§ 143B-1492.  Parole eligibility reports.

(a) Each fiscal year the Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission shall, with the assistance of the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission and the Department of Adult Correction, analyze the amount of time each inmate who is eligible for parole on or before July 1 of the previous fiscal year has served compared to the time served by offenders under Structured Sentencing for comparable crimes. The Commission shall determine if the person has served more time in custody than the person would have served if sentenced to the maximum sentence under the provisions of Article 81B of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes. The "maximum sentence", for the purposes of this section, shall be calculated as set forth in subsection (b) of this section.

(b) For the purposes of this section, the following rules apply for the calculation of the maximum sentence:

(1) The offense upon which the person was convicted shall be classified as the same felony class as the offense would have been classified if committed after the effective date of Article 81B of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes.

(2) The minimum sentence shall be the maximum number of months in the presumptive range of minimum durations in Prior Record Level VI of G.S. 15A-1340.17(c) for the felony class determined under subdivision (1) of this subsection. The maximum sentence shall be calculated using G.S. 15A-1340.17(d), (e), or (e1).

(3) If a person is serving sentences for two or more offenses that are concurrent in any respect, then the offense with the greater classification shall be used to determine a single maximum sentence for the concurrent offenses. The fact that the person has been convicted of multiple offenses may be considered by the Commission in making its determinations under subsection (a) of this section.

(c) The Commission shall reinitiate the parole review process for each offender who has served more time than that person would have under Structured Sentencing as provided by subsections (a) and (b) of this section.

(d) The Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission shall report to the Chairs of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety and the Chairs of the House of Representatives and Senate Appropriations Committees on Justice and Public Safety by April 1 of each year. The report shall include the following: the class of the offense for which each parole-eligible inmate was convicted and whether an inmate had multiple criminal convictions. The Commission shall also report on the number of parole-eligible inmates reconsidered in compliance with this section and the number who were actually paroled. (2015-241, s. 16C.14; recodified from N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143B-721.1 by 2021-180, s. 19C.9(k), (m).)