Some of the state prison system's most expensive inmates — those who are terminally ill or totally disabled — could soon be released to spend the rest of their days at home or in health care facilities.

Gov. Mike Easley on Tuesday signed into law legislation that creates a path for these dying and disabled patients to be released before their sentences are completed, so long as they have an appropriate care plan. The law took effect with his signature.

The move could free up as many as 160 beds a year in a state prison system that is at maximum capacity. Several hundred newly convicted felons are being held in county jails until prison beds open up.

Inmates would have to ask Correction Department officials for the early release. Those convicted of serious crimes such as murder or rape would not be eligible. If an infirm inmate became able-bodied after release, he or she would have to return to prison.

Infirm inmates cost the state far more than other inmates because of their health care requirements. Correction officials said a sampling of 20 such inmates showed an average cost of $87,000 per year.

The law is one of two bills sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat, to help reduce a prison population that is expected to climb past 40,000 next year. A second bill allowing illegal immigrants serving time for some nonviolent crimes to be released for deportation could be taken up by the full Senate next week.

Correction: A previous version of this post misstated when the full Senate could take up the bill. 

House budget writers don't want newly-released pedophiles, rapists and other sex offenders staying temporarily in hotels at public expense.

Last night, the House Appropriations Committee changed a provision in the House budget bill that allows the Correction Department to pay for temporary housing for felons released from prison who are on parole, probation or some other form of post-release supervision, Dan Kane reports. The department can use its budget to place felons in a homeless shelter, halfway house, or other housing provider that is under contract with the federal government to provide housing for offenders.

The provision specifically bars the department from sending felons to "a hotel, motel, nursing home, adult care facility, group home containing the physically or developmentally disabled, or residential facility where minors are housed."

Lawmakers also said that the temporary housing can last no more than 30 days, and ordered a study into the feasibility of setting up temporary housing for released felons who can't find a place to stay.

The Correction Department sought the provision after finding it difficult to place sex offenders. New laws that prevent them from being within 1,000 feet of a school or child care center and local ordinances that have banned them from parks have given sex offenders limited. In some cases, they have opted to stay in prison to serve out their maximum sentences, which correction officials say is much more costly than paying for temporary housing until a permanent residence is found.

The original provision would have allowed the department to place felons in hotels, which correction officials said they would do if other options such as homeless shelters were unavailable.

Gov. Mike Easley said that a Department of Correction plan to house sex offenders in motels is the "best of a lot of poor options."

The state House's draft budget includes a provision that would allow Correction officials to put sex offenders up in motels if they cannot find another place to live when they leave prison. Tough laws restricting where sex offenders can stay have left some homeless and others with no options better than prison.

"What we're finding is a lot of these sex offenders who are paroled end up homeless and they're staying in our state parks or city parks where kids play," Easley said.

"With all of the options, this seems to be the one that protects the public the most and that is what the state is supposed to do is protect kids from sex offenders and this is the best way we know how to do it at this point," Easley said.

Legislation that could free up 160 beds in an overburdened prison system has cleared the state legislature and awaits Gov. Mike Easley's signature.

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand's bill allows for the early release of terminally ill, geriatric or seriously disabled inmates who have been determined to not be a threat to society. These are some of the most expensive inmates in the state's prisons because of their health care costs, Dan Kane reports.

The legislation cleared the Senate today by a 44 to 1 vote. The House had approved the legislation earlier this week.

The bill would allow inmates and their families could petition correction officials to be considered for release.

Those convicted of serious crimes, such as murder or rape, would not be eligible. Those inmates whose health improved such that they became able bodied would be returned to prison.

The Correction department and the state parole commission would have to approve the releases.

The state's prison population is above capacity, forcing county jails to hold onto sentenced inmates until space can be found. Lawmakers are trying to find ways to free up beds. Another bill filed by Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat, would release some nonviolent illegal immigrants to federal immigration officials for deportation, a move that could free up another 100 to 150 beds.

The Council of State won't budge on its approval of the state's revised execution protocol.

Attorneys for the council responded Monday to a group of five condemned inmates who appealed the council's approval of the protocol. Attorneys with the N.C. Department of Justice filed the response in Wake Superior Court, Titan Barksdale reports.

The inmates have said the council's approval in February 2007 was improper because it didn't hear from their attorneys first.

The council contends that the inmates don't have the right to challenge the protocol in court because the state Department of Correction offers inmates a way to challenge it. The council, a group of the state's top elected officials, added that the prisoners have failed to show they are harmed by the execution protocol.

"Injury only occurs if the execution protocol is improperly implemented," the council's response said.

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Gov. Mike Easley's detached style is well known.

When he was elected, he made it clear that he was not interested in ribbon cuttings, glad handing or talking to reporter, and for eight years it has not mattered much.

But as his final term is coming to a close, a series of high-profile problems at agencies in his administration could overshadow Easley's goals.

The state Department of Transportation has lost the confidence of legislators. Probation officers at the state Department of Correction are overworked. The state Highway Patrol has become a punchline for sexual misconduct. Reform of the mental health system failed. And a public records flap has hurt the governor's office.

Easley emphasized that he is fixing the problems.

"I think any governor has to accept responsibility for things that go wrong," Easley said last week in an interview. "People don't want to see the governor out tap-dancing in the spotlight. ... They want to see a governor who's working, not who's cutting ribbons." (N&O)

Pat McCrory wants more jails for youths.

At a campaign stop in Greenville, the Republican gubernatorial candidate said he would pursue "gang" legislation to give the state Department of Correction and the court system more funding, the Daily Reflector reports:

McCrory wants more space to incarcerate juvenile offenders so they can learn accountability for their actions. He points to the Charlotte area, where there are only 30 beds for juvenile incarceration and none of those are for girls.

The Department of Correction has denied Alan Gell's former girlfriend and their son permission to visit the former death row inmate in prison.

Gell is back in prison, serving a five-year sentence for taking indecent liberties with a minor. The minor in question is his former girlfriend, Olivia Harris of Ahoskie. She is the mother of Gell's child, 18-month-old Sean Michael Gell, Joe Neff reports.

During the year and a half that Gell spent awaiting trial in the Bertie-Martin Regional Jail, Harris and Sean made weekly visits to see Gell.

After Gell pleaded guilty and was moved to the state prison system, Harris and her son applied for visitation privileges. The Department of Correction turned them down.

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