Legislation was proposed this week that would create a parole board for juvenile offenders.

Senate Bill 105 would establish a three-person panel to establish rules and guidelines for paroling felons.

Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, the sponsor of the bill, explained that convicted juveniles do not have a parole system now, and that he hoped the state would create a rehabilitation program as an alternative to incarceration. Putting a juvenile in a detention center costs more than $200 a day, Jones said.

Georgia has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the United States, costing taxpayers $1 billion a year. Gov. Nathan Deal has proposed cutting incarceration rates by creating drug courts and other alternatives to prison.

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Rodney King (left), volunteer with New Georgia Project, and Corbin Spencer (right), field director of New Georgia Project, help Rueke Uyunwa register to vote in 2017. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

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Scott Jackson (right), business service consultant for WorkSource Fulton, helps job seekers with their applications in a mobile career center at a job fair hosted by Goodwill Career Center in Atlanta. (Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC)

Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC