§ 7A-772. Allocation of funds.
§ 7A‑772. Allocation of funds.
(a) The Director may award grants in accordance with thepolicies established by this Article and in accordance with any laws made forthat purpose, including appropriations acts and provisions in appropriationsacts, and adopt regulations for the implementation, operation, and monitoringof sentencing services programs. Sentencing services programs that are granteesshall use the funds exclusively to develop a sentencing services program thatprovides sentencing information to judges and other court officials. Grantsshall be awarded by the Director to agencies whose comprehensive program planspromise best to meet the goals set forth herein. The Director shall considerthe plan required by G.S. 7A‑774 in making funding decisions. If a seniorresident superior court judge has not formally endorsed the plan, the Directorshall consider that fact in making grant decisions, but the Director may, ifappropriate, award grants to a program in which the judge has not endorsed theplan as submitted.
(b) The Director may establish local sentencing servicesprograms and appoint those staff as the Director deems necessary. Thesepersonnel may serve as full‑time or part‑time State employees ormay be hired on a contractual basis when determined appropriate by thedirector. Contracts entered under the authority of this subsection shall beexempt from the competitive bidding procedures under Chapter 143 of the GeneralStatutes. The Office of Indigent Defense Services shall adopt rules necessaryand appropriate for the administration of the program. Funds appropriated bythe General Assembly for the establishment and maintenance of sentencingservices programs under this Article shall be administered by the Office ofIndigent Defense Services. (1983, c. 909, s. 1; 1991,c. 566, ss. 2, 5; 1995, c. 324, s. 21.9(d); 1999‑306, s. 1; 2002‑126,s. 14.7(e).)