Criminal Justice Reform - Part I

Dear Readers, It appears that we are in an era of critical reexamination of our criminal justice system. Maybe its because politicians are finally recognizing the financial drain to public coffers from ever-increasing incarceration rates; maybe its because of sensitivity to the perception of unfairness, given the substantially greater incarceration of minorities. Ultimately, though, why we are entering this era is irrelevant, the important point is that we are and I would like to devote the next two (2) weeks to this development.

In Georgia, the fulcrum for change may come from the "Special Council Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians" ("Special Council"), which was established by the Georgia General Assembly last year by HB 265. From what I can tell, this Special Council has worked "under the radar" in assembling its findings released in November of 2011 – it is a shame that this effort has not received more attention.

Membership in this Special Council cuts across all branches of government and its report draws from suggestions made from corrections, law enforcement, and the judiciary. While the Governor had 4 appointees (including a District Attorney and the State Bar President), the Senate, House (including our very own Willie Talton), and Judiciary each had 3 members. The stated triad-agenda of the Special Council was to make detailed policy option recommendations to control prison growth, increase public safety, and increase accountability of offenders at the community-based level. It spent several months working on its agenda starting this past summer. Its efforts were partially funded by the Pew Center on the States and the Justice Department.

Some of the findings are shocking and embarrassing, as Georgia's prison population has doubled in two (2) decades to 56,000 at present. In 2007, Georgia had the 4th highest incarceration rate in the country and it is probably worse today. We are currently at 107% of capacity in our prisons and jails (meaning we are going to need to build new prisons). Ironically, at a time when there has been a dramatic drop in crime rates (as much as 21%) incarceration rates continue to rise. These are ugly, ugly numbers.

Here is the financial cost to us each year – more than $1 billion annually. In 1990, it was less than half of this cost. And, this after significant belt-tightening from the Great Recession. This report estimates that in four

(4) years the prison population will pass the 60,000 mark costing more than an additional quarter billion in tax-payer dollars. We can't sustain this, as it will just kill the state's economy and budget – nationally, correctional costs "is the second fastest growing state budget item behind Medicaid."

The Special Council's findings about the cause of this explosion is as expected – increasing incarceration of non-violent (drug and property) offenders (25% of new admissions in 2010) who represent 60% of inmates; 3,200 of new admissions are for convictions for possession drug convictions only (not a sale or trafficking).

More troubling is both the recidivist rate (still at 30%) and the ability of our probation system to effectively supervise probationers. In addition to 56,000 inmates, there an additional 156,000 probationers, and 22,000 parolees, meaning the total number of adults under some sort of felony (this does not include minor crimes) supervision is 234,000 or more than 3% of our adult population. The Special Council concluded that if more resources were dedicated to underfunded probation and parole supervision, recidivism rates could be reduced, as well as prison bed-spaces. Also, if probation sentences were reduced (Georgia's rates are more than twice the national average) limited resources could be better allocated to supervise new offenders.

Hence, the Special Council, concludes we need to have stated policy goals of reducing our annual tax-dollar outlays spent on our prison system. To get there, we need to make smart decisions about efficiency and reallocating financial commitments to reach these goals. Next week, we look at the suggested solutions, which hopefully, will be taken up this coming legislative term.

Local attorney Jim Rockefeller owns the Rockefeller Law Center and is a former Houston Co. Chief Assistant District Attorney, and a former Miami Prosecutor.