In 2014, Gov. Nathan Deal signed legislation that would require drug testing for some food stamp and welfare recipients. In 2016, he may get the chance to ink a proposal that would lift a lifetime ban on food stamps for released offenders with felony drug convictions.
That recommendation was among the slate of proposals released by Deal's Council on Criminal Justice Reform that also include changes to allow exonerated first-time offenders a chance to seal their court records and an overhaul of the state's troubled probation system.
Congress in 1996 enacted the ban as part of a broader criminal justice package but allowed states to opt out of the requirement.
Georgia is one of three states that have maintained the ban over the last two decades, and the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute estimates the state is missing out on $10.4 million in federal food stamp benefits each year for the 555 otherwise eligible Georgians and their families denied the help each year.
Lifting the ban, the council wrote, would not only bring in millions in new funds but also “remove a barrier to successful reentry, enabling Georgians who have completed their sentences to more easily move past their offense.”
It could put Deal and other Republicans in an awkward position. He signed the legislation in 2014 amid a re-election campaign that would require drug testing for some food stamp and welfare recipients - a proposal that was promptly tied up by White House officials who contended it violated federal law.
Deal has already endorsed several of the other changes, and lawmakers could soon begin to debate some of them.
A bigger fight, though, may be brewing for 2017.
The council recommended the formation of a new subcommittee to examine the effect of mandatory minimum sentences on “public safety, costs, deterrence, disparate sentencing and equity.” The group will also “determine the appropriateness of restoring judicial discretion in sentencing.”
A package of legislation Deal signed into law in 2013 gave judges more discretion to depart from the sentencing standards in some drug-related cases and others when prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge all agree. The council's recommendation this week appears to be an attempt to broaden the discussion to other types of sentences.
An effort in Washington to loosen some federal mandatory minimum sentences appears to have run aground amid staunch opposition from some conservatives, including Georgia Sen. David Perdue, who worry it will lead to the release of "armed career criminals."
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