Republicans have made a top talking point out of a 2021 settlement then-Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration reached with advocacy groups to reduce the state prison population amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cooper’s Senate opponent, Michael Whatley, and other GOP figures argue that the decision indiscriminately turned loose thousands of violent criminals.
Top state GOP lawmakers announced in April that they’d look into the issue by establishing a Subcommittee on Prisons as part of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, an investigative group also known as Gov Ops.
Five months later, the group has nothing to report so far.
The panel canceled a July meeting with Leslie Dismukes, secretary of the state Department of Adult Correction, and Orlando Rodriguez, the agency’s general counsel, and hasn’t rescheduled it.
“The committee itself has not met,” said state Rep. Mike Schietzelt, a freshman Wake County Republican seeking reelection in a competitive district. “We did have one meeting that was delayed at least twice, maybe three times. And, of course, now, this is just a tough time operationally for us to come in for more committee hearings when we’re five weeks out from an election.”
Rep. Brenden Jones, who co-chairs the prisons subcommittee, has made a name for himself this session at contentious hearings. He aggressively questioned Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden about immigration and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools officials on reading materials in the public school district.
Jones’ communications director, Mason Powell, said Gov Ops is still looking into the COVID-era inmate settlement agreement.
“It’s very sophisticated,” Powell said. “There’s a lot of moving parts to it.”
He said the committee hopes to share something before the election, but its work could extend past November: “We really want to make sure we are getting everything correct.”
When the state legislature formed the committee, it seemed intended to put Democrats on the defensive and galvanize the GOP base heading into the midterms. About half of the lawmakers named to the committee—including three of the four Democrats and several of the Republicans—were up for reelection in competitive districts.
Some Democrats and Republicans told The Assembly they didn’t learn they were on the committee until the state’s top GOP leaders announced it in a press release.
“The release of violent, repeat offenders back onto our streets is a serious miscarriage of justice,” House Speaker Destin Hall said in a statement at the time. “If Roy Cooper or any other official failed to keep the public safe, the people of this state deserve to know about it. We’ve formed a committee to investigate how these early release decisions were made, who was responsible, and whether proper safeguards were followed.”
Central to Republicans’ argument is a May 7 New York Post report that said nearly half of the inmates released went on to commit new crimes, including 18 homicides. But a more careful look at the full list of 4,455 inmates, made public this February, found the assertion was misleading in a few ways.
A portion of people on the list weren’t released early but were included because they weren’t sent back to prison after allegedly violating their post-release supervision. An Assembly analysis also found that of the roughly 3,000 inmates who were released early because of the settlement, more than 90% would have been out by the end of 2021 by virtue of completing their sentences.
Cooper has pointed to independent fact-checks pushing back on GOP claims that he bears direct responsibility for crimes committed by people on the list.
“The court ordered this, and the court likely would have ordered a lot more at the end of the day,” Cooper told The Assembly after a July campaign stop. “The fact is I fought this. The prison officials made the decisions regarding specific prisoners.” He has also pointed out that President Donald Trump signed a bill authorizing the release of some federal prisoners, which he says is similar to what his administration agreed to do after the court ruling.
Cooper’s campaign declined to comment on the legislative committee’s lack of activity.
