Gov. Nathan Deal has signed an order continuing the work of a criminal justice reform council that was instrumental in sweeping changes enacted this past legislative session.
Among the panel's new members are the governor's son, Jason Deal, a Superior Court judge who oversees accountability courts in Hall and Dawson counties.
When he signed the sentencing overhaul bill into law early this month, the governor, his voice breaking, said that attending drug court graduation ceremonies overseen by his son had had "a tremendous emotional effect on me."
The sentencing reform package is projected to save taxpayers $264 million in prison spending over the next five years. It establishes alternatives to incarceration for low-level, nonviolent drug and property offenders and reserves expensive prison beds for the most dangerous offenders.
The executive order, signed Thursday, said the legislation is "a significant first step in the criminal justice reform process, but more needs to be done." It directed the council to submit a report on its findings by the end of the year.
Co-chairing the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform will be Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs and David Werner, the governor's deputy executive council.
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