(a) Definitions. – For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Advanced supervised release” or “ASR” means release from prison and placement on post-release supervision under this section if an eligible defendant is sentenced to active time.

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(2) “Eligible defendant” means a defendant convicted and sentenced based upon any of the following felony classes and prior record levels:

a. Class D, Prior Record Level I-III.

b. Class E, Prior Record Level I-IV.

c. Class F, Prior Record Level I-V.

d. Class G, Prior Record Level I-VI.

e. Class H, Prior Record Level I-VI.

(3) “Risk reduction incentive” is a sentencing condition which, upon successful completion during incarceration, results in a prisoner being placed on ASR.

(b) The Division of Prisons of the Department of Adult Correction is authorized to create risk reduction incentives consisting of treatment, education, and rehabilitative programs. The incentives shall be designed to reduce the likelihood that the prisoner who receives the incentive will reoffend.

(c) When imposing an active sentence for an eligible defendant, the court, in its discretion and without objection from the prosecutor, may order that the Department of Adult Correction admit the defendant to the ASR program. The Department of Adult Correction shall admit to the ASR program only those defendants for which ASR is ordered in the sentencing judgment.

(d) The court shall impose a sentence calculated pursuant to Article 81B of the General Statutes. The ASR date shall be the shortest mitigated sentence for the offense at the offender’s prior record level. If the court utilizes the mitigated range in sentencing the defendant, then the ASR date shall be eighty percent (80%) of the minimum sentence imposed.

(e) The defendant shall be notified at sentencing that if the defendant completes the risk reduction incentives as identified by the Department, then he or she will be released on the ASR date, as determined by the Department pursuant to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section. If the Department determines that the defendant is unable to complete the incentives by the ASR date, through no fault of the defendant, then the defendant shall be released at the ASR date.

(f) Termination from the risk reduction incentive program shall result in the nullification of the ASR date, and the defendant’s release date shall be calculated based upon the adjudged sentence. A prisoner who has completed the risk reduction incentives prior to the ASR date may have the ASR date nullified due to noncompliance with Division rules or regulations.

(g) A defendant released on the ASR date is subject to post-release supervision under this Article. Notwithstanding the provisions in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1368.3(c), if the defendant has been returned to prison for three, three-month periods of confinement, a subsequent violation shall result in the defendant returning to prison to serve the time remaining on the maximum imposed term, and is ineligible for further post-release supervision regardless of the amount of time remaining to be served.

(h) The Division shall adopt policies and procedures for the assessment to occur at diagnostic processing, for documentation of the inmate’s progress, and for termination from the incentive program due to a lack of progress or a pattern of noncompliance in the program or with other Division rules or regulations. (2011-145, s. 19.1(h); 2011-192, s. 5(c); 2011-412, ss. 2.7, 2.8; 2017-186, s. 2(iii); 2021-180, s. 19C.9(uu).)