Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform

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The Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform is a fifteen-member, non-partisan state commission tasked with conducting annual comprehensive reviews of criminal laws, criminal procedure, sentencing laws, adult correctional issues, juvenile justice issues, enhancement of probation and parole supervision, better management of the prison population and of the population in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice, and other issues relates to criminal proceedings and accountability courts in the state of Georgia. [1]

U.S. state constituent political entity of the United States

In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.

Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law is established by statute, which is to say that the laws are enacted by a legislature. Criminal law includes the punishment and rehabilitation of people who violate such laws. Criminal law varies according to jurisdiction, and differs from civil law, where emphasis is more on dispute resolution and victim compensation, rather than on punishment or rehabilitation. Criminal procedure is a formalized official activity that authenticates the fact of commission of a crime and authorizes punitive or rehabilitative treatment of the offender.

Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court instead of serving time in prison.

Contents

Background

For several decades, Georgia enacted "tough on crime" legislation with the intent of deterring criminal activity. While this was the popular approach, its implementation led to a prison population in Georgia that had more than doubled to nearly 56,000 inmates by 2010. [2] As a result, Georgia had one of the highest proportions of adult residents under correctional control. This growth also came at a substantial cost to Georgia’s taxpayers. In FY 2011, Georgia spent more than $1 billion annually on corrections, up from $492 million in FY 1990. [3] Yet despite this growth, the recidivism rate had remained unchanged at nearly 30 percent throughout the previous decade. In addition to this, calculations showed that if current policies remained in place, Georgia's prison population would rise by another 8 percent to reach nearly 60,000 inmates by 2016, requiring the state to invest an addition $264 million to expand prison capacity. [4]

Seeking new ways to protect public safety while controlling the growth of prison costs, the Georgia General Assembly passed HB 265 to establish the inter-branch Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians. [5] The legislation also created a Special Joint Committee on Georgia Criminal Justice Reform, made up of members from both legislative chambers, to consider the Council's recommendations in the 2012 legislative session. To guide the Council's work, the state’s leaders laid out the following goals:

Georgia General Assembly


The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In its first year, the Special Council produced policy recommendations that led to significant adult corrections and sentencing reform enacted through HB 1176. [6] Soon after, Governor Deal issued an executive order expanding the Special Council’s membership and directed it to focus on Georgia’s juvenile justice system. [7] During the 2013 legislative session, the Special Council's recommendations were included in HB 242, a sweeping rewrite of the juvenile code. [8] Recognizing the need for further reform, the General Assembly also passed and Governor Deal subsequently signed HB 349, which created the newly named Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform in statute and gave it a five-year mandate to improve public safety through better oversight of the adult and juvenile correctional systems. [9]

Nathan Deal 82nd Governor of Georgia

John Nathan Deal is an American attorney and politician who served as the 82nd Governor of Georgia from 2011 to 2019. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party in 1992 and switched to the Republican Party in 1995. On March 1, 2010, Deal announced his resignation from Congress to run for Governor of Georgia.

Adult Corrections and Sentencing

Primarily addressed in the initial report and HB 1176, recommendations from the Council have profoundly impacted adult corrections and sentencing in Georgia. The initial report found that the growth in the prison population was in large part due to the policy decisions concerning who was being sent to prison. Of concern to the Council was the fact that the majority of offenders sentenced to prison were low-risk drug and property offenders. The Council also identified several challenges to the state’s ability to effectively supervise offenders on probation and parole and provide interventions that can reduce the likelihood of re-offending. To address these concerns, recommendations from the Council adopted in HB 1176 included: expanding accountability courts, increasing funding in evidence-based programs to reduce recidivism, and providing judges sentencing options other than prison. [10]

Juvenile Justice

In 2012, the Council shifted its focus to reforming Georgia's juvenile justice system. The primary reasons for the juvenile justice reforms found in HB 242 were the high cost and minimum impact on recidivism made by out-of-home facilities. Juvenile Justice recommendations adopted by the General Assembly included: the creation of a two-class designated felony act, Prohibiting status offenders and certain misdemeanants from being disposed to residential facilities, and strengthening evidence-based community supervision and programs to provide juvenile judges with more sentencing options. [11]

The term felony, in some common law countries, is defined as a serious crime. The word originates from English common law, where felonies were originally crimes involving confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods. Other crimes were called misdemeanors. Many common law countries have now abolished the felony/misdemeanor distinction and replaced it with other distinctions, such as between indictable offences and summary offences. A felony is generally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is not.

Reentry

With important reforms well underway in the adult and juvenile corrections systems, Governor Deal asked Council members in 2013 to focus their attention on offender reentry, the critical junction between incarceration and the recommencement of community life. To assist the Council's newest initiative, Governor Deal issued an executive order creating the Governor's Office of Transition, Support and Reentry. [12] Council members decided to partner with the Michigan-based Center for Justice Innovation and reentry expert Dennis Schrantz. After extensive data analysis and meetings with stakeholders in multiple jurisdictions, a core team of state agency stakeholders facilitated by Schrantz developed the Georgia Prisoner Reentry Initiative (GA-PRI), which lays the foundation for a five-year effort expected to make Georgia a leader in recidivism reduction.

The fundamental goals of the GA-PRI are to:

Misdemeanor Probation

Controversy over misdemeanor probation led to the passage of a reform bill by the Georgia Assembly in 2014; however, Governor Deal vetoed the bill because of concerns it would allow private companies to avoid public disclosure of information about their operations. [14] Recognizing that reform was needed, Governor Deal asked the Council to examine the issue and make recommendations for consideration during the 2015 legislative session. After reviewing misdemeanor probation, the Council submitted 12 recommendations in their report, which were included in HB 310. [15] A few of the Council's key recommendations to improve transparency and fairness of misdemeanor probation included: allowing fines to be converted to community service for probationers unable to pay, absent a waiver, no probationer's sentence may be revoked for failure to pay fines, fees, or costs without holding a hearing, and shifting all obligations, powers and duties previously conferred upon CMPAC be transferred to the Georgia Department of Community Supervision.

Members

The Council is co-chaired by the Honorable Michael Boggs and Thomas Worthy, Esq.

Below is a listing of both current and former members of the Council:

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References

  1. ↑ "Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform". dcs.georgia.gov. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Prisoners in 2010" (PDF). www.bjs.gov. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  3. ↑ "State of Georgia Budget in Brief AFY 11 FY 12" (PDF). gsfic.georgia.gov. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "2012 Georgia Public Safety Reform Legislation to Reduce Recidivism and Cut Corrections Costs" (PDF). www.pewtrusts.org. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "2011-2012 Regular Session - HB 265 2011 Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians". legis.ga.gov. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  6. ↑ "HB 1176: 2011 Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians". legis.ga.gov. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "Executive Order: Reassembling the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform" (PDF). gov.georgia.gov. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  8. ↑ "2013-2014 Regular Session - HB 242" . Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  9. ↑ "2013-2014 Regular Session - HB 349" . Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  10. ↑ "Report of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians" (PDF). Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  11. ↑ "Report of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians: Dec 2012" (PDF). Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  12. ↑ "Executive Order: Creating the Governor's Office of Transition, Support and Reentry" (PDF). gov.georgia.gov. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  13. ↑ "Report of the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform January 2014" (PDF). Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  14. ↑ "Deal Issues Veto Statements" . Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  15. ↑ "2015-2016 Regular Session - HB 310". legis.ga.gov. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
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