THE CARSON LEGACY
Even before The N&O series, the N.C.
Department of Corrections requested that
an outside group, the National Institute of
Corrections, prepare a report on the probation system’s shortcomings.
In March, Gov. Beverly Perdue said she
was appalled by the heavy caseloads of probation officers, and she called for spending
more than $13 million to hire more probation and parole officers, train them better
and streamline the system of supervision
outside prison. Perdue also said that adult
offenders’ juvenile records should be available to their probation officers and that
anyone on probation should be subject to
warrantless search.
Tamar Birckhead, an assistant professor
of law at UNC, says the Carson case also
highlights a flaw in the state’s juvenile justice system. North Carolina is one of only
three states in which offenders 16 and
older are dealt with in the adult criminal
court system. “In the adult system, younger
offenders almost get a pass, because of their
youth and because the probation system is
so overextended,” Birckhead said.
A 17-year-old with escalating offenses
on his record would attract more attention
in the juvenile system, she said. “The juvenile justice system is much better equipped
to put these kids under supervision. They’re
put in detention. They are taken off the
streets.”
On-campus lighting has been
improved, and the University
has introduced a Rave Guardian
alert system, which allows students
to use cell phones to enter a length
of time they expect it will take them
to reach a given destination.
If the time elapses before the
student deactivates the alert,
campus police are notified.
the time elapses before the student deactivates the alert, campus police are notified.
Jablonski and her staff also try to be
transparent with data about where crimes
occur on and off campus. One of the challenges, she said, is to communicate this
information “and not break down this idyllic image we have of Chapel Hill.”
For some, the damage to that image
might take a long time to repair. Carson’s
death was a reminder to Virginia Carson,
Jablonski and others that their students can
come to harm, despite their best efforts and
even in a supposed sanctuary like Chapel
Hill. “The loss was really profound for the
grownups around here,” Carson said. “Part
of it was [the reminder] that we cannot
protect these students. We cannot keep out
the real world.”
In March 2007, a year before Carson
was murdered, the UNC Student Body
Association petitioned the town council to install emergency call boxes in
three locations and to upgrade the
lighting in three areas, including
Rosemary Street between Hillsborough and Boundary — a stretch
that is near where Carson lived on
Friendly Lane. Seven months
later, the student body
gave the town $80,000
to undertake those projects, funds raised from a
small safety fee that the
students have imposed
on themselves.
Two years later, the
emergency call boxes are
not in place, and while the
lighting has been improved in
two areas — the Northside
neighborhood and on McCauley Street
— the pedestrian-level lights that will illuminate the sidewalk a couple blocks from
Carson’s house have not yet been installed.
The town’s traffic engineer, Kumar Nep-palli, said he expects the lighting and call
boxes to be completed within the next
several months.
UNC students, for their part, are paying
attention to off-campus lighting. As co-chair
of the student government’s town and
external relations committee, Tom Koester
regularly tours areas around town frequented
by students, looking for burned-out street
lights. He said that Duke Power, which
operates the lights, makes repairs within a
day or two. Students on campus are concerned as well. “I’ve had a lot of people
contact me about [the lighting in] areas they
have to walk through,” Koester said.
‘It made us regroup’
But for all the changes, and those to
come, in the aftermath, perhaps the biggest
shifts have taken place within the students
themselves. After the shock faded, what
remains, even for those who never met
Carson, is a greater appreciation for the
people around them, their University and
their power to effect change.
Daniel Shirley ’09, a journalism major
‘A real level of unquiet’
In Chapel Hill, Carson’s death has
forced people to face down shadows both
literal and figurative. In many minds, there
is now the shadow of fear that Virginia
Carson ’ 71, who as director of the Campus
Y worked closely with Eve (but was not
related to her), feels when she walks to her
home on Boundary Street in the dark. “I
think one of the biggest changes is not a
good one,” Carson said. “There is a real
level of unquiet on campus.”
In her role as head of student affairs,
Jablonski has tried to dispel that unquiet.
She has overhauled the orientation program for students and their parents, adding
specifics about where to safely live, park
and walk off campus. On-campus lighting
has been improved, and the University has
introduced a Rave Guardian alert system,
which allows students to use cell phones to
enter a length of time they expect it will
take them to reach a given destination. If
