10/8/15

I am serving a D.U.I. sentence here in D.C.J. For those who do not know about the Misdemeanor Confinement Program, it is the newest torture device used in the criminal justice courts. It essentially means that misdemeanants serve their time in jail. The interesting part is that in A Citizen’s Guide to Structured Sentencing (Revised 2012), prepared by the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, it shows two punishment charts—one for felonies and one for misdemeanors. The maximum active punishment for a misdemeanor A1 level III is 1-150 days. It goes on to say verbatim, “a misdemeanant who receives an active punishment of 90 days or less serves the sentence in the local confinement facility. A misdemeanant who receives an active punishment of more than 90 days and up to 180 days is committed to the statewide misdemeanant confinement program and serves the sentence in a local confinement facility designated by the program.” I say all that to say this: Durham County Jail is one of these facilities that houses MCPs. D.U.I. sentences are or can be up to 3 years under misdemeanor guidelines. That chart exists in thin air I guess. I have never seen and don’t understand. I received 3 years though. Some say that is cut in half. My paid lawyer doesn’t know shit about all these changes, and neither did several Orange County judges. Continue reading →