Sentencing guidelines and its effect on prison overcrowding

In a news article written in the Greensboro News Record it was brought to the public’s attention that the state of North Carolina was planning on opening up three new prisons some time this year. It is estimated that it will cost around $8 million to staff the facilities. People may wonder as to why the prisons are becoming so over crowded, and it would be easy for those same people to think that more crimes are being committed now a days then ever before. According to an article written by Matt Williams, a staff writer for the Greensboro News Record, it is highly likely that it is not an increase in crime at all causing the over crowding of prisons but instead the side effects of structured-sentencing laws. “Some of that growth can be attributed to structured-sentencing laws.......” said Susan Katzenelson, director of the N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission. The laws Susan Katzenelson was referring to when commenting, were those laws which put a large emp...