if they chose, North Carolina’s structure of government leaves county commissioners responsible for funding local agencies like the sheriff’s office and jail — not the state.
On Nov. 25, days before implementation of the new law, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners held a budget public policy workshop focused on the local impact of Iryna’s Law. A main takeaway: The county — and taxpayers — will be on the hook to provide any additional funding.
“We’re going to be forced to make some very difficult choices moving forward with respect to our priorities,” Mark Jerrell, chair of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, said.
More mental health evaluations ahead
Another provision of Iryna’s Law, which is not scheduled to take effect until next December, will require more people who are arrested to undergo mental health evaluations to determine if they should be hospitalized involuntarily.
The law mandates that law enforcement officers take criminal defendants to an emergency department for a psychiatric evaluation if the arresting officer has reason to believe a person is mentally ill and a danger to themselves or others — regardless of whether their crime was violent. Also, if someone is charged with a violent offense and has been subject to an involuntary commitment order at any time in the past three years, officers are required to take the person for a psychiatric evaluation to determine if there are grounds to start involuntary commitment proceedings.
The delayed implementation of this requirement, which was originally scheduled to take effect this month, came as a relief to sheriffs. They say they are concerned about the increased burden it will place on their staff, who often have to travel long distances to take people to facilities for the evaluations and then the needed treatment.
“That’s a lot of manpower that puts law enforcement in more of a mental health role than what they generally should be in,” said Thomas, the Onslow County sheriff, who explained that implementing this portion of the law is his biggest concern.
To work out some logistics and potentially adjust the process, Speaker of the House Destin Hall established a House Select Committee on Involuntary Commitment and Public Safety in October to study the involuntary commitment process. So far, the committee has held two meetings, where hospital administrators and state health officials have raised concerns about their ability to handle more patients under involuntary commitment orders with the state’s shortage of specialty psychiatric beds.
Caldwell said the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association supports the provision because it could help move people with serious mental illness out of jails and into appropriate care — rather than having them languish in detention centers that have increasingly become de facto mental health institutions.
“People with mental health needs and problems need to be receiving that care in a mental health facility, not in the jail,” Caldwell said. “A jail will never be a hospital and never be a psych ward. It’s not designed for that, and that’s not the purpose of a jail.”
More work needed
Caldwell and other sheriffs told NC Health News that they believe Iryna’s Law can improve public safety, but that it shouldn’t be considered a solution to the revolving door of crime. They said the law should be viewed as a first step — one they hope will spark more work at the intersection of the mental health and criminal justice systems.
“I am very, very big on our mental health issue,” Johnson said. “Some of the individuals that are repeated criminals, had they received proper mental health treatments, would never be in this jail again. I think that’s where we got to look at some of these issues that we’re dealing with now.”
Thomas echoed the need for a greater focus on mental health resources.
“The mental health aspect of this law has actually done a great thing — it’s got the conversation started,” Thomas said. “I really felt like for quite a while some of our voices weren’t being heard about the mental issues that ended up in our facility. There are a lot of people now aware of it, and they’re talking about it, and I’m hoping it has a good outcome.”
KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
