By Mike Klein, Editor
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Georgia will consider alternatives to incarceration of adult non-violent offenders in a sweeping criminal justice review announced Wednesday afternoon by Governor Nathan Deal. Reforms could include expanded drug, DUI and mental health courts, changes to sentencing laws, and alternatives to technical parole violations.
The governor announced the review at a capitol news conference. “Make no mistake. While this effort should ultimately uncover strategies that will save taxpayer dollars, first and foremost we are attacking the human cost of a society with too much crime, too many people behind bars, too many children growing up without a much needed parent and too many wasted lives.”
Deal stood with an historic coalition of executive, judicial and legislative leaders that included Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein. “Our state can no longer afford to spend more than $1 billion a year to maintain the nation’s fourth highest incarceration rate,” Hunstein said. “I am confident that with this united front that you see here today we will accomplish our goals.”
Legislation was introduced Wednesday to create a Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform and a legislative special committee that would review council recommendations next January. This model should sound familiar; it was created last year to consider tax policy reform.
Chilling statistics illustrate the challenge. Deal said nationally one-in-100 adults is behind state prison or local jail bars, 3.6% of American children have a parent who is behind bars, and the trend is growing worse. Deal said one-in-77 adults was under correctional supervision during President Ronald Reagan’s first term; today the number is one-in-31 adults.
“In Georgia the numbers are even more troubling,” Deal said, citing one-in-13 Georgia adults in prison or jail, on probation or on parole. Georgia ranks tenth nationally in total population but it has the fourth largest incarceration population. The state prison population grew 4.6% during the past two years and 60,000 adults are behind bars.
“That growth has taken us to a place where our budgets no longer reflect our priorities,” Deal said. The governor said Georgia spends $3,800 dollars per year for each public school student, $6,800 per year for each university system student and $18,000 per year for each prison inmate. “That math simply does not work for Georgia,” Deal said.
Georgia joins southern states including Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina that have undertaken reforms. Texas shifted from incarceration for non-violent offenders to emphasis on community-based programs. Texas committed $241 million to new and expanded programs, but it saved up to $2 billion in deferred prison construction cost.
Rep. Jay Neal introduced legislation to establish the Special Council and the legislative special committee. “For decades we’ve been treating the symptoms of our addictive and mentally ill prisoners, the symptoms being their criminal behavior, rather than treating the root cause of those symptoms. As a result, spending on corrections has skyrocketed.” Neal said the corrections budget is the second fastest growing in state government behind Medicaid.
Deal said as many as three-fourths of all Georgia inmates have drug and / or alcohol addiction. The question is whether to continue to incarcerate non-violent offenders or divert them away from the prison system and into special courts, day-reporting centers and community programs.
“We know that drug courts that are scattered throughout the state are successful,” Deal said. “We do know that DUI courts, of which we have a few, are being very well received and their results are tremendous. We know that mental health courts, of which we have far too few, are also addressing a very important issue.”
House Speaker David Ralston cautioned against thinking Georgia has gone “somehow soft on crime. Let me say that this is exercising sensible and responsible leadership.” Lt.Gov. Casey Cagle spoke in favor of expanded sentencing options for prosecutors and judges. He added, “In this debate let’s not forget the victims (and) their right to seek justice.”
Legalize marijuana and coca (not cocaine.)
Heavily tax cigarettes and hard alcohol.
The Christian Crusades in Georgia have kept the intellectuals out for far too long.
Georgia should absolutely not go soft on crime. Instead they should use common sense for what a crime is.
If the citizens of Georgia were educated on jury nullification, marijuana would no longer be a crime.
Our state could save Millions by taking a new look at how we deal with marijuana. Jesus said in Matthew 7, “all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye event so to them.” I hope that if my aging parents want to use a little marijuana for the aches and pains of growing older, the police and courts don’t confiscate their home and put them in prison. I hope that if my kids get a little off track and use a little marijuana, I hope I get to help them work through it as a parent, and that they don’t get thrown in jail with the sexual predators. Let’s start doing unto each other as we would have them do unto us. Let’s stop putting Americans in jail over something as silly as a little marijuana.
Why are prison systems spending so much money on prisoners and making them work in return?? Remember the decades ago when chain gangs worked hard at building roads or cutting brush? If prisoners were given less “privileges” like tv and were expected to repay society with hard labor, taxpayer money could be saved and rehabilitation programs for prisoners could be funded. Prisoners that will eventually return to society need to learn a vocation and could do that by being put to work or receiving training while in prison. A person that learns a trade can support themselves and family by legal means after release. Isn’t that a better use of money instead of just leaving them to just spend their prison days learning better car theft skills from harder inmates??
My son had a busted hernia which was sticking through his stomach and stayng infected. His company had no insurance and he couldn’t get an operation. He was arrested for getting two “legal” precriptions for Oxycontin because they were too close together and he got 4 years. They didn’t care about his busted hernia though. He is 46 years old and not in good health and they have him doing heavy labor which could cause more problems with his hernia and he has skin cancer and they make him work out in the hot sun all day long. He lost his home and belongings, his car and now probably won’t be able to get a job when he gets out. Slave labor is what this amounts to. Drug addicts make jobs for judges, police, guards, lawyers, phone companies, vendors and dozens of others. They support them all, plus all the free work they provide for the state. What a racket.
There is no common sense in the law any more. When a 17 year old girl sleeps with a 16 year old boy, she is considered a child molester. If a child just sees a man naked, he is a child molester. Is that really justice? A man was taking a shower in his house and some kids saw him through the window and he was charged as a child molester. The law has gone mad.
My husband was sentenced to prison for drug trafficking because people said he was the master mind behind it. He never actually got caught with any drugs in his possession and this is his first drug conviction. He is chronically ill but was given a mandatory minium sentence, The same as a federal kingpin. Who creates these laws really? It seems to me there the real criminals.
i agree the system needs to be updated they found a old pocketbook in my shed that had been there for over 2 years and gave my wife 30 years for residue she had kicked her habit 4 years prior she is nonviolent and has medical problems she was sentenced by a judge that said after he sentenced 2 million people he would retire a judge should be more concerned with the law than his record on sending people to prison i even offered to pay for a ankel monitor and for the monitoring that would save the state money and make them some money