A program designed to protect North Carolinians from people charged with sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking and other crimes faces a murky future as officials seek permanent funding for an organization that monitors alleged perpetrators across the state.
The program is operated by the North Carolina Criminal Justice Information Network in most of the state’s 100 counties. The quasi-governmental group, known as CJIN, uses ankle monitors tied into the Global Positioning System to determine how close a defendant is to a victim or another person who has accused them of abuse.
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The group receives funding approved by the North Carolina General Assembly. But confusion over future funding of the group has led to warnings that the program could shut down, according to people familiar with the matter and records obtained by WRAL News.
Emails obtained by WRAL show that CJIN was prepared to suspend the GPS program last week but ultimately canceled those plans after receiving emergency financial assistance from the state Department of Public Safety. DPS doesn’t direct CJIN’s spending or program operations, but appropriates funding to the network as directed by state lawmakers.
Judges use the GPS program to enforce court-mandated “no-contact” orders for defendants accused of crimes such as stalking, sexual assault, domestic abuse, or violations of a domestic violence protective order. The ankle monitors track their location and alert plaintiffs if defendants violate court orders. More than 1,200 monitors are currently in use across 63 counties, the group says.
CJIN has expanded the program since it received $4 million from the legislature in 2023. The group now offers roughly $7 million in services and doesn’t have enough cash on-hand to cover the next fiscal year, said Jody Donaldson, a DPS spokesman.
DPS says state law doesn’t guarantee CJIN funding from DPS beyond July of this year.
State officials last week rushed to secure temporary funding for CJIN after its chairman, Steve Lingerfelt, told district court judges the GPS system needed to be suspended.
“This is due to some unforeseen budgetary concerns that must be resolved legislatively,” Lingerfelt wrote to the judges in an email obtained by WRAL. He added that the network would soon provide “additional communication regarding the deinstallation of devices.”
DPS found enough money to keep the GPS system running through September. But officials in the department say CJIN is responsible for securing funding into the future.
“CJIN will be working with DPS leadership and other leaders as they are identified to diligently ensure that the funding concerns are resolved, so that victims’ safety is not compromised,” LaVonda Fowler, CJIN’s executive director, told WRAL in an email.
Domestic violence cases accounted for 56% of the system’s use last year, according to CJIN’s 2024 annual report. Sexual assault cases accounted for the 37% of their use. Other types of cases — including stalking — accounted for the remaining 7%.
Fowler says the program is effective, noting that there “has not been a single domestic violence fatality of any participant while on the program.”
The funding uncertainty comes as North Carolina legislators are still crafting a state spending plan for the next two fiscal years. Lawmakers recently approved stopgap funding for some state agencies and certain higher-education needs, but they’ve yet to adopt a plan that would fully fund government operations or provide raises to state employees. Until a deal is reached, the state is operating under the funding levels approved under the 2023-24 budget.
Spokespeople for Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said they were unaware of the program’s needs and weren’t sure whether additional funding would be made available.
History of the program
The GPS monitoring program was initially launched as part of a nonprofit known as Caitlyn’s Courage, named after Caitlyn Whitehurst, whose ex-boyfriend killed her in 2019. The following year, state lawmakers granted Caitlyn’s Courage $3.5 million in federal Covid-19 pandemic relief funds to launch the GPS tracking program in nine judicial districts.
The GPS program transitioned from the nonprofit to CJIN in 2021. The network is run by a board, which is appointed by state lawmakers and includes law enforcement leaders, magistrates, county commissioners and judges. The network has been operating into this year with funds from the 2023-24 state budget.
CJIN’s tracking system is now used in more than two dozen judicial districts and 63 counties — from Madison County in western North Carolina to Dare County along the Outer Banks.
The Triangle’s two most populous counties, Wake and Durham, use different vendors for defendant monitoring, their district attorneys told WRAL. Chatham and Orange counties use the CJIN’s GPS system and have about 65 units currently in the field, said Jeffrey Nieman, the district attorney for those counties.
Nieman told WRAL that he appreciates the technology because it can work for both sides of a case. The GPS system helps protect potential victims of domestic violence. It also offers defendants a level of freedom they might not get otherwise, Nieman said.
"The absence of a system like that has the unforeseen effect of having more people in jail awaiting trial,” Nieman said.
CJIN’s 2024 report lays out a vision for expanding the tracking program across the state. But the funding issue, if unresolved, could stunt the program’s growth.
Johnston County doesn’t currently use a GPS tracking system, but it has been considering adopting the technology, District Attorney Jason Waller told WRAL. News of CJIN’s financial challenges, however, has given Waller pause.
“Before we commit to it, we want to make sure the funding is there going forward so it doesn't abruptly stop on us,” Waller said.
Financial confusion
Fowler, CJIN’s executive director, told WRAL that the network’s financial situation left the board with no choice but to prepare customers for a service disruption. She said DPS, which operates as CJIN’s administrative agent, notified the network of insufficient funds this month.
Fowler said the organization was operating under the impression that lawmakers intended to provide the funds on an annual basis. The 2023-24 state budget granted $4 million to DPS “in recurring funds for the 2023-2024 fiscal year … to expand the electronic monitoring program." But DPS said it interpreted language in the bill to mean that it wouldn’t be funded beyond 2024.
Until it was rescued by the emergency DPS funds last week, Fowler had prepared to shut down the monitoring program.
“The decision to suspend it was ultimately the only option, as there were no funds to support it. This was outside of the control and power of the CJIN board or its executive director to resolve,” Fowler said in an email.
DPS disputed Fowler’s timeline. The department provided email records to WRAL showing that Melissa Earp, the department’s chief financial officer, informed Fowler in a May 2024 email that CJIN was running out of money. Though the state’s 2023-24 spending plan mentioned recurring funds, Earp noted that the legislature’s “money report” on the state budget showed no new funding for CJIN.
DPS believes CJIN is responsible for securing its own funding in future years, either from the General Assembly or through other sources, said Donaldson, the DPS spokesman.
After receiving Earp’s email, Fowler said she notified the office of House Speaker Tim Moore, who has since departed the legislature and represents western North Carolina in Congress. “I was assured by the Speaker’s staff that it would be corrected,” Fowler said.
Moore didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. A spokesman for Republicans in the state House of Representatives said Moore didn't make any commitments to CJIN about future funding when he served in the General Assembly.
CJIN’s announcement that its GPS program planned to shut down triggered a series of phone calls and emails between court officials, DPS administrators and staff members in the governor’s office.
The tracking program, which seemed to emerge out of nowhere only five years ago, appeared poised to shut down just as fast. Two business days after Lingerfelt’s email, DPS had secured enough funding to keep the GPS program running through September.
However, long-term funding for the program remains uncertain. CJIN plans to work with DPS and legislative leaders to identify a new source of funding, Fowler said. But she said the group has received no assurances from DPS or the General Assembly that more funds will be made available.