By: J. Randolph Evans

ONE BILLION DOLLARS. That is how much the State of Georgia spends every year on corrections. According to the Report of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians, “[d]uring the past two decades, the prison population in Georgia has more than doubled to nearly 56,000. …If current policies remain in place, analysis indicates that Georgia’s prison population will rise by another 8 percent to reach nearly 60,000 inmates by 2016, presenting the state with the need to spend an additional $264 million to expand capacity.”

Of course, it does not have to be that way. There are solutions that both protect the public safety AND reduce Georgia’s need for prisons and corrections. Governor Rick Perry proved it could be done in the State of Texas. By the time his reforms were implemented, Texas was closing a prison (rather than building them) while maintaining public safety with a lower rate for repeat offenders. Other states like South Carolina and Arkansas are following suit. So, it is not a question of whether it can be done. Instead, it is a matter of political will.

Governor Nathan Deal recognized the problem in his first State of the State Address. Under his leadership, the Georgia General Assembly passed HB265, which established the inter-branch Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians. The Council includes Georgia’s Chief Justice Carol Hunstein, Linda Evans from the Judicial Qualifications Commission, members of the General Assembly, judges, district attorneys, and others. At the conclusion of their meetings, the Council submitted its report with recommendations.

A complete copy of the report can be found [here]

No one suggests that Georgia should be more lenient on criminals, especially hardened criminals who present a threat to society. On the other hand, a system that puts 1 in every 70 adults in prison at a cost of $1 billion per year is not the best way. Unless a smarter way of approaching crime is adopted, the costs will keep going up. According to the report, “[o]ver the last 20 years, spending on corrections has been the second fastest growing state budget item behind Medicaid.”

When faced with similar challenges, Texas implemented a comprehensive set of reforms. As a result, Texas went from a projected shortage of 17,000 prison beds over 5 years, with an estimated $2 billion price tag, to a reduced crime rate AND reduced imprisonment rate. In fact, according to the Report, “all 19 states that cut their imprisonment rates between 1999 and 2009 also experienced a decline in their crime rates.”

Of course, any time someone talks about lowering the imprisonment rate, others charge that the state is getting soft on crime. This is not the case. Georgia is, and will remain, one of the toughest states in the country on crime as evidenced by the Council’s conscious decision not to touch the “Seven Deadly Sins” crimes and punishments.

The question is whether the goal is to lock everyone up, or to hold criminals accountable in the smartest most efficient way possible.

Many times, young people are introduced into the criminal justice system at a critical juncture in their lives because they got mixed up with the wrong crowd and/or started using drugs. According to the Report, “nearly 3,200 offenders entered prison following a conviction for drug possession (as opposed to trafficking or sales).” By putting them in prison with the general prison population, society is at risk of them exiting as hardened criminals.

Chief Justice Hunstein often makes the point that young people with few skills and a bad decision end up in the worst place possible – around other criminals. The result is that rather than getting the help they need so that they fix their lives by breaking an addiction or developing marketable skills, they end up around other criminals learning the wrong things from the wrong people.

Georgia courts have struggled to find solutions aimed at helping make productive citizens out of would-be criminals. One of those experiments has been drug courts. These courts offer an opportunity for the courts to assist a non-violent offender with a drug addiction, with the guidance of law enforcement officials and counselors, to help turn the offender’s life around rather than just impose a sentence leading to a life of crime. Unfortunately, there are only 33 drug courts in Georgia, covering less than 50% of Georgia’s 159 counties. They reach only 3,000 offenders.

Now, with the Report in hand, Governor Deal and the Georgia General Assembly are moving forward with legislation enacting many of the Council’s recommendations – including statewide accountability courts (drug courts, DUI courts, mental health courts and veterans’ courts). Georgians deserve a better bang for their tax bucks – all 1 billion – and thankfully it appears that the Governor and the Legislature are delivering just that.