Out of control: The never-ending crime cycle

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — We hear many people describe the justice system as a revolving door. Police say offenders are committing crimes, getting out and then committing more crimes; sometimes even more violent crimes.

Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous said there is a revolving door when it comes to jail and prison terms.

“We are arresting these people, and when you see lulls where violence is down, it’s because they’ve been incarcerated,” Evangelous said. “When they get released, we can go to the bank that there is going to be an increase in violence when they are released out of jail and prison.”

Deputy Chief Mitch Cunningham said this is even more apparent when it comes to gangs and youth violence connected to gang activity.

“To a certain point they become immersed in this violent culture. We will have certain offenders tell us they expect to be in prison or dead by the age of 30,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham says that kind of mentality doesn’t help their cause.

“I feel like we are in a tug-of-war,” he said. “We’ve got us and the social service providers trying to pull them out of gangs, and then you have the gang members pulling them into the gangs. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose.”

Chief Evangelous says longer sentences could help a lot to the reduce violent crimes.

“The rest of the justice system needs to incarcerate these violent criminals and get them off the street,” Evangelous said. “Until we do that we are going to have this cycle of violence that continues.”

District Attorney Ben David said it’s not that simple.

“There’s a limit to what we can do based on the criminal history and also based on what they are charged with,” David said.

North Carolina’s justice process is bound by structured sentencing. Judges and prosecutors go by a chart to determine sentencing for a felony. David said North Carolina’s structured sentencing can at times be restrictive, especially when it comes to youth violence.

“For first time offenders who are committing low-lying offenses, judges can’t always put them in jail even if they wanted to,” David said.

He said they are constantly looking for ways to keep serious offenders behind bars for longer periods of time, like higher bonds, for example, but when it comes to making any changes to the sentencing structure, we look to lawmakers like Rep. Susi Hamilton.

“The argument against longer sentences is it increases costs, but the flip side of that is longer sentences can keep very dangerous criminals off the street for longer periods of time,” Hamilton, a Wilmington Democrat, said.

According to the NC Department of Public Safety there are 56 state prisons in North Carolina, and 36,750 inmates throughout the whole system. It costs $83.29 each day to house on inmate, which is on average $29,160 a year for each inmate. That’s around $1 billion going into the prison system to house inmates.

Hamilton says it could be time to weight the costs.

“If we are going to increase sentencing for more dangerous crimes, then we probably need to look at the other side of the equation,” she said. “So OK, where can we reduce sentences to get people out of the jailhouse so we can put people in there that truly belong there?”

But jail or prison may not be for every offender. David said investment in community programs and education is just as important as investing in the prison system.

“There’s a lot of young offenders, when they first encounter the criminal justice system, we need to work on trying to keep them in school, and we shouldn’t abandon all the great work that’s being done,” David said.

Leading Into New Communities, or LINC, is a non-profit in Wilmington. It has a number of programs designed to help youth and adults get on the right track in life.

Last month we visited LINC and met Juan Bethea. Bethea told us he turned his life around after participating in a program for young African American men to reduce barriers in education and employment. Now he is an interim youth director for LINC.

“You see me still the same person, not back in jail, which is obviously, according to statistics, I beat the odds,” Bethea said.

And beating the odds can be tough. David said statistics show two out of three offenders released will be back in jail in three years.