A new report from a non-partisan advocacy group is comparing North Carolina's correctional system to others across the country.
The study aims to paint a more complete picture of legal punishment in the U.S.
The Prison Policy Initiative looked at not only the rates of incarceration in each state, but the rates of probation and parole.
Taken together, North Carolina came in 37th, with about 1,600 people per 100,000 residents under correctional control. That's well under the national rate of 2,045. It's also about three times lower than the rate for the highest state, Georgia.
The study's authors found that the way each state handles probation had a significant impact on the number of people in the correctional system. They also noticed that the so-called “community supervision” population – people on probation or parole – has been slowly falling over the past couple of years.
PPI is a non-profit advocacy group that works to spotlight the negative effects of mass incarceration.